Downtown Toronto encampment cleared Friday, people offered housing options: Tory

Mayor John Tory is once again defending the dismantling of homeless encampments that sparked violent confrontations earlier this week.

By News Staff

Mayor John Tory said another downtown encampment was cleared by city staff Friday.

“We managed to clear, virtually, all of another encampment that had 12 residents in the downtown of the City of Toronto, without police, without protestors,” Tory said at a news conference on Friday.

Tory didn’t say where the encampment was but said city staff had visited the location and offered the people housing options. He said it was cleared without incident.

The removal of the downtown encampment came after violence erupted on Wednesday when authorities moved in to clear a homeless encampment at a Toronto park.

A group of Toronto city councillors have criticized what they said was “extreme show of force” in clearing the illegal encampments.

“We demand an end to the violence and extreme show of force,” said in a letter released on Friday.

It was signed by councillors Shelley Carroll, Mike Layton, Josh Matlow, Gordon Perks and Kristyn Wong-Tam.

“You are only moving people experiencing homelessness from parks to laneways, under bridges or into another park,” they wrote.

The mayor said the city’s approach has been compassionate, yet firm. He said parks are for everyone and shouldn’t be used for these types of encampments. He said the city will continue to go “one by one, place by place, person by person” to re-house people.

“Hopefully, people who have particular views, which I welcome…will decide to become allies, as opposed to people who seek confrontation,” he said.

 

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