McGill suspends extracurricular events after threats over Israeli spy’s invitation as speaker

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McGill University has suspended all extracurricular event bookings on campus until January after activists threatened online to shut down a planned event this week that the university said escalated into a targeted death threat.

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In an email to the university community on Monday, McGill said that an external group, which co-organized protests last week that led to vandalism and violence downtown, had issued a social media call to “shut down” the event.

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“This, in turn, incited waves of online anger, including a targeted death threat,” the message said.

“We have communicated with police, but the risk to event participants and the McGill community remains unacceptably high,” the university stated.

The event has been moved online. McGill didn’t confirm which event was planned. McGill also announced that no new bookings for extracurricular events would be approved until January.

When asked the identity of the speaker, the university told The Gazette: “We don’t know.”

However, StartUp Nation Montreal, an Israeli student club at McGill and Concordia, said in an Instagram post that the event in question featured Mosab Hassan Yousef, a former Palestinian militant who became an Israeli informant in the late 1990s before moving to the United States. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is a co-founder of Hamas, which is a designated terrorist group in Canada and now in an ongoing war with Israel.

According to flyers posted on social media, Yousef was set to be interviewed by Israeli influencer Ysabella Hazan.

In a joint post, the Palestinian Youth Movement Montreal and Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR McGill) called for the event’s cancellation, accusing Mosab Yousef of promoting “violence against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.”

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SPHR McGill recently had its club status revoked by the student union for what McGill described as multiple violations of its memorandum of agreement with the student union, including glorifying violence against civilians following Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Muslim Students’ Association of McGill also issued a statement urging the event’s cancellation.

On Monday, Yousef posted on X: “Never trust any individual who identifies as a Muslim, especially when they appear as a harmless sheep. Muslims have no compassion toward non-Muslims.”

Yousef and Hazan did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

Montreal police said Tuesday they were aware of the event and had anticipated protesters to be on the McGill campus for it, but by morning protesters had not turned out. The spokesperson did not have any information regarding a death threat.

The decisions to move the event online and suspend all extracurricular event bookings on campus until January comes as Canadian universities continue to face challenges in balancing free expression with safety amid ongoing tensions and protests over the Israel-Hamas war, with McGill emerging as a focal point for activism in Montreal.

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This month, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, spoke at McGill. Her appearance drew objections from several Jewish organizations, which called for the event’s cancellation. Ultimately, the talk was relocated from the Faculty of Law to the student union building.

In its message this week, McGill emphasized that hosting controversial speakers is a core part of university life but it underscored the need for safety and stability.

“Where security threats exist, we must intervene, and that threat level has been escalating steadily,” the university wrote.

The suspension of bookings coincides with the exam period, which the university said provides “time and space for students to focus on their exams, and for reflection on our approach toward invited speakers going forward.”

In response to the decision, Richard Robertson, B’nai Brith Canada’s director of research and advocacy, said: “McGill’s decision to decline to authorize the booking of university spaces for extracurricular events for the remainder of the year means that, as has become far too common, it is the student body that is being unduly punished for the caustic actions of fringe radicals who continue to compromise the well-being of the entire campus community.”

He said McGill must take proactive measures to “confront troublemakers who are undermining student life.”

Montreal 4 Palestine, another one of the groups planning to protest the event, applauded the decision, saying: “This outcome reflects the power of our community’s unwavering commitment to fostering a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for everyone.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish affairs, however, disputed Montreal 4 Palestine’s post in a statement on X.

“Talking about “inclusion” on Tuesday and strutting around on Sunday boasting about “being Hamas and Hezbollah” should make everyone aware that complacency towards the glorifiers of terrorism is endangering our society,” the CIJA’s statement on X said. “Investigations into those responsible for these threats must be carried out. These must not go without consequences.”

hnorth@postmedia.com

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