A campus protest encampment at the University of Alberta was ramping up a day after a similar sit-in in Calgary was shut down amid the loud noise and haze of flashbang explosives as police clashed with demonstrators.
On the central grassy area of the Edmonton campus Friday, about 35 small tents were set up close together. There were Palestinian flags, both cloth versions and hand-painted cardboard ones.
Pro-Palestinian encampment set up at University of Calgary
The protest is one of several recent demonstrations on academic campuses in Canada and the United States in response to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
In Calgary, a similar protest of tents and fences went up early Thursday at the University of Calgary, reaching a peak of about 150 demonstrators by the early evening.
The university said protesters at the encampment were trespassing and asked for help from police, who arrived in riot gear and issued multiple warnings for the crowd to disperse before starting to tear down fencing and tents.
Most protesters left but some who remained were met with shields and flashbang explosives in clashes close to midnight.
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