Two recent alumni and a professor from the University of Alberta have filed a Charter challenge against the university for directing Edmonton Police Service to forcibly remove the People’s University for Palestine encampment in May 2024. 

The statement of claim filed on April 10 alleges the U of A violated multiple sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including the guarantees for freedom of expression, assembly and association. 

The applicants include Palestinian Canadian students Noor Abdo and Mustapha Yassin, who were studying at the U of A during the encampment, as well as U of A assistant professor Michael Litwack, a Jewish American permanent resident and member of Faculty for Palestine and Independent Jewish Voices. 

The applicants are being represented by lawyer Avnish Nanda. 

The statement names the U of A’s board of governors as a respondent. 

Abdo told CBC News that it’s hoped the charter challenge will set a precedent in Canada. 

“That universities that receive public funding, people should be allowed to protest and express their political ideas,” Abdo said.

“And if the university finds it to be so disruptive to protest a genocide, then maybe they shouldn’t be invested in said genocides and be willing to have a conversation with students and with protesters to understand what it is they want to achieve.” 

A U of A spokesperson confirmed it had been served with the application but said it would not comment because the matter is before the court.

“As this is an active legal proceeding, the university will be providing a formal response through the court process,” said a statement to CBC News.

Forcible dismantling 

The People’s University for Palestine encampment was set up in the main quad at the U of A on May 9, 2024, and was dismantled two days later.

The action was part of a wave of demonstrations at dozens of campuses across North America at the time. A pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Calgary was cleared by police on May 9. 

The People’s University for Palestine at the U of A had four core demands: the disclosure of institutional and financial investments with Israeli institutions; divesting from these investments; defending the right to protest; and declaring and condemning the situation in Gaza as a genocide while calling on the federal government to end military contracts with Israel.

Early on May 11, when the number of people at the camp was at its lowest, EPS officers in riot gear forcibly removed anyone who didn’t heed their orders to disperse.

Videos shared on social media at the time showed police hitting protesters with batons. Demonstrators said four students were injured, including one who was sent to hospital.

Bill Flanagan, the university’s president, said in a statement the following day that the encampment was associated with “serious and potentially life-threatening risks,” citing the presence of wood pallets and “potential weapons, including hammers, axes and screwdrivers, along with a box of syringes.”

In November 2024, an investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team concluded that none of the injuries incurred by protesters met the threshold of “serious injuries.”

A month later, a retired judge who had been asked by the board of governors to review the situation said the U of A had legal authority to dismantle the camp but could have responded differently. 

The 142-page report from Adèle Kent, a retired Court of King’s Bench Justice, described the decision to call the police as a “reasonable” and “legally available” response to a “disruptive and potentially dangerous” situation but said applying for an injunction and negotiating with the protesters “would have been the cleanest route.”

Fighting for transparency

Charter challenge applicant Mustapha Yassin said students at the U of A and across Canada have continued to advocate for divestment and transparency from their universities. 

“We have the demand that not just the university immediately divest from all of those companies that are complicit, but also to institute a negative screening policy, where before these investments are even made, they’re systematically excluded on the basis of their association with human rights violations,” Yassin said. 

Litwack said the case is “fundamentally about standing up to the University of Alberta, but also to every university in Canada that’s used repression, violence, intimidation as a way to crack down on or to crush opposition to genocide in Palestine.”

In June 2024, the university’s board of governors unanimously passed a motion to disclose a complete list of the university’s endowment pool investment holdings, using an external organization, Canadian Shareholder Association for Research and Education, to review policies and practices.

The University of Alberta discloses the investment holdings of its Endowment Pool with reports going back to 2022 posted on the university’s website.

It describes its responsible investment policies as “considering environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities when making investment decisions and influencing companies or assets through stewardship practices.”