Repression of Pro-Palestinian Student Movements in Canadian Universities: Ideological and Institutional Challenges to Free Expression post-October 7th, 2023

This study examines the repression of pro-Palestinian student movements across Canadian universities in the aftermath of October 7th, 2023, focusing on the ideological and institutional challenges students have faced. Drawing on case studies from Concordia University, McGill University, the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia, the study analyzes how institutional responses, media narratives, and external political pressures–including donor influence have converged to constrain student activism. Using a mixed-method approach, the research explores how pro-Palestinian student activists have faced surveillance, disciplinary actions, and public vilification. Particular attention is paid to the role of religion, as Muslims, marginalized, and anti-Zionist Jewish students have been especially targeted through the racialization of religious practices, and the framing of the movement as inherently extremist or sectarian. The findings reveal a broader ideological and institutional struggle over the limits of dissent in Canadian higher education, shaped by settler colonialism, neoliberal governance, securitized campus environments, and Islamophobic and antisemitic discourses. Despite these repressive measures, pro-Palestinian student activism has persisted–and in many cases, intensified. Students have shown extraordinary resilience through coalition-building, strategic mobilization, and the use of digital platforms and cultural practices to assert their demands and reframe narratives. This study contributes to debates on student activism, political repression, academic freedom, freedom of speech and the intersection of religion and resistance in a polarized academic landscape.