Some say they are going to stay until their voices are heard and change is achieved.
How long that will be exactly is anyone’s guess.
About 4,000 people took part in the Occupy Vancouver protest on Saturday, with a few thousand more taking part in similar protests in Victoria, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Kamloops, and Nelson, to name a few.
As Saturday night wore on most of the crowds in Vancouver dispersed, but a few hundred dedicated people stayed overnight despite the chilly temperatures, and expect them to be there on Monday as well.
In Victoria there was a rumour being circulated that police would move in to forcibly evict protesters, but so far police have said they are not enforcing the city’s no camping ban, as there are other issues to consider.
Participants in Vancouver are hoping to form a plan of action to further the protest in the city, and a meeting was held at noon on Sunday to try and put movement on the agenda.
“First meeting was horrible, we’re getting better,” said organizer Travis McCrea.
Police, security, and City workers are monitoring the group around the clock, but say as long as it remains peaceful and under control then they do not intend to move them along any time soon.
“We just want to keep it peaceful,” said Skylin Badger, an 18-year-old student from Dawson Creek.
“I’m trying to get some workshops going… something on acrobatic yoga, I can also teach fire spinning…”
“As a group we still don’t know what we want, but I see it as an exercise in democracy,” said Mountain Lion, 23 from Victoria (he said it was his real name). “We’re trying to reach a consensus and I think it’s better than stamping a piece of paper once every few years.”
The group plans to hold daily meetings at noon and at 7 p.m. to plan the future of the Occupy Vancouver protest.
The protesters, who argue that North America’s wealthiest one-per-cent are profiting from the economic crisis, first gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery Saturday morning, listened to speeches, walked through the downtown streets for about two hours, and then returned to the gallery lawn later in the afternoon for more speeches.
“I’m here because I’m dissatisfied,” said Jaimie Kendal-Ward, a University of B.C. student, marching in front of Canada Place.
“This is the kind of the one that you go to and say ‘No.’ When I watch TV, I’m not pleased and when I hear about the results of elections and of government policies, I’m not ecstatic.”
Kendal-Ward, an unemployed bike mechanic, added: “I don’t exactly agree with how government works. I think it can be better.”
Vancouver police department spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said at its mid-day height on Saturday the crowd numbered up to 4,000 people.
“It grew fairly quickly around lunchtime from a few hundred to a few thousand,” McGuinness said. “No problems though, it’s largely families and a diverse crowd.”
The march through the downtown core at times mimicked the leaderless, loosely-organized Occupy Vancouver organizing group, with the procession splintering into separate marches, tying up traffic.
“We’ve had more than half a dozen marches and they’re often happening at the same time in different locations,” said McGuinness. “We know it caused some disruption for motorists and we’re grateful for their patience as this all takes place today.
Protesters had erected about 20 tents by mid-day with the intention of indefinitely occupying the VAG’s lawn. Delta resident Jeff Webster, emerging from his tent, said he would remain “for as long as it goes. They say it could go till Dec. 12. People aren’t happy with the government.”
Webster said that government has mishandled money. “I mean they built that stupid SkyTrain, people are homeless, they should be building homeless housing. They’re lining their pockets with money and I don’t like it.”
The event was festive with its participants at one point joining in a mass group-hug. They cheered when one speaker, Suresh Fernando, told them “we are in the midst of a revolution. Not since the ‘60s has the western hemisphere been occupied in this fashion. This is an historic moment. For some of you, this will be the first day of the rest of your life.”
Amid the din of speeches and drumming, about 20 people, mostly Buddhists, sat in one corner of the lawn and meditated in silence. “This is called ‘Occupy the Present Moment,’” said Brian Williams, a meditation instructor and therapist in Vancouver. “It’s a meditation group bringing mindfulness and kindness to what people are doing here today. And I think this protest is timely and it’s something that is happening globally.”
Event speakers had a wide-range of grievances:
* Political blogger Laila Yuile railed against the B.C. government for selling B.C. Rail, bringing in the HST and using private-public partnerships to finance infrastructure projects. She said the people benefiting from the B.C. Liberals’ “corporate-driven agenda” are “not you, not me and not any other average person.”
* David Pacheco, president of CUPE Local 4094, spoke to the crowd about his members, Air Canada flight attendants whose right to strike was curtailed earlier this week by the federal government.”We deserve respect, but this government is not showing us respect.” Pacheco called the Conservative government’s approach to Air Canada contract talks “an overt campaign to take workers rights away.”
