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56-509: As of June 2012, Occupy Toronto had continued to engage in semi-organized meetings, events and actions. Demonstrators gathered at the intersection of King St. and Bay St. at around 10 am on the 15 October 2011 Global Day of Action and then moved to St. James Park while stressing the importance of a peaceful demonstration and the desire to be heard as a single voice. Early numbers put the visible turnout fluctuating at between 2000 and 3000 participants, including NDP MP Peggy Nash , Joel Duff of

112-436: A Marxist whine-fest or a Black Bloc gang spoiling for a violent fight with the cops, there will not be much tolerance and acceptance from Torontonians who even though they sometimes scold their cops, still respect, appreciate and love them." On November 11, The Toronto Star columnist David Olive wrote: "Certainly, this is the hour of our discontent. That discontent is income inequality. The spectacular disparity between

168-415: A 16-year progression to reach top wage levels in their collective agreement, according to the union. The colleges offered a package that would have increased salaries by 12.6 per cent by the end of four years, taking the maximum pay to about $ 94,000. The union had proposed 12 per cent over three years." On October 16, 2017, roughly 12,000 full-time faculty, partial load faculty, counsellors and librarians at

224-574: A campaign against financial institutions. A similar protest group inspired by Occupy Wall Street has formed in the UK under the name OccupyLSX . Prostestors also marched through the Scottish Capital, Edinburgh and formed a tented encampment on St Andrew's Square to kick off Occupy Edinburgh . In Ireland protests were held throughout the country, including in Dublin and Cork . Now

280-537: A confrontation between the OPP and OPSEU strikers at Queen's Park in Toronto . Ontario Provincial Police riot control officers were called in to escort members of parliament who were being prevented from entering the legislature. MPPs were pelted with rocks and paper cups when they tried to cross the line. The confrontation escalated when police began to push through the line of protesters and violence erupted. At least half

336-744: A continuation of the 2011 Spanish Protests , the largest protests took place in Spain, where more than a million people took the streets on 15 October, including 500,000 in Madrid, 400,000 in Barcelona, and 150,000 in Zaragoza. In Madrid, protesters reoccupied the Puerta del Sol square where the Indignados had camped five months earlier on 15 May . As in protests elsewhere, slogans on signs included "We are

392-616: A dozen protesters were injured. The second strike between OPSEU and the provincial government lasted 54 days (March 13 to May 5) in 2002. Again, tensions between managers and the union were strong. Although there was no bloody confrontation between the union and the government during this strike, there was a strong division between union members and management. College faculty were on strike from Oct. 16 until November 9, when they were legislated back to work. 8,800 faculty members at Ontario's 22 community colleges went on strike on October 19, 1989. The strike ended on November 14 when OPSEU and

448-631: A membership of approximately 180,000 members. OPSEU was established in 1975 as the successor union to the former Civil Service Association of Ontario, which was founded in 1911. In 1979, OPSEU affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress , the National Union of Public and General Employees , and the Ontario Federation of Labour . OPSEU is affiliated to several labour councils across Ontario. The current President

504-465: A new assembly. In that assembly it was decided to come back the next day at 13:00 at Pariserplatz to continue the movement. As soon had this decision been made that the police made renewed threats to the people. The people then decided to leave for the moment and come back the next day. People from the protest reported that the police blocked sms and Twitter communication containing certain key words such as "occupyreichtag" or "occupywallst" during periods of

560-428: A part of the protest turned violent. Other U.S. protests Other international protests Related articles Ontario Public Service Employees Union The Ontario Public Service Employees Union ( OPSEU ; French: Syndicat des employés de la fonction publique de l'Ontario [SEFPO] ) is a trade union representing public sector employees in the province of Ontario , Canada . It claims

616-454: A protest camp like those in Madrid and New York with 109 tents and 9 pavilions, soup kitchen and bread line, facility's, generators, W-Lan and live stream and a media team with its own podcast called Klargestellt (German for clarified ). Around 5000 people supported the global protest at the "schlossplatz" Between 2,000 and 5,000 people joined the rally on 15 October. Since then, a protest camp with currently around 15 tents (as of 22 Oct)

