Andrew,
I've only had one such incident while using a tripod in Vancouver.
Quite a while ago (early nineties) while photographing a glass tower type bank (I think it was one of the gold coloured ones kitty corner to the Marine building near the foot of Burrard St in downtown Vancouver) I was told by a security guard to relocate across the street. I asked him why and he told me that the bank was private property and that management had a no photography rule out of security for bank operations. I produced my Canadian University Press ID card and argued that this building was in plain sight, in the public interest, and that I was not using any secret see through technology to spy on the goings-on of the bank. I even offered for him to look through the view finder (35mm) at what I was hoping to photograph. I had pointed my camera up at the angles of gold glass. But to no avail. He appreciated the fact that it was an "artsy" building and was polite, but firm in his stance. He would not let me photograph from their plaza area. He asked me that if I had taken any frames he would be required to confiscate my film. I left without taking one frame. It's OK because I used the film I would have shot that building with and made a better exposure of the Waterfront hotel instead :-).
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