Two rallies were organized on May 14 in response to police’s violent dismantling of a pro-Palestine encampment at the University of Alberta over the weekend, with both coalescing at Edmonton city hall, requiring overflow seating in the building concourse to accommodate all attendees.
The first rally was hosted outside city hall before council returned from its lunch break to hear an annual update from the Edmonton Police Service (EPS), and the other occurred on campus at U of A.
Chief Dale McFee was a no-show at council. Instead he let his underlings stand in his place, but none of them took accountability for or explained the decision to send officers in riot gear to forcibly dismantle an a peaceful anti-genocide protest encampment in the U of A quad. The riot squad beat protestors with batons and fired “special munitions” to force their dispersal, days after Calgary cops did the same at U of C.
Both encampments were part of an international student movement calling on academic institutions to disclose and divest from investments complicit in Israel’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
Refuting EPS claims that nobody was injured during the encampment’s removal in the early hours of May 11, one former U of A student who was hospitalized after being beaten by police spoke to protestors gathered outside city hall.
In his remarks, Brandon Robinson likened the Canadian state’s colonial violence to that of Israel.
“The colonial machine runs on fear. It has nothing else. It has no bravery, it has no soul, no heart, no mind, it has no convictions,” said Robinson.
He decried the “empty machismo” exemplified by the officers’ marching in unison while chanting for the protestors to move. (more...)
No comments:
Post a Comment