Calgary’s chief of police, Mark Neufeld, addressed public and elected officials’ concerns about the use of force at the University of Calgary to break up a protest encampment.
That encampment, erected in the early morning of March 9 by protesters in support of Palestine, was taken down by police late that same evening after a removal request by UCalgary administration—leading to the arrest of five individuals under the trespass to property act, and charges being laid against three.
Calgary police officers have received criticism online from elected officials, and from members of the UCalgary community following the use of less-than-lethal munitions, including pepper spray balls shot from air guns and noise and flash devices, to remove a small number of protesters after 11 p.m.
“Demonstrations related to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East have been taking place in recent weeks at post-secondary institutions across Canada and the US and protesters and interest groups have adopted the tactic of making a series of demands of post-secondary institutions, then establishing encampments and occupying areas of those institutions, and then refusing to leave until the demands are met,” said Chief Neufeld.
He said that he wasn’t aware if any of the individuals arrested were students.
The majority of protesters left peacefully before the use of force by CPS, said Chief Neufeld. Reports have indicated that the protest crowd reached 150-plus people, but when it came time to move in there were only two-dozen remaining.
The Calgary Student Movement, the group behind Thursday’s encampment protest, disputed the sequence of events from Chief Neufeld.
The group said that police attacked them as they were packing up to leave.
“At one point early in the stand-off the police led a coordinated movement of a line of officers into the encampment as students were voting on whether or not to leave. Local Indigenous leaders were caught up in this sudden display of force, having just come from voicing their support for the encampment, which took place on stolen land,” the group said in a prepared media statement.
“While hundreds of encampments at university campuses across Canada and the United States have carried on peacefully for weeks, the University of Calgary and the Calgary Police Service took an unprecedented approach in violently evicting the Calgary Student Movement’s encampment on its first night.”
The group said that protests would continue.
A smaller protest was held without an encampment near the UCalgary engineering building on Friday afternoon.
Police had been expecting encampment-style protest
The CPS had proactive discussions with administrations at post-secondary institutions ahead of the return of warm weather. They’d anticipated the encampment-style set ups on campuses.
“Several days ago, the University of Calgary sent a notice to students, indicating that they would allow peaceful protests to occur on the U of C grounds, but would not allow structures or encampments to be erected per their bylaws. Early yesterday morning, individuals arrived at the U of C and began to erect tents and build an encampment in contravention of the direction that was provided,” Chief Neufeld said.
Chief Neufeld characterized the escalation of activity at the protest encampment as a fortification, as wooden pallets were used to create a barrier around tents located in front of MacEwan Hall.
The use of pallets set the response level from police, the Chief said.
“I think it just gives a little bit of indication regarding motivation, and intent. Were we surprised that there was a group of people that were not going to leave. Not at all,” he said.
“Let me make let me be super clear. Anybody that was there, at the end when those munitions were deployed were not surprised that they were deployed. They had ample ample opportunity to leave. So if you were there at the end, you were there, because you wanted to, and you were not going to remain there.”
He said that officers used force to remove a small number of protesters who refused to leave after being served a notice of trespass by the Calgary Police Service.
“It goes without saying that CPS has committed to upholding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, that includes the right to protest. It also goes without saying that these very important rights are not absolute,” Chief Neufeld said.
“What we absolutely did not want to have happen was for students to be charged, either with trespassing offences or worse, charged with a criminal offence, something that could impact their futures just because they didn’t understand their rights and responsibilities, or the steps that the police would ultimately take to clear this encampment.”
He said that approximately 17 individuals were remaining when the service began using less-than-lethal munitions, following what he said were bottles thrown by members of that group at officers.
“There were no injuries to anybody involved in the matter… and so when you think of the alternative, the alternative is to hit people with batons and stuff like that, which does cause injuries. The munitions that were used here on this particular occasion create distance,” said Chief Neufeld.
“And so if you’re standing right in front of me, you’re grabbing my shield, and you don’t want to move back, I can deploy munitions that will move you back in terms of using pepper spray, or an or an irritant that would move you back. When we create that space, we create safety for everybody.”
No injuries disputed by participants in protest
Individuals involved in the protest took to social media after the end of the protest to dispute the use of force by the service, including Calgary activist Euan Thomson who showed a photo of himself with cuts and scrapes to his face.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), said that “beatings and arrests happened fast once they started,” he said.
“CPS did not follow its own directive, which was to take down tents after which point people would be free to gather as they wish.”
The Calgary Student Movement, the group behind Thursday’s encampment protest, also alleged in a statement made to the media on Friday that number of protesters were taken to hospital.
LWC was unable to confirm that claim by the time the story was published.