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672-527: Is JP Hornick , who was elected to the position in April 2022. The labour expertise of President Hornick is recognized by their long-term role as a coordinator of the School of Labour at George Brown College. Hornick won election by beating out three other candidates for the position at the 2022 OPSEU/SEFPO Convention. Laurie Nancekivell is the union's First Vice-President/Treasurer and was also first elected at

728-450: Is church owned has been offered and occupiers have already made many changes to the camp to fortify it against a forced dismantling by authorities. On November 22, it was reported that the camp was smaller, but that the yurt housing the library was barricaded and had men chained to it and that the native tent was also barricaded and the sacred fire inside continued to smoke. On the morning of November 23, Toronto Police began enforcing

784-771: Is located in front of the HSH Nordbank headquarter. A small number of Greek and Turkish Cypriot activists gathered in Eleftheria Square in Nicosia as a response to the global call for a protest. Through discussion, they decided to move their protest to the buffer zone located in the Ledra/Lokmacı street. This started the Occupy Buffer Zone movement in Cyprus. The movement had a strong focus on

840-480: Is to say, 'If you think this [system] is working for everyone, it's not.' Now they have to figure out how not to get captured by special interest and keep the pressure on. We need people to talk about these problems and how we're going to solve them.". TD head Ed Clark was a close second to top earning bankers according to an article in the November 2011 issue of Toronto Life, earning $ 11,426,795. On October 14, 2011,

896-464: Is wrong. Hopefully, this helps them [the occupiers] buy more time to help keep the pressure up until something more concrete comes out of it." Members of the legal community who do not necessarily share the views of the protesters have also offered their support, including legal advice, but with other logistics as well. On the first day of protests, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told CTV Toronto : "I have no problem with citizens expressing themselves through

952-663: The Central Bank of Ireland in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, also continued throughout the day. In Slovenia protesters gathered in Koper , Maribor and the capital, Ljubljana , with the latter being the most prominent one. In Koper around 300 people gathered to protest against corruption, capitalism and also against Port of Koper , which is accused of violation of workers' rights. in

1008-601: The Cyprus Dispute and its relation to the economic status quo. A group of protesters organized an occupation of the London Stock Exchange to bring attention to what they see as unethical behavior on the part of banks. By 2:30 pm, police had contained the crowd near the St. Paul's Cathedral, where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange held a speech, stating that Wikileaks would support the protests through

1064-537: The Ontario Federation of Labour , and CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. After the first few hours, as the sunset progressed the numbers significantly dropped into the hundreds. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers marched over to the intersection after lunch and met up with the protesters. After a large crowd gathered at the Bay Street entrance to the Toronto-Dominion Bank , five people entered

1120-749: The Portuguese "Geração à Rasca" , the Spanish "Indignants" , the Greek protests , and the Occupy movement . The protests were launched under the slogan "United for #GlobalChange", to which the slogan "United for Global Democracy" was added by many people's assemblies. The protest was first called for by the Spanish Plataforma ¡Democracia Real YA! in May 2011 and endorsed by people's assemblies across

1176-464: The Reichstag and held an assembly there. Tents were put out, and the food was brought from Mariannenplatz. The police came and told the people to disperse. The people refused to disperse and continued their assembly using the human mic. The police then proceeded to destroy the tents which had been put up. After all the tents had been destroyed or confiscated by the police, the police made rounds around

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1232-450: The tabloid paper, The Toronto Sun published thoughts from columnist Joe Warmington: "If this event is real, and I have to admit I am skeptical but am trying to keep an open mind and let it unfold as it does, there will be legitimate demonstrators pointing out how the middle class is being eroded and how taxes are too high or not high enough and how jobs are hard to come by and other concerns. No problem because it's true. But if it becomes

1288-1291: The 2022 Convention. The union is structured into local occupational groups, units or locals. Most members of OPSEU work for the Ontario Public Service , municipal governments and services, and the public college system . Additionally, some members work for private companies or organizations that are contracted to provide a public service such as hospitals and medical laboratories. The list of bargaining units includes Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology - Academic (CAAT-A) with about 12,000 members, just under 10% of OPSEU's total membership, Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology - Support (CAAT-S), Hospital Professionals Division Central Provisions (HPD), Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), Ontario Public Service (OPS). Other members include ambulance, developmental services, boards of education, children's aid societies, community agencies, long-term care, universities, hospital professionals, hospital support, municipalities, child treatment centres, municipal property assessment, mental health, Canadian Blood Services and Diagnostics. "OPSEU also represents members in many boards, Crown agencies, and tribunals, such as

