As the anti-Israel protest encampment entered its fifth day, a Montreal court declined to issue an injunction that would have ordered protesters to disperse, throwing into question just how the McGill University administration and Montreal police are going to respond.

On Tuesday, two students asked Justice Chantal Masse to issue an order to force the protesters to remain 100 metres from McGill buildings — effectively ending the now-entrenched protest encampment on school grounds. Masse denied the request, noting that the lawyers who had opposed it argued it was “abusive and sought to silence all discussion that doesn’t fit within a frame that is pro-Israeli” and that the safety fears expressed by the two students were “relating more to subjective fears and discomfort than to precise and serious fears for their security.”