Union members join Occupy Toronto protesters in march

Hundreds of union members joined Occupy Toronto protesters to march through the streets on Thursday afternoon, snarling traffic in the city’s financial district for nearly an hour.

The group stopped at the intersection of King and Bay Streets, where some people lay across streetcar tracks and a small group entered a nearby TD Bank and sat on the floor. They were eventually escorted out of the building by police.

Born out of anti-Wall Street protests in New York, the Occupy movement has shown surprising staying power in Toronto, Vancouver and other cities, where burgeoning tent cities have sprung up in public parks, some complete with lending libraries and makeshift cafeterias.

But as the movement nears the end of its second week in Toronto, politicians are beginning to fret over how long those camped out in St. James Park will remain as winter sets in.

Deputy mayor Doug Holyday suggested the city may need to intervene, noting that protesters have already had “ample time” to express their grievances.

“There will eventually come a time when it’s not really a protest any longer, it’s just a group squatting in our park,” Mr. Holyday said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “Eventually, we’re going to have to deal with the problem.”

Pam McConnell, who represents the ward that includes the protest camp, said she worries it will become dangerous for demonstrators to stay there through the winter, but balked at the idea of forcing them out.

“I’m quite concerned that what I’m hearing so far from other members of council is a rather impulsive and knee-jerk reaction that could cause a safety concern inside my neighbourhood,” she said.

Police and protesters have so far been courteous to each other both at the park and during the group’s marches through the city. Officers on bicycles watched protesters from a distance on Thursday, redirecting traffic as they lay on the road and taking a more active role only when called by security staff to remove people from the bank.

Many of the protesters at Thursday’s march were union members, including hundreds from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which was holding a convention at the nearby Westin hotel.

“We think that we had to make a bigger statement, to show people that we’re not going to take what’s going on anymore,” said Chris Callaghan, a Vancouver resident and CUPW member who was among the group that sat down inside the bank. “These banks have been ripping us apart for a very long time.”

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Source: Globe&Mail