First Occupy site ordered down in Canada

LONDON, Ontario, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The first police action against Occupy protest encampments in Canada began early Wednesday in London, Ontario, officials said.

Some 150 protesters who pitched tents in a city park as part of the global anti-greed protest that began in New York ignored two city orders to leave Tuesday, and dozens of police officers moved in at 12:30 a.m. to clear the park, the London (Ontario) Free Press reported.

There were no immediate reports of resistance or arrests.

The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York inspired activists to set up tent camps throughout the United States, Canada and abroad to protest financial disparity between the wealthy and working class.

The provincial government of British Columbia made a court appeal Tuesday for permission to shut down protest sites. In Vancouver, two police officers were bitten by protesters and in the capital, Victoria, a bucket of urine was dumped on a city worker, Postmedia News reported.

In Toronto, an unidentified man in his 20s at the protesters' tent city was hospitalized Tuesday because of an apparent drug overdose, the Toronto Star said.

Saturday, a 23-year-old woman died of a drug overdose at the Occupy Vancouver camp.