Organizers keen to see the Occupy Wall Street movement come to Toronto held a public meeting Friday, drawing a crowd to a downtown park.
The meeting, which took place on the eastern edge of the city's financial district, was billed as a "general assembly" as protesters attempt to bring the ad-hoc movement north of the border.
Occupy Wall Street originated in New York with a small group of demonstrators. It's now ending its third week and has spawned other demonstrations in cities in Nashville, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Portland.
Spurred on by the success of similar protests, demonstrators across Canada have been trying to mobilize via social media.
There has been talk of holding demonstrations in Edmonton, Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, Montreal, Winnipeg and Regina. But it's unclear where the demonstrations will actually materialize.
Mark Bray, a spokesperson and organizer for the American group, said earlier on Friday that organizers in Toronto are working to bring the movement to the city in about a week.
"It is coming to Canada, it's not 'if,'" Bray said early Friday. "Occupy Toronto, they're going to be holding meetings over the next week and on Oct. 15 they're going to start Occupy Toronto. I don't think they've chosen a location yet."
Occupy Wall Street is not affiliated with any political group and seeks to expand anywhere people are frustrated with their political and economic systems and want change, Bray said.
The protest movement "seeks to incorporate the entire 99 per cent of Americans who are frustrated with what has been going on Wall Street and in Washington and so we don't seek to be simply conservative or liberal but to be pluralistic and diverse."
It's not clear how or if the goals of the Occupy Toronto organizers differ from their American counterparts. In the U.S., the main complaints have been bank bailouts, the lack of financial oversight that led to recession, foreclosures and high unemployment.
Canada backed its auto industry during the recession but didn't bail out its banks, and many of the problems that have plagued the American financial system do not have parallels north of the border.
Some commentators have compared the protests to the origins of the Tea Party movement. However, the movement has been criticized as leaderless, with no defined set of objectives.
Bray dismissed that criticism, saying the group is looking for alternative ways of doing politics and business because the current system doesn't work.
"One of the most important things to understand about the movement is we have come to the opinion that politics as usual has failed us... working people have suffered while Wall Street, despite its errors, has continued to benefit," he said.
Bray said the movement initially began with young people, students and those who had "previous experience with activism." But he said it has grown to encompass all age groups and political stripes.
About 15 unions joined the movement over the weekend.
