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ARTICLE · 18 NOVEMBER 2011

Is There A Constitutional Right To "Occupy" With Tents?

Bennett Jones LLP
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As municipal officials across the world begin to flex their muscle and take steps to dismantle tents, yurts, and similar structures established in connection with the local variant of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it seems inevitable that a major question is going to be raised at some point in the Canadian courts...

CanadaGovernment, Public Sector

As municipal officials across the world begin to flex their muscle and take steps to dismantle tents, yurts, and similar structures established in connection with the local variant of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it seems inevitable that a major question is going to be raised at some point in the Canadian courts:

No,
says Derek J. Bell

You can protest every day if you like, but you don't have a constitutional right to sleep in St. James Park.

Municipal officials may not be able to shut down the Occupy protests entirely, whether in Toronto, Vancouver, London or Corner Brook, Newfoundland, without running into some serious constitutional problems. However, does the constitution stand in the way of efforts to take down the "tent cities" that have cropped up in Canadian cities? The answer to this has to be an unequivocal no, and this is for two reasons.

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