After the city announced its plans to clear encampments, the
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty wrote an open letter to
Mayor John Tory asking the city call of its plans to dismantle encampments in the
Rosedale valley on January 7, 2020. They called instead for the city to focus its resources on adding sufficient shelter spaces, and building rent-geared-to-income housing. The city went ahead with its plans with advocates protesting the decision. They argued that there was inadequate shelter space, pointing to the city's own data which reportedly showed that as of January 6, 2020, shelters were at 94% capacity. In early March 2020, the city imposed a moratorium on the clearing of encampments. This was reinstituted after the city began to implement new temporary measures for the unhoused. In late April 2020, Tory announced that the city would provide temporary housing to encampment residents. In mid-May 2020 the city moved to clear the homeless encampments under the
Gardiner expressway, and at Lakeshore with some concerned passersby attempting to intervene. Standoffs with residents were also reported to have occurred. Several residents were reported to have said that they preferred to camp outside instead of a shelter due to fear about contracting COVID-19. One resident expressed that the camps were a decent environment with social networks for aid that they did not want taken away. City officials began talks in late June, 2020 to clear encampments in George Hislop park and Norman Jewison Park. Tory, in an interview with the CBC disclosed he found the presence of 40 tents across the two tents to be unsatisfactory and had met with residents' representatives and neighboring businesses. The city was reportedly in talks with Sanctuary Ministries, who served as advocates on behalf of the encampment residents. By mid-July 2020, encampment residents in Moss Park were bracing for a city initiated clearing after receiving Notices of Advice under Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 608. The city did not follow through with that scheduled clearing after residents refused to comply with the notices. Two partnered residents expressed a wish for permanent housing, rather than a room at a shelter hotel where COVID-19 was rampant. 14 encampment residents together with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and Neighborhood Legal Services took the city to court on October 10, 2020 to challenge the city's bylaw preventing encampments. Advocates noted that the city had created a catch-22 situation in which it was refusing to let people set up encampments in public parks but was also not providing adequate and safe shelter space. The court application was originally filed on July 21, 2020.The petitioners sought an interim court order that would allow the homeless stay in Toronto parks until a constitutional challenge of a city bylaw 'that bans living or camping in parks after midnight' could be heard. The city's lawyer argued that the petitioners were creating a false narrative of having to choose between supposedly safe encampments and supposedly dangerous shelters, and further that the risk of contracting COVID-19 in shelters was not as high as the petitioners claimed. The request was eventually denied in late October by
Justice Paul Schabas who ruled that "The sweeping relief sought would unjustifiably tie the city's hands in dealing with encampments that raise serious health and safety concerns for an indefinite duration, and would unduly prevent the use of parks by others". Schabas however, did not want his ruling to be taken as a direction by the city to dismantle the encampments in public parks. In December 2020, series of published letters were published by academics, researchers, lawyers and prominent musicians urging the city to stop encampment evictions and to work instead to find permanent housing solutions. One such letter had 480 signatories of academics and researchers, another had at least 100 lawyers and law students, and a third had hundreds of musicians. At a meeting of the city's economic and community development committee, nearly 40 homeless advocates demanded the city impose a moratorium on encampment evictions. They requested instead for an investment of $1 million in community agencies to provide survival supplies and fire safety equipment to people living in tents and to open 2,000 new rooms in shelter hotels. Tory expressed a lack of certainty in the merit of these demands, and argued that the deputations were based on false premises. In early January 2021, the city began a shift away from its strategy of attempting to negotiate with the encampments and their supporters. Documents obtained by freedom of information requests filed by activists reveal instead that bureaucrats began formulating plans to clear the big four encampments identified in its Pathways Inside program (
Moss Park,
Alexandra Park,
Trinity Bellwoods and
Lamport Stadium). While bureaucrats intended to keep engaging with residents and their supporters, they also began to work towards clearings in April. On March 16, 2021, the city of Toronto announced, via news release, what it described as a new city program that would support people living in encampments with safe and supportive indoor space. The Pathways Inside program was announced in response to the encampments which had sprung up around the city's downtown core during the COVID-19 pandemic. These encampments are described by the city as unsafe and illegal. The program identifies "four priority sites, namely Moss Park, Alexandra Park, Trinity Bellwoods and Lamport Stadium, that are subject to increased health and safety concerns". Prior to the announcement, the city leased the downtown Novotel Toronto Centre Hotel as a shelter to be operated by the housing agency: Homes First Society, to allow for more physical distancing. Housing activists, such as the Encampment Support Network criticized the program as "a rebrand of the city’s ongoing efforts to clear the four biggest encampments in Toronto” and invisibilize homelessness while failing to address the long-term permanent housing needs of encampment residents. By May 2021 the city had again announced its intentions of a clearing via notices posted on eleven tents in George Hislop Park. Greg Cook, an outreach worker at the neighboring Sanctuary Ministries of Toronto, told journalists that the city via its Streets to Homes program had worked with Sanctuary staff to move 31 people into temporary apartments in North York, however, there were still people on waiting lists. The city moved ahead and cleared out three encampments, at George Hislop Park, Barbara Hall Park, and on a median of
University Avenue. City spokesperson, Brad Ross claimed there was enough inside space for all who were approached, and that of those affected all but two people at George Hislop Park accepted offers to move inside. Lorraine Lam, an advocate and Sanctuary outreach worker, present during the clearing at George Hislop Park noted security officers were present. When asked, Brad Ross said the security officers were present to ensure the safety of everyone involved. The city proceeded with its plans and brought multiple bulldozers and dozens of police officers to evict residents from the encampment at Lamport Stadium on May 19, 2021. Activists from the Encampment Support Network and Toronto residents protested the eviction. On June 22, 2021, the city also moved to clear the encampments at Trinity Bellwoods park. Activists and locals gathered to form a human chain to prevent the action. The clearing reportedly involved police helicopters and a mobilization of multiple logistical and financial resources which many observers criticized on social media as a waste of tax dollars. The clearing was also reportedly rife with high tensions, that however did not culminate in a riot. The city's clearing which involved large numbers of police officers was also criticized as sometimes violent, and also to have attempted to prevent media coverage by the Canadian Association of Journalists. A month later, on July 22, 2021, the city moved to clear encampments at Alexandra Park, this time closing the park early in the morning to the public. They also reportedly denied a journalist from gaining access to the park which was fenced off. At least nine people were arrested as part of the clearing with seven arrested for trespassing. On September 28, 2021, the office of Toronto’s Ombudsman announced Tuesday that it has launched an investigation into the city’s clearing of encampments in some of its parks. Kwame Addo, the
ombudsman, said his office had received complaints about how the encampment clearings were handled. The city earlier that month had revealed it spent almost $2 million removing homeless encampments from three parks. The city said it would cooperate with the investigation. The Toronto Ombudsman office released its report in July 2022 which found the protocol meant to guide city staff in interacting with encampments had not been updated since 2006. For its investigation, the ombudsman’s office says it conducted 50 interviews with city staff and community stakeholders, reviewed approximately 11,000 documents and spoke to 43 people who lived in encampments. The city in a news release said it had accepted all eight recommendations of the report. == References ==