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There were celebratory cheers and dancing as students at McGill University voted for the first time on Monday to support a highly controversial and divisive motion in favour of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

It was the third vote in 18 months for the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) on the polarizing movement, which stems from a declaration issued in July 2005 — signed by about 100 Palestinian organizations — calling for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel that mirror those levied against South Africa for apartheid in the 1980s.

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While the motion has created much tension on campus, it carried with a strong margin of 512 to 357, surprising activists on both sides of the debate — although that represents a fraction of 30,000 or so students at McGill.

The victory for the McGill BDS Action Network stood in stark contrast to the message that came out of the Canadian Parliament on the very same afternoon, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals overwhelmingly approved a Conservative motion to condemn Canadians who promote the BDS movement.