A shantytown that had become an civic embarrassment for Toronto was cleared yesterday in an operation Mayor Mel Lastman praised and poverty activists condemned.
About 100 people looked dishevelled, dazed and angry as security officials hired by the landowners, Home Depot Canada, rousted them from the camp in a rubble-strewn field near the harbour.
Some wept and others yelled in contempt as a police cordon kept them from retrieving their belongings from the makeshift shanties that had been home to some for as long as two years.
"Shame on you. You don't have the right to destroy people's houses," one yelled.
Mr. Lastman defended the action, telling reporters that the eviction was at Home Depot's, not the city's, initiative.
"Home Depot has the same right as you or I to move trespassers from their land," he said.
No one has claimed the collection of cobbled shelters that became known as Tent City would ever be a permanent solution to Toronto's lack of housing for the poor. There was no running water and no electricity, and the soil of the former industrial site on the shore of Lake Ontario is tainted with toxic wastes.
The camp had attracted a growing population of homeless men and women who refused to use the city's shelters, many of whom have drug and alcohol addictions or mental illness.
Home Depot Canada had warned the squatters repeatedly that they must leave the crime-plagued, litter-strewn site or be moved out.
First, security officials in flak jackets marched through openings in a chainlink fence that surrounded the site in an industrial zone on the city's eastern harbour. A large number of Toronto police stood by.
When the people and their pets had been moved out, trucks moved in carrying front-end loaders while teams went into action to install more secure chainlink fencing.
Meanwhile, squads of workers wearing white coveralls and face masks used chain saws and weed whackers to clear-cut a patrol zone around the entire perimeter of the site.
Police arrested two people, including a woman who was handcuffed and held in a van during the eviction.
The eviction shocked Sam Rosen, who said he was sitting in a latrine when he heard an announcement that everyone had 10 minutes to leave the site.
"They told me if I left peacefully they would arrange food and shelter. But now there's nobody doing anything for us," said Mr. Rosen, who moved into a wooden shack in Tent City this summer after eight years of using city shelters. He said he had to leave behind his clothes, pots and pans and books and was allowed to return only to get medication for his diabetes.
Those evicted were handed pink notices that resembled traffic tickets. A box checked on each said they were charged with trespassing and faced a fine of up to $2,000.
Mr. Lastman said Home Depot had a right to remove trespassers.
"They exercised that right today, using their own people. The police were there solely to keep the peace."
"Home Depot had a liability there, and they had to do something about it. Somebody was going to get sick, or hurt, or worse," he said.
But the operation also removes an awkward symbol of Toronto's urban problems. In June, The New York Times ran a story on Tent City, saying it showed signs of "fraying" in what had long been thought a model city.
Mary Halton, vice-president of Home Depot Canada, said yesterday, "We have had increasing concern that this is not a safe place for people to be." She also said there were indications that crime and drug dealing were on the rise. People will be allowed to collect their belongings and can even remove the shelters, she added.
Over the next few weeks the site will be cleared and completely covered with plastic sheeting and gravel to make it as environmentally safe as possible, Ms. Halton said. But the company has no plans for developing the site, which it bought with the intention of building a store. The development was rejected by the Ontario Municipal Board after strong protest from nearby residents.
The mayor said the city has about 200 empty beds in its shelters and is going to find a place for everyone who was evicted.
After the operation, advocates for the homeless held protests at City Hall and the Tent City site. A press conference Home Depot had planned was cancelled when a large angry group gathered to protest. Some of those evicted and their supporters briefly broke up a meeting of Toronto Council's planning and transportation committee, which was conducting a hearing on the new official plan.
The meeting recessed for about 10 minutes while they shouted slogans such as "The people's homes cannot be bulldozed," but resumed after a meeting was arranged between the protesters and the city's chief administrative officer, Shirley Hoy.
Meanwhile, in Vancouver, a group of about 50 protesters has returned to a squat in the old Woodward's building in the city's Downtown Eastside after being evicted in a police raid on Sunday. The squatters first took up residency in the now deserted department store 12 days ago, saying they wanted a commitment from the province for low-cost housing.