Vancouver police have moved in and ousted a small group of homeless activists from an abandoned hotel in the city's Downtown Eastside.
Police read a final warning before 20 officers entered the vacant North Star hotel on Tuesday afternoon and removed the six squatters one by one.
Vancouver police escort one of six protesters squatting in an abandoned hotel on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside on Tuesday.
(Chuck Stoody/Canadian Press)
There was no resistance by the protesters and the eviction took place without incident.
As this was happening, a large crowd gathered on the street in front of the hotel shouting, "No homes, no peace."
When the police wagon headed up Main Street en route to the police station, about 100 people followed it.
There, they staged a second demonstration, facing a double line of police officers blocking the front door of the Main Street police station.
More squats planned
David Cunningham of the Anti-Poverty Committee, which organized the hotel occupation, said there will be similar protests.
He warned more squatters could take over another building in the troubled neighbourhood as early as Wednesday.
Cunningham said his group will keep up the pressure until Vancouver city council agrees to meet with it to discuss social housing needs.
The protesters had moved into the hotel on Sunday, following the decision by Vancouver city council to put off a proposed moratorium on the conversion of single-room residential hotels.
