McGill to beef up security, restrict campus access leading up to Oct. 7

In an effort to prevent disturbances, McGill University has put in place special security measures to restrict access to its campuses between Saturday and Monday, which is the one-year anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel.

In a statement, the university said it is doing this due to planned events on those days "that call for significant numbers of people from outside the McGill community to gather on or around the university's downtown campus."

Here's what McGill is doing:

• It will only open the university to current McGill students, employees and "essential visitors" like delivery truck drivers, for example.  
• Classes that do not need to be in person will be moved online. In-person mid-term exams, assessments and labs aren't affected by this. 
• Staff who are able to work from home will be required to do so.
• A valid McGill-issued ID card will be required to access the campuses buildings.  

This plan will apply to both the downtown and Macdonald campuses.  

McGill said it was in touch with Montreal police while coming up with this plan. The university says it is has not received any threats regarding anyone's physical safety. It's putting these measures in place as a precaution "at a time of elevated potential for disruption," the university said.

"In recent months, the university has seen many peaceful protests and commemorations. We've unfortunately also seen incidents on campus that have crossed the bounds of the law and McGill's policies, upsetting people, disrupting access to our learning and workspaces, and damaging property," McGill's statement reads.

During the spring, a group of people including McGill students set up an encampment to protest the university's investments in weapons companies and companies with ties to Israel. That encampment lasted more than two months, only being dismantled on July 10.

During that months-long protest, McGill said it received several complaints regarding anti-semitic behaviour at the encampment site. It also said many of the people at the site were not McGill students.