Members of a Calgary police unit were wearing approved equipment, including protective armour, helmets and round shields — but it wasn’t “riot gear,” and deploying that gear at a recent pro-Palestinian protest wasn’t outside the norm, says Calgary’s police chief.
That was one of multiple points Chief Mark Neufeld wrote in a letter sent to the Calgary Police Commission in advance of a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 29, focused on reviewing police action tied to the protest.
Earlier this month, pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment at the University of Calgary campus, with a stated goal of pressuring the university to disclose and divest its financial ties with Israel. It followed similar demonstrations at other Canadian and U.S. campuses.
But the response to the U of C encampment was notable given the speed with which officers forcibly cleared it, removing members of the protest on the same day it began.
Other such protests have stretched on for much longer — for instance, an encampment at the University of Toronto has been in place since May 2.
The response from police led to an ASIRT investigation of police actions. The province’s public safety minister said the government was aware “that allegations have been made by campus protest participants related to potential injuries sustained while police were enforcing trespass laws.”
The action also prompted an open letter signed by more than a dozen professors in the U of C faculty of law, who said the actions of the university and police likely contravened protesters’ rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Timeline of events and chief’s response
The University of Calgary released a statement on May 9, the day of the protest, writing that the university’s position was that students are free to protest but not free to set up encampments.
The U of C students’ union, on the other hand, wrote in a statement the same day that students were exercising their freedom of peaceful assembly guaranteed by the Charter.
In his letter, Neufeld stated that police were in regular communication with protesters from the start of the protest. He wrote that tents were set up at approximately 5:30 a.m. near MacEwan Hall.
“Protesters were advised by university staff that they were permitted to protest but not to camp. They were also verbally advised that the camp was a trespass on university property,” Neufeld wrote.
More tents were set up throughout the day and communication continued, according to Neufeld.
Near 11 p.m., Neufeld said police moved in to clear the camp, claiming bottles were thrown at police by protesters.
“Protesters continued to link arms, pushed towards police and refused to leave. Protesters grabbed officers’ shields and attempted to aggressively push them to the ground. It appeared to the CPS that a group of protesters were deliberately attempting to make physical contact with police,” the letter states.
At 11:15 p.m., police used 15 pepper balls, according to Neufeld. Pepper balls are similar to paintballs but are filled with a version of oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray, otherwise known as pepper spray.
Neufeld also said flash-bangs were not used by police. Instead, police used four OC grenades, he said. Those are thrown devices that deliver “light, sound and the synthetic version of OC spray.”
When it came to concerns that have been raised over police wearing “riot gear,” Neufeld wrote that police were wearing “approved personal protective equipment,” which included protective armour, helmets, round shields and body-worn cameras.
“The PPE worn by [public safety unit] members has been used since approximately 2011 and has been deployed consistently in all manner of large protests since then,” Neufeld wrote. “More traditional ‘heavy armour’ or ‘hard tac’ has not been deployed by CPS for many years.”
Doug King, a professor of justice studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said it’s likely members of the public wouldn’t be able to differentiate between protective gear and gear used in a tactical response.
“The shield … is a very dramatic piece of equipment, largely used to push people and to protect the officers, but also to push people away,” he said.
Some members of the protest said they felt as though police weren’t looking for a diplomatic solution.
“The intimidation, the tactics that were used, they were actually disruptive, not constructive,” said Calgary Imam Fayaz Tilly, who spoke at the protest and was a former chaplain at the school.
Tilly said he spoke to multiple officers as the protest unfolded, but negotiations didn’t bear fruit.
“[We were] fearful [for] of the safety and well-being of our students … if we [didn’t] resolve this diplomatically,” he said.
In a CBC News video captured the night of the event, police told protesters they were trespassing and would be arrested if they didn’t leave. Eventually, police used force and pushed the crowd out.
One of the protesters, Euan Thomson, told CBC News he had been punched and beaten on the ground.
WATCH | University of Calgary pro-Palestinian protesters clash with police:
Warning: Some images may be distressing. Using shields, batons and flash-bang explosives, Calgary police officers forcibly removed a group of pro-Palestinian protesters from an encampment on the University of Calgary campus. Many were demonstrating to demand the university disclose and sever any ties to Israel — similar to what demonstrators were asking for at other protests at North American campuses. Rob Brown explains what led to the confrontation.
Neufeld wrote that the intervention was effective and the protest group dispersed immediately. Four people were arrested for trespass to premise and were later released with a summons.
None of the individuals arrested are current university students or faculty, he said. Neufeld said CPS had received five concerns but zero formal complaints through its professional standards section. Professional standards also received 47 compliments from citizens, according to the letter.
READ | The entire letter attributed to Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld:
Letter references protesters from outside the U of C
King reviewed Neufeld’s letter.
He said it lays out the sequence of events from the police vantage point.
However, there were elements that jumped out at him. That includes instances in the letter where Neufeld references some of the protesters not being University of Calgary students.
“Are they suggesting that the students that were there were being manipulated? Are they suggesting they were less sincere, when they make those kinds of comments? Who cares, right?” King said.
“It’s an old trope … where you criticize a protest by saying some of them are organized and some of them are professional protesters.”
King said the letter also made it appear as though Calgary police “seems to be quite content to take the bullet for the University of Calgary on this.”
“I can pretty much guarantee you that security at the University of Calgary did not, on their own, tell the Calgary Police Service [that] we don’t want an encampment set up,” King said.
In an interview on Wednesday, U of C Students’ Union president Ermia Rezaei-Afsah said he remains angry with what he views as a failure to communicate by university administration.
“It’s a failure of leadership. We’ve said this before,” he said.
“I do think that the university calling CPS and it leading to that outcome was something that should have been foreseen.”
Both the University of Calgary and CPS have said preparations were made between the two parties in anticipation of encampments.
In a letter addressed to the university’s leadership on May 21, more than 600 signatories, including alumni, faculty, staff and students, called for an independent review of U of C’s response to protests and its policies regarding campus safety and police involvement.