Jewish students tried to celebrate Sukkot on MacInnes Field. UBC called the police

[Sid Shniad]

https://ubyssey.ca/news/jewish-students-celebrate-sukkot-macinnes-field-police/

The Ubyssey                                                                                                                                                                       Oct. 28, 2025

Campus Discourse//

Jewish students tried to celebrate Sukkot on MacInnes Field. UBC called the police

Spencer Izen, Stephen Kosar and Aisha Chaudhry with photos by Saumya Kamra


Over the next hour, UBC would ask the students to leave, when they did not, 

UBC would call the RCMP and have Building Operations remove the structure. 

Saumya Kamra / The Ubyssey 

Students celebrating Sukkot on MacInnes Field had their sukkah structure taken down by UBC building operations, after campus security called the RCMP on them.

In the drizzling rain and cold wind, students sat underneath a sukkah on MacInnes Field to recite prayers in celebration of the Jewish holiday Sukkot. Over the next hour, UBC would ask the students to leave, when they did not, UBC would call the RCMP and have Building Operations remove the structure.

On Oct. 10, students from the Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) — an advocacy organization that supports Palestinian rights — set up a sukkah, a temporary hut structure built for the Jewish holiday Sukkot, at about 2 p.m.

During the holiday, observers eat meals, pray and sleep in the sukkah, treating it as a short-term home to commemorate the huts used for 40 years in the desert following the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

Students A and B, who participated in the sukkah and spoke to The Ubyssey on the condition of anonymity, fearing they would face harassment, identified themselves as members of the UBC chapter of Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), an advocacy organization that supports Palestinian rights.

The national organization believes “no one should have to choose between embracing Judaism or Jewishness and supporting Palestinian rights” and works to “distinguish” critiques of Zionism from antisemitism, according to its website. Recently, IJV UBC helped organize a vigil on the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, commemorating the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel since then.

Student A said that campus security was monitoring the sukkah before they had completed putting it up. They said they made it clear to UBC Campus Security that it was a temporary structure they would only use for a few hours for learning, ritual and prayer.

Despite this, student B said that when they declined to move, Campus Security called the RCMP “right away.” B also said UBC did not give any warning that they would call the RCMP.

Three RCMP officers arrived on the scene and informed the students that the structure had to come down because the property owners, UBC, had asked them to move.

In a statement to The Ubyssey, UBC Media Relations Director of University Affairs Matthew Ramsey wrote, “erecting temporary structures without permits is not allowed at UBC. This is to ensure the safety and security of our students, campus community and infrastructure.” He didn’t answer questions about whether or not university personnel had explored other options to support the ritual’s conduct, or whether any options were available. The specific safety risk also wasn’t articulated.

The RCMP asked students to move from underneath the sukkah to allow a UBC building operations employee to dismantle it and take away its remains. The students did move and said they were not obstructing anyone and just wanted to finish their prayers.

A and B said they built the sukkah to celebrate the holiday and express solidarity with Palestinians.

“We're trying to create an alternative space for Jews who are not for the Zionist message and the Zionist state … carving out the space for that on campus is pretty hard,” B said.

A said that their sukkah was built as an alternative to Chabad’s sukkah located on the other side of the Nest. “Both Chabad and Hillel are Zionist organizations. We would not be welcome in those spaces … If you're making people support a genocidal, racist ethnostate in order to pray, that's not an open space for Jews on campus.”

Both Hillel BC and the Chabad Jewish Student Centre declined to comment.