Chief Neufeld said he wanted to address perceptions by the public about the use of force, saying that the protests began peacefully and that it was a small number of non-compliant protesters at the end of the night.
“There were individuals that were, from the very start, saying we’re not leaving. In the meantime, trucks are coming and they’re bringing in pallets and fortifications. There was every indication there was a group of people that didn’t plan to leave,” he said.
“When the police went in finally to remove people from the encampment there, there were people that did actually become absolutely not peaceful. There were projectiles thrown toward the end of that, and that’s when the escalation happens at the end, where there’s a small number of people that are throwing things and grabbing on to the police and that type of thing.”
Chief Neufeld also rejected claims made by the public that officers arriving after 5 p.m. in protective gear was provocative or escalated the potential for violence to occur.
“Hogwash.”
He characterized the type of body armour worn by officers as a step down from the level of equipment used during a riot.
“There’s much larger shields, and there’s much more padding. So we’ve actually gone to a step-down layer and people are still protected, but they’re not looking as big and as intimidating as they would otherwise,” Chief Neufeld said.
“I suspect for some it would look intimidating, for sure. But I would just balance that off by saying if you’re on the other side of situations like that, it also provides some protection if you’re out on the front, because we had a number of patrol officers there also. If you have bottles or other projectiles that are flying… it’s going to be a pretty uncomfortable place to be.”
University of Calgary President says protesters were allowed to protest, but not camp
Ed McCauley, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calgary, said in a statement made on March 10 that his commitment and the commitment of UCalgary administration was to apply the rules evenly with consideration to the safety and operations of the university.
“I want to underline that as community members, you have the right to protest. Protests occur regularly and with the operational support of the university. But as outlined in our campus statement on free expression, that right is subject to limitations imposed by law as well as policies and procedures related to the university’s functioning,” he said.
“There is no satisfaction in a situation like yesterday’s. This is not an email I wanted to write.”
McCauley said that the risk of serious violence was one of the main reasons that the institution does not allow for overnight protests.
“The individuals who set up the encampment were provided a written summary of the university’s policies and procedures and asked to remove their camp. They were issued a trespass notice when they refused to take the structures down,” the statement read.
“At 8 p.m. yesterday, Calgary Police Service began enforcing the university’s trespass order. Their decision to enforce a trespass order—and how—is based on assessment of the risk to public safety as determined through things such as protester actions, communications (including social media monitoring) and analysis.”
He said that protesters were welcome to return to the university, so long as those protests did not occur between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Among the University of Calgary community, responses were mixed. Graham Sucha, a Senator with the University of Calgary Senate, wrote that he was standing in solidarity with the students who were protesting.
“I am deeply troubled by what I am seeing at this moment on campus, less than 24 hours after the protest has begun,” he said.
Premier Smith weighs in on protests on campuses
Premier Danielle Smith, answering questions from the media about the protest at the University of Calgary, alleged that protests were already out of control in Ontario, Quebec and elsewhere.
“The universities can’t allow it to get out of control and they can’t allow hate speech. So there are reasonable ways to protest and the University of Calgary in particular has said that trespass and camping is not acceptable on their grounds, and I understand that they removed the encampments yesterday,” she said.
“Look, I have said that the universities had to take a lead on this is their private property. I think what they found in Calgary, is that a large number of the people who were trespassing were not students.”
She then qualified her statement by saying that the protests were unfair to the students graduating at the University, as many of those students had not received a graduation ceremony during high school because of the pandemic.
“I’m glad that the University of Calgary made the decision that they did. There are appropriate ways to peacefully protest, but they have said no camping and they also want to make sure that it says students who are on the campus as well,” Premier Smith said.
“I’m watching see what the University of Alberta learns from what they observed in Calgary, but we’re on standby to be able to provide any assistance should they ask.”
Alberta NDP MLAs Irfan Sabir and Rhiannon Hoyle, speaking in their roles as government critics, issued a joint statement saying that they were “deeply troubled by reports of what happened at the University of Calgary last night.”
“Students should be able to peacefully protest. Our post-secondary institutions must be places of respectful conversations, enlightened debate and constructive solutions to bring about a more peaceful world.”
“At an institution that should champion freedom of speech, the actions of the Calgary Police appeared to be disproportionate to the actions of protestors. They also appear inconsistent to previous reactions by police to protests in other settings. As a result, we believe last night’s incident warrants an independent investigation by ASIRT.”
Chief Neufeld responded to those concerns, by saying that the actions of police shouldn’t be taken out of context from social media video clips.
“I guess advice or whatever that I would offer is to say don’t be taken in by a single snippet. Some of those folks there have the ability to reach out for actual information about what happened,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s incumbent upon all of us and in particular leaders, to be able to say, let’s just take a step back.”