1344-445: The 99%", "United for Global Change" and "Human Rights for Everybody". At least 300,000 under the banner of "People of Europe: Rise Up!" gathered in the centre of Rome, according to the organizers. During the peaceful march against corporate greed and austerity measures, a group of people broke away from the main demonstration and threw rocks, bottles and incendiary devices at banks and riot police. Riot police charged and clashed with

1400-708: The Barcelona March for a series of protests, the largest being in La Place de Bastille on September 17th. After which they continued to travel north, arriving in Brussels in the days prior to the Global protests and occupied an abandoned university building where International activists gathered for a week until the day of the Global Protest when more than a 15,000 people took to the streets in Brussels. As

1456-546: The Executive Board, through to then-President Warren (Smokey) Thomas were creating and supporting environments which were toxic to Black members. Specifically, previous leaders in Algonquin College's OPSEU Local 415 harassed, surveilled and excluded the new Local president, who was a Black woman. Despite investigations substantiating those events, OPSEU was sluggish to enact remedies, in effect emboldening

1512-780: The Neptune Fountain in Alexanderplatz between 13:00 and 14:00. At 14:00 the march set off towards the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor), arriving to a police barrier at the Pariser Platz square at about 15:00. The march thus made a detour around Brandenburger Tor and marched towards the Kanzleramt , the seat of the federal government of Germany. In front of the Kanzleramt, an open microphone

1568-539: The Ontario Council of Regents agreed to binding arbitration after back-to-work legislation was threatened. At the time, the average earnings of a teacher was about $ 47,000, and salaries ranged from $ 22,800 to $ 52,250. On March 7, 2006, roughly 9,100 faculty at Ontario's 24 colleges went on strike. Faculty returned to work on March 27 after 18 days on strike. At the time, full-time faculty had "a starting salary of about $ 32,000, an average pay of about $ 75,000 and

1624-846: The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, the Ontario Pension Board, the Ontario New Democratic Party Caucus, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario." In June, 2016, part-time support staff at all Ontario colleges held a vote on whether to join OPSEU. The College Employer Council blocked the counting of the ballots for more than a year, eventually losing. When

1680-534: The assembly and stole the blankets and mats of the people. At around midnight the police made a final call to disperse and threatened serious consequences for those who stayed. The people decided to stay. The police then proceeded to violently and forcibly remove the peaceful gathering of people in the park in front of the parliamentarian. The police then told the dislodged people on the streets around Platz der Republik to go to Brandenburgertor. More than 100 people then regrouped at Pariserplatz near Brandenburgertor to make

1736-650: The ballots were counted in January, 2018, 84% were in favour, leading to approximately 20,000 part-time support staff joining the union. OPSEU called this "the largest union organizing drive in Canadian history." In October, 2017, part-time college faculty held a vote to join the union, but the results are not known because the College Employer Council is attempting to block the counting of the ballots. In 1993, Ontario's first NDP government altered

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1792-505: The bank and security detained them before removing them from the branch. Almost two weeks after the protest began, occupiers still maintained their unlawful presence in St. James Park with no threat of removal by the municipal government and scheduled a march on Bay Street for 1 pm on October 27. During that occupation, after the protesters had caused the backup of 10 westbound King streetcars and six streetcars eastbound, bicycle police cleared hundreds of postal workers and other protesters from

1848-537: The camp, including answers to the questions of local public outrage and the prospect of being removed, to which occupiers answered: "I think the public outrage has been magnificently exaggerated. Teachers are bringing schoolchildren here all day to come and talk with us and learn why we're here." -and, "We'll just come back. Our legal people are looking into this." On November 12, CBC News reported that protesters had started setting up an occupation in Queen's Park , which

1904-512: The capital, people gathered on Congress Square to protest against greed, corruption and capitalism in general. They later moved to Ljubljana Stock Exchange where an assembly was called. The participants decided to continue the protest by means of symbolic occupation. In the following days, the camp size has risen to some 30 tents with continuing assemblies averaging between 150 and 200 participants, before ceasing in early 2012. In Finland there were gatherings at 13 locations. The largest meeting

