Member of OCAP are restrained by police and security staff after the anti-poverty group burst in on the City of Toronto budget meeting at city hall in Toronto, Ont. Feb. 10, 2011.Kevin Van Paassen/The Associated Press
The dozens of protesters who derailed the city's budget committee and turned City Hall's normally staid second floor into a loud, near-violent scuffle with police have a message for Mayor Rob Ford's administration: Get used to this, because there will be more.
Members of several anti-poverty groups came to Thursday morning's budget committee to argue against proposed cuts. But the committee dissolved into a shouting match and a tense confrontation between protesters and Councillor Doug Ford, who was caught on audio recorded by 680 News telling one man who approached the councillor, swearing and brandishing a cellphone camera, to "get going. Get a job."
In the ensuing melee outside, shoving between activists and police escalated as a man and a woman were pinned to the ground and arrested amid incensed shouts of "Let them go." After officers got into shoving matches with protesters going after an officer handcuffing one woman, police brought a man being arrested behind the glass doors leading to councillors' offices, which are accessible only by security swipe card. Protesters hammered on the glass, shouting at police blocking the door as the man was pinned face-down.
A 29-year-old man is charged with assaulting a peace officer, mischief interfering with property and assault with intent to resist arrest; a 35-year-old woman is charged with assault and mischief. They are to appear in court Friday morning.
Colourful protests and heated exchanges are nothing new for City Hall or for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, which was one of the primary organizers of the demonstration. But they rarely escalate to the point at which 10 or more police officers are called to aid City Hall security, or to arrests for assault.
In some ways, the protest was as pre-emptive as it was reactive: The targets of activists' anger - ranging from the use of motels to house refugees to cuts to bus routes - pale in comparison to what they fear is in store.
The city faces a $643-million budget pressure next year, staff said in a presentation before the morning melee - and that's if it succeeds in generating badly needed revenue, including the land-transfer tax Mr. Ford has vowed to axe.
"This was the first round of Rob Ford's devastating attacks being prepared," said OCAP organizer John Clarke. "He'd better understand that if he's going to destroy services on the scale he intends to do, it's going to involve a massive confrontation."
Doug Ford said afterward it's disappointing people sought to "intimidate" the budget committee.
"We aren't going to be intimidated. Simple. We're going to stay focused," he said.
Mr. Ford also denied telling anyone to get a job, saying "show me on tape when I said that."
"Look," budget chief Mike Del Grande said during a recess after the committee resumed, "we're having budget meetings. Every citizen has had the opportunity … to make their position known.
"This kind of disruptive activity really doesn't help anyone's cause."
But OCAP member Lisa Schofield said they're in no mood to play nice.
"If you want to tell us to stand in a queue and wait and speak politely, that's bogus. We have the right to come in here," she said, clutching a plastic bag of ice cubes to her left wrist, alleging an officer had twisted her arm taking her outside the committee room.
"This is the first real move that Ford is making to attack poor people in the city of Toronto. We're taking it very, very seriously - we're not going to wait to see what comes next. This first cut is enough for us."