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Approximately 250 students and community members rallied on campus Wednesday afternoon in solidarity with a student who was forcibly detained by campus security last week.
Toronto police say one person was arrested during the rally, which started at Kerr Hall Quad in support of Palestine and later moved to Jorgenson Hall to protest outside the TMU executive offices.
The rally and walkout were scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and organized by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), after a student was taken into custody by campus security during the panel discussion with AI Minister Evan Solomon — a panel at which SJP was advocating for the university to divest from Israeli companies.
A 27-year-old man was arrested and charged with criminal harassment on Wednesday, a Toronto police spokesperson confirmed to OTR.
A member of the SJP who spoke with OTR on the condition of anonymity because of safety concerns witnessed the arrest.
The witness said the man repeatedly asked for an officer’s name and badge number, but was then told by the police that if they continued to ask for their identification, they would arrest him for harassment.
The witness told OTR three Toronto police officers arrested the man and escorted him into the Image Arts Centre before taking him to 52nd Division.
The SJP media advisory that was shared before the rally pointed to businesses they want TMU to divest from. “TMU is also complicit through its investments in companies such as Microsoft, Alphabet, and Oracle, which provide their technology to the Israeli military to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the advisory said.
In the same document, SJP shared that these concerns have contributed to ongoing tensions on campus, specifically among students advocating for Palestinian rights.
“The outrage for the assaulted student is amazing,” said a student and representative of the SJP, who did not identify herself, during her speech at the rally. “But we must ask a critical question: Why is there more outrage about this one student than there has been for the past two years of genocide?”
Reporter, OTR, F2025
Otter.AI was used in transcribing interviews for this story.
