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Downtown Toronto businesses are boarding up ahead of weekend protests

TORONTO, ON., June 5, 2020 — Yesterday afternoon, downtown businesses were being boarded up as a precaution against the possibility that several planned demonstrations could get out hand.

Over the next few days starting Friday, peaceful protests against anti-black and anti-indigenous racism are planned including one that is supposed to begin outside Bloor-Yonge Station at 12:30 p.m. before heading south on Yonge Street towards Yonge-Dundas Square, according to CP24.

Crews prepare to board up CF Toronto Eaton Centre Thursday afternoon, *photo by Daisy Lankstead*

On Thursday afternoon, TO Times captured work crews preparing to install plywood sheets along the exterior of CF Toronto Eaton Centre at Yonge and Dundas. Crews worked into the night, boarding up several businesses in the immediate Yonge-Dundas Square area including the Eaton Centre, as well as in the Yonge – Bloor area including the Saks Fifth Avenue department store.

Also, all businesses at the Eaton Centre will be closed from Friday through Sunday due to a “number of large gatherings planned in the city.” The mall made the announcement on their website and says that it will reopen on Monday. It is important to note that only stores with exterior entrances are allowed to be open as per Phase 1 of Ontario the province’s framework for reopening but those stores have closed for safety precautions throughout the weekend.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders weighed in on the planned protests during the City’s news conference on Thursday saying that officers will “have the resources to police what we need to police” and they hope that things will remain peaceful like previous downtown protests.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Screen-Shot-2020-06-05-at-10.11.10-1024x613.png — Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders says “the vast majority of people that have gone to protests in the City of Toronto have been peaceful.”

“Every protest we have had to date has been peaceful so I am not going to speculate on what their intentions are,” said Chief Saunders. “I can tell you that through my frontline officers the vast majority of people that have gone to protests in the City of Toronto have been peaceful. There is a lot of passion, there is a lot of anger and there is a lot of hope and I hope that as Torontonians we continue to do that,” said Chief Saunders.