Police moved in on Occupy Nova Scotia in Victoria Park today, seizing tents and protesters. They were carrying out orders issued by Mayor Peter Kelly on Remembrance Day.
When protesters tried to protect their tents by forming a line, police began throwing people to the ground and handcuffing them. By mid afternoon, at least 15* people had been detained, many of them organizers of Occupy Nova Scotia.
By 6 p.m. protesters had formed a human chain around one remaining tent. After a day of relentless rain, they are soaking wet, but singing and chanting.
"Rain, rain go away. We want Peter Kelly to come out and play!"
After a meeting with Mayor Kelly and veterans in late October, Occupy Nova Scotia decided to temporarily relocate to Victoria Park on November 9, in order to allow the annual Remembrance Day ceremony to take place in Parade Square undisturbed.
At noon on November 11, participants of Occupy Nova Scotia were handed an eviction notice and by 2 p.m. police had begun taking tents.
"These are people's homes," yelled one protesters at police as they dismantled a tent. Many of the city's poor have been sleeping at the Occupy site. "Our city's poor come because there's not adequate shelter, there's not adequate affordable housing."
The Occupy Movement is based largely on the belief that action needs to be taken against the greed and corruption of the one per cent of the world's population that hold the majority of its wealth and power.
* Correction: 14 people were detained.