* Veteran environmental protester Betty Krawczyk reminded the crowd of the “missing women” of the Downtown Eastside and then called for protection of “the old-growth forests.”
Don Macdonald, 63, carried a banner that said, “The rich are people too: greedy, mean, ignorant people.”
Macdonald, who lives in a Vancouver SRO hotel, said, “I’m really upset the way the corporations and the wealthy have seemed to have grabbed everything in this country. I don’t like the direction we’re going in.
“I remember the ‘60s when this was one of the most progressive countries in the world. We seem to be becoming one of the most regressive.”
Chris Shaw, one of the leading opponents of the 2010 Olympics, manned the protester’s first aid tent.
He said the occupation of the lawn could extend for weeks. “I think it’s going to go until New Year’s, that’s what some people are saying.”
Michael Stamoulis, owner of Scoozis restaurant on Howe Street, watched the marchers, and said: “It’s interesting. I guess this is what is going on all over the planet. People want to demonstrate and are demanding this. As long as it’s not violent, it’s very good. Everyone has the right to their own opinion. But I don’t agree with them 100 per cent.”
NDP leader Adrian Dix turned up at the event, saying that British Columbians have as much reason as the protesters on Wall Street to be outraged over how the economic system has benefited the economic elites. “Look, the Conference Board of Canada recently did a report that said inequality is growing faster in Canada than the United States,” said Dix, in an interview. “And I think that indicates what we know, which is that the gulf between the rich and poor, and the pressure on the middle class is growing in our province.”
Dix said that when he went to university tuition fees were affordable but now “students have a very difficult time going.”
The first hour and a half of the Occupy Vancouver protest rally were spent setting up the ground rules for communication.
Though the speakers had the use of a functioning PA system, they chose to talk in short sentences, after which the entire crowd repeated the same sentence so everybody could hear. This technique, called the “People’s Mike,” is used at many of the Occupy protests around the globe. But the endless repetition by the crowd of everything said over the electric microphone eventually took on an almost Monty Pythonesque quality.
At one point someone in the crowd expressed the frustration over the slow pace of dialogue. “I’m hearing a lot of people who are comfortable only using the regular microphone and we’ve been here an hour and 15 minutes and have only reached an agreement on how to reach an agreement,” one person said.
Several members of the labour movement joined the protest at about 11 o’clock and appeared somewhat surprised by the endless wrangling about how to conduct the rally.
“I’ve never seen a demo like this before and it may be a while before I ever see another one like it,” said BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair, with a smile.
“But there’s a lot of people here and they’re trying to work it through – and fair enough. But it’s a different way of running a demonstration, for sure.”
Sinclair predicted that, “people will ultimately get tired of this but it is moving forward.”
Mark Hadath, a mental health councillor from Vancouver, said the initial wrangling over procedures was tiring but necessary. “I think sometimes we’re wondering how to go about things but that is how democracy works. It takes patience figuring out how we’re going to go about business, but overall I think it’s fantastic.”
Hadath, who spoke to the crowd about the need for taxation on financial transactions, said he won’t be among those sleeping overnight.
“I can’t live here because I do have a job and a girlfriend and a dog. But I’ll try to make it here as much as I can.”
About the wide-range of grievances being voiced by speakers on the stage, B.C. Fed president Sinclair said: “This is a wide tent because there is a wide group of people upset with the government and what is happening with capitalism in today’s world. And so you are see a real mixture: seniors, a lot of young people, and you see them coming together here and around the world.
“And hopefully the message is getting through to the top of the tower there that the system they made isn’t working for the rest of us anymore.”
Several organizations rallying against things as disparate as food security and foreign policy had set up tents promoting their causes and placards at the event ranged from “Save the Wheat Board” to “Say no to Veal.” The smell of marijuana was notably absent and people of all ages were present.
” Look around – this isn’t a bunch of stinky hippies, this is everybody,” said Laurent Munier. “Every walk of life.”
“This city has never looked so beautiful,” one speaker said as the day began.
The crowd at the Art gallery dwindled to a few hundred by 5 p.m.
People listened to rappers singing songs with left-wing lyrics, while others played hacky sack on streets closed by police to car traffic, including Georgia Street, between Howe and Hornby, and Howe between Georgia and Robson Street.
-with a file from Medha
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