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T.L. Cowan
T.L. Cowan participated in the pro-Hamas encampment at UofT in July 2024.
On July 1, 2024, UofT associate professor T.L. Cowan shared on X photos from the encampment and wrote: “The community breakfast on the lawn this morning was delicious & nutritious. So good to reconnect with other @UofT faculty, librarians & students. The shade offered by the canopies ⛺was dreamy & made this common space more safe & accessible on this ☀️ morning! TY @occupyuoft🍉.”
The watermelon has been appropriated by terrorists and anti-Israel activists as a symbol of Palestinian "resistance" to "Israeli occupation," as it shares the Pan-Arab colors. It gained widespread popularity and usage following the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.
T.L. Cowan also showed support for the encampment by signing on to a statement put out by UofT community members in May 2024 [row 50, third photo]. The May 20, 2024 statement was part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The statement backed all the encampment’s demands, including divesting from the alleged “apartheid policies of the state of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
To show support, Cowan submitted a “support selfie,” where text beside Cowan’s face said: “DISCLOSE. DIVEST. CUT TIES.” Cowan’s selfie also featured Cowan holding a sign with the same text.
On May 23, 2024, Cowan posted on X the support selfie and wrote: “I support the People’s Circle for Palestine at the University of Toronto. #Disclose #Divest #CutTies #CeasefireNow 
https://uoftdivest.ca
.” Cowan then pinned the post on Cowan’s X page.UofT is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
T.L. Cowan’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT)
On May 2, 2024, activists from the UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) group “stormed down” [00:00:24] the fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas encampment, which they called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.”
That day, Occupy UofT called on “community members to…help us defend our encampment” at an emergency rally in the evening. Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. The activists also chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
One speaker, Nabil Jalbout, said [00:09:02]: “...we are not fighting for peace, we are fighting for liberation, because ‘peace’ is a white man's word.” Another speaker, Ahmad Jarrar Hajahmad, claimed [00:05:52]: “All these Israeli and Zionist entities fill all these politicians with money in their pockets…we already know who runs this system…”
Signs displayed at the encampment said: “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” and “LIBERATION FOR ALL REQUIRES RESISTANCE FROM ALL.”
On May 4, 2024, anti-Israel protesters at the encampment assaulted a Jewish man, punching him in the stomach as they forcibly took his Israeli flag. The attackers told the man [00:01:02]: “God bless the armed resistance,” and: “Go back to Europe!” They also reportedly called him “a “dirty Jew.”
Protesters “occupied” [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT’s warning they were trespassing. The group said they would not leave until UofT divested from companies that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and terminated partnerships with Israeli academic institutions.
Following the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle - 🔻- became a Hamas symbol. This symbol appeared on large signs at the encampment multiple times. Erin Mackey, one of the primary organizers, is openly pro-Hamas, having used the symbol in her activism. In addition, pro-Hamas marches that began in other parts of the city concluded at the encampment.
On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at the request of UofT’s Governing Council, requiring students to clear the encampment. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote [slides 5-6]: “We are just getting started…come fall, every incoming student will hear our message loud and clear…Whatever institution you have access to and influence over - you need to take this campaign there!” The statement concluded: “Long live the intifada.”
The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.
Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
T.L. Cowan is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of August 2024, Cowan was listed on the UofT website as an associate professor of media studies (digital media cultures) in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media, located at the university’s Scarborough campus (UTSC). Cowan has also been in the Faculty of Information (iSchool) since 2017.
As of the same date, Cowan was listed online as a “cabaret and video artist.”
Cowan received a PhD from the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta (U of A) in 2009. U of A is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
