just heard on the news earlier tonight they are ordering protestors out of the park in vancouver?

Couldnt find much (anything) on the net.. tho wikipedia had this to say ..

"On November 18, 2011, Justice Anne MacKenzie granted the city's request to clear out the Occupy tent city by Monday afternoon, including an order for enforcement by police. Protesters will have until 2 p.m. on November 21, 2011, to remove their tents and other structures.[23]"

with the reference to http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/...?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

.. is this it? i dont kow what to think ... other than the obvious.. i hope this isnt now a thought crime

1984 here we come?... please tell me im wrong...

The Dude

They're definitely going to be shutting down Occupy Vancouver. The city's been trying for a while, filing injunctions and seeking the necessary legal paperwork to dismantle the tent city and shut it all down.

so this is what's going to happen - on monday, whoever hasn't broken down and left the gallery grounds will be kicked out by police, who now have legal grounds to arrest any occupy protesters who refuse to leave. A lot of people are already packing up. whatever happens to Occupy Vancouver, it's going to be online or maybe in another city location - but it won't be at the gallery.

honestly, the city took a sleazeball route. It's been cowardly and it seems nobody really wants to face this thing and treat people with respect.

On the other hand, did you read Occupy's list of demands? There was frankly some seriously pie-in-the-sky conspiracy paranoia written in. It was sloppy and at times ridiculous. Without focus they didn't stand a chance against the bureaucratic machine.

that being said... what the fuck? if young people can't live in goddamn miserably cold tents in order to make a point whose time has clearly come - if the system seriously can't withstand such a base necessity then that just sucks.

Very well put.

IMO if you live in vancouver-get out of vancouver. It is at the same time one of the most beauitful and problematic cities in North America.

I live in downtown vancouver. I have lived in the greater vancouver area for my 27 years on this planet. I love BC and the areas directly surrounding the downtown area..but the city itself is a cesspool. I am getting out of here ASAP. Everyone here is struggling, cost of living is a joke, wages are low-if you can even find a job. I hate to say it but I hate living in downtown vancouver. Im not leaving the lowermainland but I will get about a 30 minute drive outside of the city in or near a small beach town where you dont have to struggle every day just to eat and have a roof over you and people actaully want to hire you.

The occupy site being shut down is a joke. There was 2 overdoses on the site. The first guy OD'd on opiates and was actaully saved by the on site medical staff, where otherwise he might have just died in some allyway..The other was a young girl..and sadly she died in her tent all alone..yes it is sad..but this is vancouver..the city with the worst reputation for opiate addiction in porbabily all of North America. The residue of addiction is everywhere here. Seeing people shoot up in alleyways in the downtown east side is an everyday thing and so is people OD'ing. That is reality. So the mayor and VPD jump all over it and want to close the site for "safety" reasons..who's safety? As if ending the occupy is going to solve the cities addiction problems..all it solves is the rage of naive soccer moms who read about some young kid who OD'ing..as if the occupy site is simultaniousily the souce of both the drugs and the driving force behind the abuse of these drugs that are so problematic here. Naive people eat this kind of stuff up-this is why tabloids sell..

Surprise surprise..later the fire cheaf comes in saying the site must be closed becasue the tents are a fire hazard..even though the protestors had adressed that problem and wanted to build communal lodges for the time being, to both make sure noone is OD'ing alone in a single tent and to end the fire hazard. This is about selling a bunk idea to naive people. That is all.

i just wonder what sort of precedence this will set for other occupy movements?

...our rights to peaceful protests, etc..

your thoughts??

Perhaps. But you've also got the most forward thinking city sanctioned needle exchange program and safe injection facility anywhere. More North American cities would be wise to hop on board and do likewise.




I don't know if you've been following the news the last few days, but there have been some very draconian crackdowns happening in both New York and L.A.

It's all so very disparaging. Home of the brave, my ass.

Perhaps. But you've also got the most forward thinking city sanctioned needle exchange program and safe injection facility anywhere. More North American cities would be wise to hop on board and do likewise.
[quote]


Yes we do you are correct..methadone is making big bucks for someone though, and is not a solution. Come here and see for yourself..people just trade heroin addiction for methadone, which is even harder to kick than heroin. I know that the safe injection site here is a step foreward becasue it cuts down on adulterated street opiate use and the spread of disease, along with theft and break ins etc..in that sense it is good. In another sense this is the worst city for opiate use, ibogaine is 100% legal here and people are running a clinic here with amazing sucess and yet there is zero government funding. My best friends mother lives on the streets of east Van due to substance abuse and I am very familiar with what is actaully going on in this city. I am not at all against the idea of the safe injection site..but is has become something far less admirable than it could be.

The safe injection site is becomming an eyesore to be honest, not because it does not solve a few smaller problems, but becasue it never adresses the real issue, and seems to be in large part about big pharma making big bucks instead of getting people off opiates with the best route available.

I am only bringing up the whole issue of vancouver and it's problems in this thread because someone in another post pointed out how rediculous some of the demands were..but I feel like the demands here are going to be different from other cities becasue our situation here is unique..The whole issue of addiction and homelessness and how it is dealt with in this city was brought up as a big topic when I was at the site..it is one of the biggest issues we face in this city, and the Mayor Gregor Robertson is an idiot who took the issue's at hand and tried to exploit them in some deluded attempt to make the occupy site the source of the problem.

After the olympics most of the affordable low income housing was gone to broken promises-pushing more people out onto the strees..they closed down mental hospitals and many of those people are now wandering the steets as well..We have the greaest divide between upper and lower class out of any Canadian city, and I also believe it is now the highest of any North American city.

These problems are not a side topic-they encompass many of the problems people are/were trying to adress at the occupy site(at least when I was there)..of course Gregor Robertson in perfect political fasion wanted to sweap all the problems away under the rug and the occupy site incidences were the perfect opportunity. A sad story of a 23 year old girl OD'ing in a tent and another man OD'ing on opiates (who is most likely only alive becasue of the occupy site)-this stuff sells and this is politics..why any one expects any less I dont know?

I am sure other cities will come up with equally bogus actions to take against the movement..that is what politics is about. I thought it was going this way already..wasnt it bad not too long ago in oakland?..Vancouver is not the first of the sites to be shut down..and I am sure it will not be the last.

I dont have alot of faith in this movement to be honest. It is not that I dont support it or the people who are involved beyond the ones who just want something to yell about..but for something like this to actaully take root and change something for the long term, it is going to have to somehow capture the hearts of people who are well off enough already to not have the need to be out there protesting. It is good that people are going out there and trying to make a difference, but it is a BIG world and change does not happen overnight. I think these people will go back to their daily lives sooner or later and realize that protesting and talking about it is one thing, and living that way is another. The world will change, I am sure of that, but it will be a slower integration of new ideas and ways of doing things by the people who are out there right now trying to make a difference.

I strongly sympathize with the occupy movement. But i don´t think it will bring any changes either.

Hippies against bankers and politicians....hmmm, wich of those two sides has got the money and the power, wich side has acces to the media?

Well it certainly won't be the side that does nothing more than criticize.

I deduce from your logic we should all just pack up,
go home and deal with what ever the man say's?

Real change takes real time.
It takes real dedication.
It certainly doesn't get accomplished from armchair coaching.

How about some positive energy.
Winning or lossing is irrelevant.
It's how you play the game.
At the end of the game all the pieces including
the King and Queen go back into the same box.

Peace.