The city of Toronto spent months plotting to clear about two dozen people from a homeless camp in a popular park last summer, building files on people living there and involving hundreds of municipal workers in the process, inside documents said.
Details are contained in thousands of pages obtained by activists through freedom of information laws.
City documents shared with The Canadian Press reveal the scale of the effort to clear Trinity Bellows Park, an operation that took place last June and eventually turned violent.
Homeless camps began to appear in Toronto in March 2020, when hundreds fled shelters for fear of contracting COVID-19. Some residents said they felt safer outdoors and sought the sense of community generated by the camps.
By the end of 2020, there were more than 50 camps in Toronto, documents show. The city won a lawsuit that upheld a bylaw preventing camping in Toronto’s parks and began focusing on what it called the “Big Four” camps, including Trinity Bellows.
In December 2020, documents show that the city is working to negotiate with camp residents and their supporters, hoping to form a “camp discussion table.”
Supporters try to tear down a fence in Trinity Bellows Park after workers cordoned off the area on June 22, 2021 (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
Chris Brillinger, CEO of Family Services Toronto, acts as a volunteer mediator between the two countries and wrote to city staff on December 29, 2020.
“You need a full-time facilitator / mediator for two to three months to move this forward,” he wrote. “The community needs help to get organized. It consists mainly of front-line staff and volunteers who are exhausted, physically and emotionally. “
Tracy Cook, the city’s deputy mayor, responded within an hour.
“There is certainly one thing I immediately see that we all have in common,” she wrote. “City staff are also emotionally and physically exhausted.”
City began plans in January 2021 to clear camps
In early January 2021, bureaucrats began formulating plans to clear the four major camps.
On January 7, Mayor John Torrey’s chief of staff sent an email to Cook, saying she and her colleague “hoped to meet with you in the next few weeks to discuss the camps, and in particular our spring plan.” The mayor started asking … “
On January 22, Cook emailed a PowerPoint presentation to the mayor’s office and city manager called “Camp Work – Next Steps Proposed.”
He noted that the city plans to work in “parallel buckets” – to engage with camp residents and their supporters, while planning to clear the parks in April.
“We are all concerned about the camps in the spring,” the presentation said. “We have identified the parks with the highest priority based on risk and impact, and we need to create a plan and timetable for how we will deal with these parks.”
Negotiations between the city and homeless advocates broke down in February when the city announced it had banned Khaleel Seivwright, a carpenter who makes “small shelters” for the homeless. The defenders felt betrayed, the emails show.
A camp supporter has been detained by police while city officials work to clear the Alexandra Park camp in Toronto on July 20, 2021. (Chris Young / The Canadian Press)
Meanwhile, the plan to clear the camps was gradually coming into focus.
City documents show that employees plan to publish notices of raids on the camps, which will be feasible within 72 hours.
“We are working on the idea of providing softer communication for the people of the camp and following legal publication after we have voluntarily moved several inside,” wrote Dan Brolt, the city’s head of the camp’s file, to the mayor’s office on March 2, 2021. d.
The city also had information about each camp resident in a confidential document entitled Trinity Bellows Analysis.
One resident of the camp was considered “likely to escalate”, with the file noting that he was “always in place and has a big mess around the camp, claiming to be making art”.
Another resident is said to be “non-confrontational and will probably leave when told”, while the file states that another person will not respond well if rushed, but will leave the site if told that he must leave in time. “
Several others were considered violent, the city said, and would pose a risk to staff.
An operational note states that one person often “verbally escalates” to city staff; walks around with a scepter (long rod); and he told many city officials that he knew karate and was “not afraid to use it,” he said.
The city spokesman defended the archives kept for the residents
In a statement this week, spokesman Brad Ross said the city kept documented records of camp residents “to ensure they offer the right services that meet their unique needs, along with access to interior space.”
The city also drew up air maps of all the tents in the park, each of which is numbered and associated with each resident.
AJ Withers, co-founder of FactCheckToronto.ca, a homeless advocacy group that shared documents with The Canadian Press, said the files showed the city had negotiated with the homeless in bad faith.
“The massive expulsions planned for Trinity Bellows were really set to fail,” Withers said in an interview.
“They had this massive surveillance program for the people of Trinity Bellows Park, which really makes it clear that they knew people would react badly if they were in a hurry … They set up a powder keg and it’s not surprising that it exploded. “
The city eventually took action in Trinity Bellows in June, weeks after an unsuccessful operation to clear Lamport Stadium Park, where a large crowd appeared to support camp residents in a clash with police.
Horse policemen see each other in Trinity Bellwoods Park before police evict camp residents on June 22, 2021 (Evan Mitsui / CBC)
On June 22, 2021, personnel showed up early in the morning at Trinity Bellows with more than 100 hired security guards, and fences were erected around two camp areas. Residents, many of whom said they lived with mental health and substance abuse disorders, were told they had two hours to pack their bags and either accept a hotel offer or leave. Some were in crisis that day.
Eventually, several clashes broke out between police and the homeless and their supporters. A battle broke out around a fence that supporters tried to tear down as police struggled to keep it upright. Another skirmish erupted when police released pepper spray, which inadvertently hit several security guards, the documents said.
The riot squad moved towards the end of the day after most of the crowd had dispersed and cleared the park.
Ross said the fence was erected to protect city workers and said protesters were preventing employees from doing their job. These protesters were warned, he said, and when they did not leave, the city called Toronto police to clear the area.
The city, Ross said, has taken “emergency measures to help those homeless” and is trying to find a balance between the homeless and the community.
“The city’s response to the camps takes into account the health and well-being of those living outside and the needs of the wider community,” he said. “The city cannot force people to go inside and take advantage of the many services offered by the city, but living in a camp in a city park is unhealthy and illegal.
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