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After a time, police began selecting particular members of the crowd for arrest. At around 8 p.m., the soaked and shivering detainees began volunteering to be arrested so they could get out of the rain.

Eventually there were two large groups of people, one in cuffs, each person with an officer next to them; and a second in a large group hemmed in by dozens of officers in full riot gear. Most of the people were in shorts or pants and T-shirts and tank tops.

“I’m freezing cold. We have no food, no water, no shelter and I’ve had to pee for the last five hours,” Sammy Katz, a man detained in the intersection, told CP24 by phone from inside the corral.

Another detainee said he had a panic attack and was allowed to leave.

At about 9 p.m., a man named Roop left the secured zone and crossed a line of police bikes north of the secure zone on Spadina.

He said he was released because he was a type 2 diabetic and said he needed medical care.

“I’ve been in there the whole time. I’ve never seen something like this before. People are freezing and soaking wet. I know they are saying we should have left, but not everyone heard them say that.”

Also inside were three legal monitors with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Ms. Des Rosiers said she had lost contact with the monitors and presumed they were arrested.

“It’s outrageous,” she said, calling the police action an infringement of constitutional rights and “abusive.”

“I’ve been talking to them for the last hour and a half. They wanted to leave. We told them to leave, but they could not leave.”