It looks like all the tents in the UofT camp have already been taken down

All tents at the pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Toronto grounds were apparently dismantled before the 6:00 p.m. deadline for clearing the area.

CP24’s Steve Ryan, reporting from the scene, says there were “no” tents on King’s College Circle as of 4 p.m., two hours before the deadline for protesters to leave.

Protesters gathered near the camp to take part in a solidarity rally.

Toronto police are urging protesters to voluntarily leave their camp “to avoid police intervention,” while saying they will comply with the court’s order.

The University of Toronto has asked police to help clear an encampment that has been on King’s College Circle since May 2 after receiving a court order.

On Tuesday, an Ontario judge ordered protesters to dismantle their camp, tents and other structures.

The court ruled that the police will have the right to arrest and expel people who do not leave the camp after the deadline.

TPS says it will not disclose operational details.

“Refusing to leave is a breach of a court order and makes it difficult for police to enforce it,” TPS said in another statement posted on social media. “Both are criminal offences.”

Some protesters began taking down tents and tarpaulins on Wednesday morning, but camp representatives said in a statement that they had not yet made a final decision on the date.

“All actions at the camp are being taken in preparation for a potential escalation of police action, given what police have done to students at other universities in Canada and North America,” the UofT Occupy for Palestine group said in a statement.

In a later statement, the group said it would outline its plans for the evening at a press conference at 5 p.m.

“We know the police are going to be here. And we’ll have to see what happens,” Erin Mackey, a spokeswoman for the encampment, told reporters. “We’ve been here since day one and we’ve made our demands clear. And unfortunately, instead of doing what’s right, UofT called the police on their students.”

Mackey said protesters “will continue to fight long after the encampment is over.”

The demonstrators demanded that the university disclose and divest from companies that profit from Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza. Both sides made offers to end the camp, but no agreement was reached.

In his decision Tuesday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Markus Koehnen said that while there was no evidence that the campers were violent or anti-Semitic, the demonstration deprived the university of its ability to monitor what happens at King’s College Circle.

Koehnen said property owners typically decide what happens on their property, and if protesters can seize that power for themselves, there is nothing to stop a more powerful group from coming in and taking over the space from the current protesters, which would lead to chaos.

The ruling, however, dismissed allegations that demonstrators at the camp spread anti-Semitic hate speech and slogans, a common accusation leveled at the group by pro-Israel organizations.

With files from The Canadian Press