Five protesters challenged the city’s orders to take down their tents and vacate the park between midnight and 5:30 a.m. last Tuesday by seeking an injunction.
“The Trespass Notice is constitutionally valid. I dismiss the application,” Ontario Superior Court Judge David Brown ruled.
Lawyers for the protesters had argued that the encampment was a key part of the movement.
Judge Brown, however, said their freedom of speech could be conveyed without the use of tents or overnight stays.
“Protesters have ample means left to express their message, including continued use of the park (but no structures or “midnight hours”), and other Torontonians can resume their use of the park,” he wrote in the 54-page ruling.
The protesters are simply breaking the law, Judge Brown said in his decision.
“The Charter does not permit the protesters to take over public space without asking, exclude the rest of the public from enjoying their traditional use of that space, and then contend that they are under no obligation to leave.”
Members of Occupy Toronto said that their continuing presence was part of an exercise in community-building, providing a lasting area where marginalized people could gather. They argued that other people could still enjoy the park.
“I do not accept that statement,” Judge Brown wrote. “The amount of space available for public use in a tent-free park necessarily would be much greater than the amount available in a park populated with 300 tents, three yurts and approximately 10 larger tent structures.”
The city had filed 11 affidavits from residents who complained of noise, smells, drug use and being intimidated by aggressive protesters at the park.
The protesters had “a monopoly over a public park” and the eviction notice would restore it to a shared space, Judge Brown said.
Some protesters have said they would leave, others had vowed to stand their grounds, locking arms into human chains to resist any police intervention.
Protesters had hoped to find sanctuary on parts of St. James that are church land, but the dean of the St. James Cathedral, Rev. Douglas Stoute said last week that the ruling will apply to the entire park.
Hundreds of protesters have gathered at the park since mid-October, many camping out in tents. Toronto’s occupation began about a month after the original Occupy protest began in New York City, near Wall Street. Protesters there were told to leave last Tuesday, as were many campers worldwide last week.
In court on Friday, lawyers representing the city and protesters went head to head at a hearing and answered questions from Judge Brown.
Occupy’s lawyer argued Charter rights, including freedom of expression, would be infringed upon if protesters were made to take down their tents and vacate the park at night.
Adam Slinn, a media volunteer with Occupy Toronto, said Sunday that it was too soon to know whether protesters will relocate to another park.
“The movement itself will continue with or without a park,” he said.
Protesters will first “defend the park,” he said, noting some people are willing to be arrested and have practised non-violent block techniques, like linking arms and laying down, to be used in important areas of the encampment including the medical and media areas.
People who don’t want to be arrested can support the occupation from nearby sidewalks, he said.
If people are arrested, they will go peacefully, Mr. Slinn said.
The next step will be to hold a general assembly to decide whether the group wants to occupy another park or to continue the movement without an occupation, he said.
Mr. Slinn said preparations are being made for rallies and other events next weekend regardless of Monday’s decision.
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Source: Globe&Mail
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