A dark cloud hung over the Occupy Toronto encampment Tuesday after a protestor was found suffering from an apparent drug overdose.
Police and emergency services workers were called to the makeshift camp in St. James Park where a man in his 20s was found in distress around 10 a.m.
"Some of our marshals … had identified some sort of problem in the tent but they felt that they could not break privacy protocol to go in until they were sure something was wrong," said Michael Vessey, a spokesman for the Toronto movement.
The protestors have hunkered down at the downtown park for almost a month as part of the worldwide rally against social inequality and global greed.
This was the first major incident at the Toronto camp which has maintained a relatively low profile. But it comes just days after a woman in the Occupy Vancouver encampment died of a suspected overdose.
However, some say the incidents are more a reflection of society and not of the movement.
"What we are looking at here are a lot of people that may have slipped through the cracks of the greater society," said Vessey. "The mental health and the addictions systems that are in place now could never catch everyone so some of them end up here."
Toronto officials say they have no major concerns about the encampment. Last week Mayor Rob Ford said he was preparing a plan to handle protestors and that "a concrete answer" would be formulated.
Tensions are rising across the country as other cities contemplate evicting the protestors from the parks. This includes the mayor of London, Ont. who gave the protestors a deadline of Tuesday evening to leave.
