In the spring of 2024, as pro-Palestine encampments were still popping up at universities across the country, a student organizer named Kathy got a text she’d long feared: a notorious police unit was now operating on her campus at the University of British Columbia.

In a chat devoted to monitoring police activity, encampment participants left messages saying they had noticed vehicles with the name of the paramilitary Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) unit parked outside, and had seen its officers roaming university buildings.

“C-IRG actually were walking all over the campus, not just at the encampment,” recalled Lamya, another organizer. “They were also at this point entering the student union building, student classrooms, and stationed in them 24/7 with binoculars, staring into the camp.”