Occupy Toronto camp sees police move in
Police arrived at the Occupy Toronto camp early Wednesday to enforce a judge's ruling upholding a city eviction and remove what's left of the about 200 tents that had filled downtown St. James Park for about five weeks.The move had been widely expected after Monday's ruling upheld a city bylaw, which effectively deemed that protesters camping overnight were trespassing. Protesters are only allowed in the park between 5:30 a.m. and midnight, and not allowed to bring tents into the public place.
The Toronto eviction notice follows similar moves to dismantle Occupy camps in other Canadian cities.
Before sunrise on Wednesday, police vehicles, including three buses and 20 cruisers, could be seen staging in and around St. James Park before heading into it around 6:15 a.m. Wednesday.
CBC's Trevor Dunn reported that just after 7 a.m., police and bylaw enforcement officers began walking through the park, photographing and tagging each tent while avoiding engaging the protesters in conversation.
Police and bylaw officers removed unoccupied tents and began removing garbage, debris, furniture and other items from the park.
"It's been quite calm," Dunn reported. "Police are taking pictures of every single tent right now, but there's been no confrontations." READ MORE
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