After a long day of May Day events, hundreds of protesters began a late-evening march to Simcoe Park, across the street from the Metro Convention Centre, where Barrick shareholders will meet at 10 a.m.
Throughout the night, protesters and police kept a wary eye on each other.
Three protesters were charged with prohibited activity on premises, allegedly pitching a tent in contravention of a Toronto bylaw, said Const. Tony Vella.
The occupiers, who identified themselves as “chaplains,” refused to stop erecting the tent, calling the structure a “chapel,” Vella said.
Police say they escorted the three from Simcoe Park and gave them each a $60 ticket.
Vella said that Toronto’s parks department would allow protesters to stay at Simcoe Park overnight. However, police would not allow tents and other structures to be pitched after midnight. City bylaws prohibit people from erecting structures or staying in a park between 12:01 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
Organizer Sakura Saunders said Barrick represents the 1 per cent, a reference used by Occupy protesters to highlight the income gap between the wealthiest citizens or 1 per cent and the other 99 per cent.
But targeting an actual company represents a different approach for Occupy protesters. It’s the first step in a new strategy that will see numerous occupations across the city, organizers say.
But just where and for how long is uncertain as organizers attempt to stay one step ahead of police.
Speaking Tuesday night at Alexandra Park near Bathurst St. and Dundas St. W., where hundreds of protesters gathered before marching to Simcoe Park, occupy spokesperson Lana Goldberg said targeting numerous sites is a new model.
“It’s a model we’re experimenting with,” she said.
Simcoe Park is the first on a list of 10 potential locations, said protest organizer Sakura Saunders. The sites will be used one by one if the police discover and “swarm” a site, she said.
Despite a heavy police presence Tuesday, there were no serious clashes with protesters. At Simcoe Park, a minor argument broke out between police and several protesters were asked to remove their “bike trailer,” said occupier Cherise Summer.
Summer said police told her it was illegal to erect a “structure” in the park. She and a few other occupiers then moved the trailer to the sidewalk, “which they had no problem with.”
More than 50 police officers clad in bright yellow jackets monitored Alexandra Park, following the protesters as they began to move south on Bathurst St.
The new strategy is a marked change from the single-site, 40-day occupation of St. James Park that began mid-October. That protest ended peacefully after a judge ruled the protesters could not occupy a public space, shortly thereafter police and city staff moved in to take down protesters tents and shelters.
Trey, an organizer who refused to give his last name said the new round of protests will attempt to highlight “critical issues.”
“The public didn’t understand what we were trying to say,” Trey said of last year’s occupation.
The short-term sites will be linked and relevant to the particular “problem” that occupiers are trying to underscore, he added.
The protest came at the end of a day of events organized by Occupy Toronto and other groups to mark May Day, known to some as International Workers’ Day. The events also aimed to raise awareness about immigrant, economic and social justice issues.
Just after 5:30 p.m. nearly 1,000 people began walking west on Queen St. W. from Nathan Phillips Square. Marching to drumbeats and to chants of “We are the 99 per cent,” the group moved toward Alexandra Park. Some wore red bandanas emblazoned with black fists, combat boots and army fatigues, while others donned pink tutus.
As demonstrators slowly marched west on Queen, bystanders looked on from sidewalks. Police officers with bicycles and motorcycles formed barriers on both sides of the street, while TTC officials looked on.
Earlier, demonstrators also held a “garden party” at Queen’s Park, where green thumbs planted a garden — onions, radishes, cabbage — to raise awareness about sustainability and local food. The goal was to plant at least 99 gardens in Toronto throughout the day.
“There is a global food crisis, which is interdependent with our global ecological, economic, and democratic crises around the world,” said Jacob Kearey Moreland, 23. “There’s about a billion people without access to proper nutritious food — hundreds of thousands in this city.”
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Anita Li and Wendy Gillis
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