1960-604: The day. The protest became ongoing and continues as Occupy Berlin . Frankfurt in Germany, where 8000 people gathered in front of the European Central Bank Frankfurt headquarters on the first day of a worldwide protest against income disparity and corporate greed. Organizers declared they would occupy and blockade the square in front of the ECB "for an undefined period of time." Demonstrators set up

2016-609: The demonstrations are spreading to Galway as described by The Irish Times . In the same article this newspaper describes the movement in the following terms: The group has no hierarchical structure, has set up a Facebook page and Twitter account – with the social media links attracting a very mixed, and sometimes critical, reaction. The protest in Dublin was organized by the Real Democracy Now! Ireland , Causes United (Ireland) & Occupy Dame Street protest, set up outside

2072-452: The eviction notice by dismantling most of the tents that still remained. The area surrounding St. James Park was barricaded to traffic. The Yurt Library was also dismantled, but protesters negotiated with police to have the books preserved, and some protesters vowed to regroup elsewhere. As of November 4, it was estimated that thousands of supporters are helping the roughly 500 people occupying St. James Park, including those considered to be in

2128-545: The first protest in Spain . General assemblies, the social network n-1, mailing lists , Mumble voice chat, open pads such as Pirate Pad and Titan Pad, and Facebook were used to coordinate the events. Some protests were only a few hundred in number, whereas others numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with the largest in Madrid numbering half a million and the second largest city Barcelona with 400,000. [[ March to Brussels ]] The March to Brussels travelled north for five months after leaving Madrid on Thursday May 19. It met with

2184-1354: The heart of the city where they gathered 10,000 supporters. 76 were arrested, 45 in Times square and 24 at a branch of Citibank. Protests also took place in hundreds of major cities across the US like Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Dallas and smaller communities like Champaign–Urbana , Memphis Oklahoma City , Buffalo , and Fort Lauderdale . Protests were organized in dozens of cities, including in Chile, Brazil, Peru and Mexico. Protests were organized in dozens of cities and countries, including in Egypt, Tunisia and Israel. 100 were arrested in Boston, 76 in New York, 175 in Chicago, 50 in Phoenix, 19 in Sacramento, 20 in Raleigh., and 24 in Denver. 12 were arrested in Rome after

2240-422: The intersection of King and Bay streets. In preparation for an indeterminable length of occupation, a solar panel was installed to provide electricity in the media tent and the "Winter's Coming Committee" is drawing up plans to "freeze-proof" the camp. In the hours after another protest on November 2, the media reported developments of the current municipal reaction: "They're still squatting in that park against

2296-427: The law," said Patrick McMurray who owns a restaurant across the street from the park. -He says he's losing business because customers are afraid to come downtown. In response to his concerns, McMurray received an email this week from [Rob] Ford saying, "When it is determined that we no longer have a peaceful protest, but rather an occupation of the park, we will consider options to remove the individuals who are camping in

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2352-528: The legislation governing Ontario Public Service employees to allow them to strike. In 1996, Ontario Public Service employees struck legally (Correctional Officers struck illegally in 1979 ) for the first time in their history. The strike was deeply political; OPSEU rallied against the Mike Harris government's proposed job cuts. The tension between the Government and OPSEU culminated on March 18, 1996 in

2408-404: The legislation. He published his decision on Dec. 20, 2017, and both sides appeared to be pleased with the result. The decision included a 7.75 increase in wages over four years and a one time lump sum payment for full and part-time staff. In May 2021, allegations of systemic racism and harassment were made against OPSEU and were documented widely in Canadian media, alleging that leadership from

2464-404: The majority of occupiers remaining in St. James Park. During the morning of November 15, Toronto Police and bylaw officers began distributing eviction notices to campers. On November 21, Bylaw officers and police, following a Superior Court judge ruling, handed out trespass notices to those camped on church property. No clear definition as to what part of the park is city owned and which part

