They wanted to create a different social model.
Strip away the cacophony of disparate chants and placards, and what remains is the core principle of the five-week protest camp called Occupy Toronto.
Though the borders of St. James Park did not constrain the group’s larger social-justice message, protesters touted their cluttered tent city as direct evidence that “a different world is possible” — even after police and bureaucrats united this week to quash it. But did the short-lived encampment, wrapped in its flag of ultra-democracy, truly showcase a viable alternative social model, or did it only bolster the case for convention?
“In terms of let’s role-model a different kind of society and a different way of being political, those are wonderfully brave and hopeful and in some ways romantic attempts to fundamentally redesign social relationships, social interaction. I think they run up against some harsh realities pretty quickly,” Ryerson University political scientist Myer Siemiatycki said. “I think we saw that happen here in Toronto. The [camp] was not self- sustainable.”
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