After Ontario Coalition Against Poverty protesters stormed a meeting of city council’s budget committee Thursday morning, committee vice-chair Doug Ford told a confrontational protester to “get a job” — echoing comments his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, made to OCAP protesters during similar City Hall demonstrations in 2002 and 2005.

The radio station 680 News captured Doug Ford’s comment on tape. Asked about it during the budget committee’s lunch break, Ford said, “I didn’t say ‘Get a job,’ not at all. Show me on tape when I said that.” Told that reporters had listened to the tape, he did not respond; a security guard then escorted him out of the committee room.

When OCAP protesters stormed a council meeting in 2005, then-councillor Rob Ford said, “I’m working. Why don’t you get a job?”

In 2002, he told an OCAP protester, “Do you have a job, sir? I’ll give you a newspaper to find a job, like everyone else has to do between 9 and 5.”

The Star did not witness the exchange between the protester and Doug Ford, which occurred near Ford’s seat after other members of the committee left the room amid shouting by protesters. It is not clear what immediately preceded it.

Two protesters, a 35-year-old woman and a 29-year-old man, were arrested. The man is accused of assaulting a police officer, who suffered only minor leg injuries and did not require medical treatment.

After the two arrests, some of the 40-plus protesters present called police officers “pigs,” “rapists” and “Nazis.” More than 15 officers lined the wall beside the entrance to councillors’ office area.

Standing on a hallway desk, OCAP leader John Clarke denounced council’s proposed cuts to bus routes and Mayor Ford’s privatization plans, saying Ford was advocating a “re-run of the Mike Harris agenda.”

Other protesters criticized federal cuts to immigration settlement services — council voted not to write a letter to the federal government protesting those cuts — and an alleged shortage of beds in homeless shelters. City spokesperson Rob Andrusevich said no such shortage exists.

“This year they’re only delivering the first blow,” Clarke said. “Much worse is to come. The vision that Ford has of this city is a police force and a few privatized services operated by non-unionized cheap labour. If we’re gonna stop that, we better fight . . . if you don’t fight back, they will crush you.”

“Cut police, not services,” protesters chanted following Clarke’s speech.

The police have indeed proposed cuts to satisfy Ford’s desire for austerity. Chief Bill Blair plans to delay the replacement of all officers who leave the force this year, perhaps 200 to 220.

The budget committee halted its meeting at the sound of protesters’ drums nearing City Hall’s Committee Room 1. Committee members were berated by protesters as they filed out of the room.

The protest included members of groups other than OCAP, including No One Is Illegal Toronto.

“Many of us work in communities where there's extreme poverty and we've seen nothing from this council or this budget committee that's going to address it,” said veteran OCAP activist Gaetan Heroux.

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Budget committee chair Mike Del Grande said the protest was unproductive. “We've had four budget meetings for people to make their position known. This group had every opportunity, like every other group, like every other citizen, to state their case. This type of disruptive activity really doesn't advance anyone's cause,” he said.

The meeting resumed about an hour after the recess was called.

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