Occupy Ottawa protesters have been ordered to roll up their tents and end their five-week-old camp-out at Confederation Park but say they aren't going anywhere.
A motion was passed in a "general assembly" vote by the group Monday night to "stay and resist the eviction notice" from the National Capital Commission.
"We the community decide to resist, in a political manner any and all attempts by the NCC to evict the movement from the park," the group decided, according to an Occupy Ottawa news release.
NCC officials distributed removal notices to demonstrators earlier that afternoon, telling them they must pull out of the park before midnight for violating provincial trespassing law.
The notice says camping and related activities at the park were to end “immediately,” while all tents and related equipment must be hauled away by 11:59 p.m.
Any items left in the park after then will be seized and held by the NCC for a short time until campers come foward to retrieve their belongings.
“The (NCC) recognizes that the rights of Canadians include expression and assembly for peaceful purposes,” a letter accompanying the notice reads.
“However, the public also has an interest in the secure use of, and access to, Confederation Park,” it states, adding that letting the camp-out continue may throw a wrench in planned events.
The NCC, which owns the park, previously said a continuation of Occupy Ottawa into December would interfere with Winterlude preparations.
Protestors upset with social and economic inequality first pitched their tents in the park on Oct. 15.
Since then more than a dozen tents have stood defiantly in the still-tidy park, metres away from the front steps of city hall.
The Ottawa Occupy eviction move occurred almost at the same time as a new round of eviction notices were given to Occupy Toronto campers. The Occupy Vancouver site was cleared out Monday as well, though protesters moved to a square one block away.
Occupy camps in London, Ont., and Victoria have also been forced closed this month, while police in New York City ended Occupy Wall Street last week.