The Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) has condemned the police assault on the Safe Park
"Once again the City of Toronto has chosen police repression to deal with peaceful, non-violent protest in the deepening crisis of homelessness," said the CAW in a release to the press.
"The issue is not whether there happened to be a few empty beds in this or that Toronto hostel during the protest.
"The issue is that the action was organized to demand emergency needs shelter and adequate housing as well as to protest the daily harassment of homeless people by Toronto police. under the policy of targetted policing."
The CAW points out that the Golden Report calls for an immediate addition of 5,000 beds in new, supportive housing for people with special health needs, and that the city's hostel services needs at least 10 new shelters and 600 beds between now and November to prepare for winter.
The union demands that the city take immediate emergency measures and that all charges against those arrested be dropped.
The support of a major union like the CAW is an important step in Toronto's battle for better housing.
It is organized labour which has the social power to force governments to take the action that is necessary.
Building links with labour is the key next step for housing activists in the city.