On Saturday October 15th, the people of Toronto joined with inhabitants of 950 other cities across the world in initating an international “Day of Global Change.” After converging outside the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) at King and Bay, an estimated 3000 people marched east to St James Park to kick off Occupy Toronto , a movement based on Occupy Wall Street, now entering its fourth week.
The occupiers spent several weeks carrying out intense organizing and outreach through social media and public general assemblies. They moved quickly to secure the park and begin to establish infrastructure. Tents were immediately erected, and people spontaneously set to work establishing physical locations for several pre-established coordinating committees. These efforts were granted a huge boost when generous donations from organized Labour–including porta-potties, sanitation stations, generators and several huge tents–began pouring in that afternoon.
The Occupy Toronto movement is centred around its twice-daily General Assemblies, experiments in direct democracy run on a loose consensus model inherited from the “People’s Forums” of the international climate justice movement, and further popularized by Occupy Wall Street. At the first General Assembly, the volunteer facilitators spent a great deal of time outlining the hand-signals associated with this form of group consensus, and outlined the proposed 90% super-majority required should full consensus prove impossible.
By nightfall of the first day the entire south-east corner of the park was covered by a veritable tent city as hundreds of activists braved the cold autumn weather to camp out overnight.
The second day of the occupation began with various committee meetings, followed by the morning general assembly–where a decision was made to march on the heart of Toronto’s commercial district, Dundas Square. This march saw several hundred people join, including dozens of enthusiastic onlookers and would-be shoppers. After a short symbolic occupation of the square, activists marched back to the park, their chants of “You are the 99%” echoing through the neighbourhood’s concrete corridors.
Despite initial fears of a night-time raid, sources within the Legal committee say th at the police have told them they have no plans to raid the encampment, stating that as long as things remains peaceful there’ll be no need for force or fines. While much of the park is public property, a municipal by-law makes public assembly on the grounds between midnight and 5am an offense punishable by a $105 fine.
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