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Enough is enough, mayors say as Occupy protesters get heave-ho

TORONTO — After weeks of protests in several Canadian cities, Occupy groups are being asked to leave some of the parks and public areas where they have been camping.

TORONTO — After weeks of protests in several Canadian cities, Occupy groups are being asked to leave some of the parks and public areas where they have been camping.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said Wednesday that protesters camped out in a downtown park in the city should pack up and go.

“Obviously I’m here to represent the businesses and the taxpayers of the city, and I’ve been getting numerous calls from people who have told me they’ve had enough,” said Ford.

“I think it’s the right thing to do, to ask them to move on, and that’s what people want me to do and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Officials in Vancouver, Victoria and Calgary have also announced plans to start removing camps while Regina’s protesters have been asked to leave voluntarily.

In Edmonton, campers on land owned by a private company have been asked to leave and the mayor has talked about cutting off their power. Montreal’s protesters have been warned not to erect makeshift shelters. Halifax campers cleared out on their own.

Ford did not set any deadline to get the protesters out of St. James Park, but said he was trying to schedule a meeting with police Chief Bill Blair to decide on the best way to do it.

“They’ve had a peaceful protest, but I think it’s time that we asked them to leave,” said Ford.

Don Bryce, 44, who spends days at a time camped in Toronto, said he’s not surprised to hear some people have complained. That shouldn’t be grounds to evict the protesters, he said.

“Of course there’s going to be opposition” to a movement that calls for fundamental changes to society, he said, adding demonstrators moved out of the park will just relocate.

“There’s other places we can go. We’ve already checked into this.”

Ford’s comments came just hours after police and bylaw officers in London, Ont. dismantled tents set up in a local park by Occupy protesters, some of whom remain in the park without shelter.

No violence or arrests were reported when the tents were dismantled, hours after a Tuesday deadline set by London Mayor Joe Fontana.

“This is not about winning or losing,” Fontana told a news conference Wednesday.

“I think London demonstrated that it took a very reasonable, balanced approach. Look what’s happening in other cities,” he added.

In Vancouver, protesters were back in force in the courts defending their encampment in front of the city art gallery.

B.C. Supreme Court Judge Anne MacKenzie said Wednesday she will permit Occupy Vancouver to remain while lawyers for the group mount a defence against the city’s push to permanently take down the tents.

MacKenzie has yet to rule on the terms of the interim order, which mostly revolve around ensuring protesters follow the city fire code. Lawyers working pro-bono for the group are attempting to negotiate permission for ceremonial fires to been burned by First Nation elders.

Lawyer Jason Gratl told court the protesters are agreeable to spacing tents further apart and to not using propane or open flames, and will also allow firefighters to inspect for compliance.

“My sense ... is certainly that there is a very strong desire in the movement that these things are happening and that safety is improving for everyone on the site,” Sasha Wiley-Shaw, a representative of the group, told the judge.

“I certainly expect that we will co-operate in the spirit of good faith and absolutely peaceful respect.”

The city contends an injunction should be granted because there are imminent safety concerns, including the death of a 23-year-old Victoria woman in a tent on Saturday and growing tensions towards city police.

Protesters clashed with firefighters and police Monday night, sending two officers to hospital with bite wounds when the fire fighters moved in to extinguish a barrel fire the group called sacred. The melee around midnight prompted the city’s police chief to warn the group to disperse immediately.

Chief Jim Chu hasn’t given a deadline or said when police might move in, noting he’d prefer to get a decision from the courts first. He stressed police still hope to end the encampment peacefully.

The escalation of tensions in Vancouver came as the Occupy Halifax camp voluntarily cleared out.

The public square in front of Halifax city hall was unoccupied Tuesday for the first time in nearly a month as the anti-capitalist protesters relocated ahead of Remembrance Day ceremonies.

In Montreal, the protest site at Victoria Square has become a village of tents but City Hall has refused requests for permits to build makeshift wood cabins.

Protesters say they’ll build them anyway.

“This is like telling someone not to put on a winter coat when it’s cold outside,” said Felix St-Laurent, a spokesman for the Montreal protesters.

“The guy will grab his coat and put it on anyway.”

Meanwhile, Occupy Ottawa protesters said Wednesday they have notified police after finding more than 400 used needles scattered around the park where they are camping.

“We regularly monitor the park for suspicious activity, and we have determined that this was a deliberate attack against the occupation,” said Mitchell Broughton, who found one of the needles at a park entrance.

“This is clearly an attempt to discredit us,” he said.

Canada’s Occupy demonstrations are among dozens around the world that grew out of the Occupy Wall Street movement targeting corporate greed and economic inequity.