2520-608: The park." On November 9, Mayor Ford was quoted as saying that it was time for the Occupy stragglers to "move on", citing the need to repair the estimated $ 25,000 damage to the grass and what could become a $ 40,000 repair to the sprinkler system pipes if they are not drained before winter. Premier Dalton McGuinty was reported as saying that the protest was a municipal issue and that his office would not be making decisions in relation to its presence. On November 11, Robyn Doolittle of The Toronto Star reported various comments from inside

2576-496: The perpetrators. The events received political attention from New Democrat MPP Joel Harden and Laura Mae Lindo, MPP chair of the Ontario NDP Black Caucus, who wrote to Thomas regarding the issue. In April 2021, Thomas' leadership style began being questioned and openly discussed in the media. Thomas retired in April 2022, after 15 years a president, and a new board was elected. In January 2023, OPSEU launched

2632-469: The police and organizers. Several dozen people gathered also in Pécs . 15 October was the day that many local offshoots of Occupy Wall Street started, mainly in smaller cities. Most of the big cities already had Occupy movements that people from the smaller cities and towns came to. In New York City, after police prepared to evict protesters from Zuccotti Park near Wall Street, the protesters marched into

2688-539: The privileged "1%". A group of seven unions, led by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union , installed porta-potties, generators, Mongolian yurts and a 28-foot mobile kitchen . Other donations include straw from the president of a hydraulics company, and 250 compostable bags of water from the owner of a waste-water technology company, who said: "There needs to be a correction of how global financial businesses work. Something

2744-423: The protesters repeatedly, firing water cannons and tear gas. At least 135 people were injured, including 105 police officers. 12 people were arrested. 5,000 people gathered outside the London Stock Exchange , ending up setting a camp that remained there for three months, in what became known as Occupy London . In the following weeks, camps were set up in dozens of cities around the UK. 10,000 people gathered at

2800-644: The province's 24 Colleges went out on strike. The OPSEU collective bargaining team for the teachers was led by J.P. Hornick, Coordinator of the School of Labour at George Brown College. Bill 178, the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology Labour Dispute Resolution Act, 2017 was successfully passed on Sunday, November 19, 2017, ending the strike and sending the parties to mediation and binding arbitration. Faculty members returned to work on November 20. Students resumed classes on November 21, 2017. The parties agreed to employ William Kaplan as mediator-arbitrator under

2856-486: The public rally and I don't expect the event to turn violent. If people want to protest peacefully, that is fine. And I am sure it is going to be a peaceful protest." The Canadian Bankers Association told its members to "prepare for the worst, hope for the best," while a number of downtown banks ordered extra security in preparation. Also, CTV News obtained an internal memo from Toronto-Dominion Bank , telling employees they were working with "external partners" to maintain

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2912-429: The security of their branches. The CEO of TD Bank, Ed Clark was asked what advice he might give to the protesters. His answer was "My main advice is stick to your guns. When people say, 'You don't have a solution,' say, 'Of course we don't. If there was a solution, don't you think people would be doing it?' To ask the people who occupy Wall Street or Bay Street to have a full answer is absurd. They're doing their job which

2968-531: The super- affluent and the rest of us is a leading, if not root, cause of widespread ill health, stunted education opportunity, and intolerably high rates of crime and racial discrimination in our communities." Occupy articles 15 October 2011 global protests The 15 October 2011 global protests were part of a series of protests inspired by the Arab Spring , the Icelandic protests ,

3024-418: The world. Reasons were varied but mainly targeted growing economic inequality, corporate influence over government and international institutions, and the lack of truly democratic institutions allowing direct public participation at all levels, local to global. Global demonstrations were held on 15 October in more than 950 cities in 82 countries. The date was chosen to coincide with the 5-month anniversary of

3080-567: Was held at the Narinkkatori square in Helsinki where about 1000 people attended during the day, according to the organizers. Several hundred people gathered also in Turku , Tampere and Jyväskylä . In Hungary there were demonstrations at two cities. A gathering with an assembly and marching was held in the capitol Budapest where about 1500 people attended during the day, according to

3136-491: Was put in place where anybody could come up and give their thoughts. The sound system was not loud enough for such a big gathering and so it was proposed to use the human microphone (das menschliche Megaphone in German) technique of Occupy Wall Street. The plan had been for everyone to go to Mariannenplatz in the evening where stages, music and food had been prepared. However the people spontaneously decided to assemble in front of

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