Miserable weather for camping and public apathy appears to be taking a toll on the "occupy" movement in Canada, even as protesters in Toronto took to the streets for a march and rally at City Hall on Saturday. Approximately 1,000 occupy protesters marched to Toronto's City Hall just after 2 p.m. on Saturday to protest the cost-cutting measures taken by the administration of Mayor Rob Ford. The movement had dwindled earlier in the week to a rag-tag group of people living in dozens of tents and makeshift shelters in downtown St. James Park. During a demonstration in the financial district at Bay and King Streets on Tuesday, for example, police easily outnumbered the three protesters. On the west coast, heavy rains turned Occupy Vancouver's cluster of tents on the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery into a muddy quagmire this week. And the protest has provoked angry reaction from some locals, reported CTV News Vancouver Bureau Chief Sarah Galashan. "People have a right to protest," said Charles Gauthier, executive director of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association. "But this is no longer a protest. This is a campground." According to one observer, inclement weather isn't the only reason for the dwindling of the movement that began more than a month ago with Occupy Wall Street in New York. "Now that it's dragging on, it's my sense that the appetite in the court of public opinion is dropping," Carleton University business professor Ian Lee told CTV News. "I think most Canadians know deep in their bones that we are not experiencing what they're experiencing in some of the emerging markets and, of course, in southern Europe," he added. In Calgary, the occupy protest has broken into two, with camps being set up on St. Patrick's Island and Olympic Plaza in the downtown. Mayor Naheed Nenshi's warning that the tents must come down eventually has registered with the island protesters who have promised to leave by Oct. 31. They also say they have abandoned their protest against corporate greed in favour of advocating for the homeless. While Canada's protest seems to be petering out in the face of cooler temperatures and wet weather, the movement around the world is trying to settle in for the long haul, despite negative reactions from city officials, police and residents: With files from The Associated Press
