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Security having protesters remove tents at Nathan Phillips Square

A week after the city issued a trespassing order to anti-racism protesters who had set up an encampment at Nathan Phillips Square, security officers began having people remove their tents Friday.

"Security is asking protesters to gather their belongings including their tents and temporarily vacate the tent area," said city spokesperson Bruce Hawkins in an email.

"Tents are not permitted structures under the Nathan Phillips Square Bylaw, and the protesters have unlawfully erected on them on the square and the protesters have had plenty of notice to remove them. Today, the protesters are being compliant with the request being made of them."

Hawkins also noted that the protesters aren't being told to leave the square, as protests and gatherings are permitted there — it's sleeping on the square specifically that isn't permitted.

The protest, which has been ongoing since June 19, was organized by Afro Indigenous Rising, which describes itself online as a "collective working towards action for de-funding the police, and for justice for Afro-Indigenous peoples affected by colonial violence."

The encampment is one of several protests against racism that have sprung up in Toronto in recent weeks, alongside calls to defund police.

At the end of June, city council voted in favour of a series of reforms that could alter the future of policing in the city, including the creation of a non-police response team for mental health calls and a mandate to require all officers to have body-worn cameras by 2021.

The changes do not, however, include a targeted reduction of the policing budget.