One of the best moments in Occupy Toronto’s history was on May 1st. About 30-40 Occupiers showed-up at Queen’s Park, behind the Ontario Legislature, and ‘peasfully’ planted a communal vegetable garden that day. The Toronto police were very well-restrained, they stood back quietly while Occupiers poured out the soil and planted the seeds. When it was finished, everyone began to celebrate- singing “Give Peas A Chance”.
Beyond the fact this was a peaceful and positive event, there was one more amazing thing about the garden- the City of Toronto tolerated the garden’s presence all through the summer. Considering all of the conflict between the city and Occupiers, many people saw this as a symbolic move that the city may be willing to cooperate more with Occupiers.
The garden was lovingly tended to by the Occupiers. People would carry jugs of water to the park to keep it alive through the summer heat. Weeds were picked, sticks were placed for the plants to creep up on. There was a lot of love put into the garden- as I said back in May, it was civil disobedience that most people could agree with.
An event was planned for Saturday to harvest the garden- but, it never came to pass.
Why? Well, for unknown reasons, the city decided to dig-up the garden on the day before the harvest. There’s a lot of speculation that the city did this as an intentional provocation- but, this hasn’t been proven yet. I’ll be calling the city and asking for an official statement tomorrow.
Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, this was a massive fail for Toronto. The garden was an opportunity for the city to show activists that, when they are peaceful, the city is ready to cooperate. This is a massive step backwards in my opinion- the city needs to make an apology…
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these little soviet city halls don’t give a crap about working with the people, the only interest they have is ramming their ‘solution’ down our throats! Occupy cheered for what those pricks at city hall have been pushing, how are they liking it so far?
I don’t think they should have waited till the last minute to dig up the garden. If these protesters didn’t seek council approval before using public land, then they should have expected the garden to be dug up. Public land is for everyone’s use, not just the protesters and the council is there to mediate its use. Sure they have the right to protest, they don’t have the right to damage public property and they definitely don’t have the right to expect their garden to remain without council approval. (council, meaning local government)
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I agree with you- the city should have either let the garden stay, or not. But, taking it out just before harvest was a very unfortunate choice. It doesn’t do anything to help resolve issues between the city and the activist community- it’s only resulted in further damaging trust. At best, the decision to kill the garden was just plain dumb…
Yes, it was bad timing and a tough decision. I would speculate, that the city would have given them a temporary approval for a public garden, if they only applied for it, maybe that’s what the city was waiting so long for. It would have given an easy way out for both party’s, but it wouldn’t have made for a good protest.