In one reported incident, two members of an activist video collective were arrested as they intervened as police attempted to arrest a mother sleeping in a car with her sleeping young child.

Most tent city participants have regrouped and gathered in the parking area of the Comite Social, a community center in the Centre-Sud neighbourhood and home to the Comite des sans-emploi, one of the co-organizers of todays Tent City. Earlier this evening, several hours before the police intervention, a general assembly was held at the Tent City site, with over 100 people participating. Participants voted overwhelmingly to stay at the Tent City site past the midnight deadline given by the police, and also return again to Parc Lafontaine on Sunday, to resume the Tent City, and to continue a program of pre-planned workshops, activities and communal meals. Some Tent City participants vowed to return every day next week, and stay every night until the police evictions at midnight.

One Montreal municipal councillor, Nicolas Tetrault, was on-hand to defend the police action, and insist that the municipal by-laws that force parks to close at midnight was justified, despite the housing crisis. The councillor, who was denounced as a yuppie by bystanders, was forced to leave the scene.

A previous article about the Tent City is included below.

A Quicktime movie about the squat, by Kevin Walsh, is linked at:

http://montreal.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8631&group=webcast

The Tent City website is at: http://tentcity.taktic.org

[by Jaggi Singh, for act-mtl, Indymedia Montreal and CMAQ]

http://montreal.indymedia.org

Jaggi Singh <jaggi@tao.ca>

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