Dec 05

Occupy Bearspray: Or, why do people think bad things about the VPD?

Occupying in Calgary Is Truly Courageous- fighting cold & nutcases!

I just ran across a story about an incident at Occupy Calgary where some idiot (probably one of Alberta’s many neocon redneck’s) sprayed pepper/bear spray into their Information/Library tent!

Occupy Vancouver had some threats back in October- some highly disturbed individual was trying to round-up a posse to ‘de-occupy’ OV. One of the occupiers met and labelled the guy “most likely to be a lone gunman”. But, with the invention if the Internet, nobody knows you are a dog.

When the threat was brought to my attention, I contacted Sargent Argent and he arranged for an investigation and for extra VPD on-site the night he was threatening to attack us.

A small number of people at Occupy Vancouver have anger with the VPD for our eviction. This seems rather misguided to me because the real culprit is Judge Anne MacKenzie who passed the injunction to have OV removed. The most that the VPD did to us was to politely ask that we leave after she made the ruling. And, of course, they arrested a couple of people who decided to resist the order a week later. (that said, I believe they gave them the option to walk away first…)

So, in reality, I’d estimate that about 99% of VPD (wo)man hours at OV were spent protecting us from the outside world! They helped keep dangerous people out, and did little things like make sure we weren’t hit by traffic while people decided to march and block traffic. Hardly oppressors…

But, still Chief Chu, you haven’t answered any of my questions I mailed, emailed and tweeted to you- not even a quick note to say you’d rather not answer. What’s up with that? Do you not think that this sort of attitude is why some of the 99% are so fixated on 1% of your activities at OV?

Time to engage with us- rebuild trust with the people. You owe it to us, and you owe it to your officers- because they don’t deserve that 99% of their efforts are overshadowed because of your petty politicking…

Dec 04

A list of “dirty hippies” who support the Occupy movement…

Next time you read the SunVince spreading hate against my beloved movement, keep this list of esteemed supporters in mind.

Then, write your MP about Canada’s immoral media ownership laws…

http://rwer.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/300-economists-give-support-for-the-occupy-wall-street-movement

 

Dec 04

#OccupyCondos: With Naomi Klein

I arrived to the site of the demonstration a bit early. My favorite mayoral candidate Saxmaniac and a couple of other demonstrators were visible from across the street, as were Vancouver’s finest, and a reporter from the SunVince. Lisa Johnson from the CBC must have been busy covering some other story- we missed you Lisa!

Construction site managers 'securing' the site from the 'dangerous' occupiers...

A couple of guys who looked to be management of the construction site were there, busy using plastic ties to ‘secure’ the site- you all know how dangerous we Occupiers can be! They found a needle on their side of the fence, and somehow felt it was a good idea that they should throw it out on the sidewalk!

Needle that the developers threw out onto the street- shame!

Continue reading

Dec 01

Occupy Movement: Show Me Your Face

Here’s a short film by Ian MacKenzie entitled “Show Me Your Face”. A beautiful video, and if you have been involved in Occupy Vancouver, you will no doubt recognize many of the faces here…

Nov 30

Missed the Protesting Lawyers, But Did See Some Gloating Lawyers…

Lisa Johnson and other members of the MSM at the press conference...

So, I went to the Law Courts hoping to see the lawyers who were protesting against changes in Legal Aid. I wasn’t the only person to miss it, at least on member of the press expressed dissatisfaction too…

But, I did have the opportunity to catch a press conference for the lawyers who were gloating about their recent success on breaking-up DUI laws. Thought I’d share a clip. Occupy Vancouver’s favorite CBC reporter, Lisa Johnson was there too!

Nov 30

#OccupyHarper: The Prime Minister Is Afraid of us!

One step closer and I'll rip the head off of this adorable kitten!

I just came across a story in a New Westminster paper The Royal City Record entitled New Westminster gets a hush-hush visit from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Folks, it looks like we scared the Prime Minister to the point where he feels the need to hide! This only further confirms my believe that #OccupyHarper was incredibly successful!

So, if I learned one thing from this event it is that the people are smarter and more powerful than the government! But, of course, we already knew that, didn’t we?

Nov 30

Naomi Klein to Join #OccupyCondos tomorrow!

There will be another #OccupyCondos demonstration tomorrow at 2pm- this time, in front of the Pantages theatre (or not, could be another decoy!).

This time the group will be joined by Naomi Klein- international bestselling author of No Logo, and Shock Doctrine. Naomi is well-known for her participation in Occupy Wall Street, and has become as iconic of a writer to the movement as Chris Hedges.

It should be an interesting day, not to be missed…

 

Nov 30

Lawyers Protest Cuts To Legal Aid- Today, 1pm!


Lawyers who provide duty counsel services for those who can’t afford a lawyer will be holding on of their first demonstrations today at the law courts in Vancouver today at 1pm.

They are planning to stop serving all those who cannot obtain their own counsel at the beginning of next year- demanding that legal aid funding is increased back to levels they were in the 1990’s…

The Public Commission on Legal Aid recently wrote a report on this matter. Have a read- if you agree, come join us there today! Personally, I expect this to be one of the most important demonstrations I will attend all year…

Nov 29

An Evening at #OccupySequel138 (The demonstration formerly known as #OccupyPantages…)

So, I dove into the deep-end and went to the #OccupyCondo event against the Pantages theatre. Shortly after I arrived I noticed we were marching the wrong way down the road! It turns out the story on the Pantages was a decoy- the real target was Sequel 138– a new development  labeled “A Downtown Artist and Housing Project”.

A row of blocked buses and cars turning around on Hastings street.

Continue reading

Nov 28

Vancouver is Not a Nuclear Free Zone: Story of the MCP Altona…

MCS Altona Anchored off the coast of North Vancouver

One of the more interesting under-reported stories that happened in Vancouver this year was the story of the MCP Altona. The ship left Vancouver on December 23, 2010 carrying a shipment of 350 tonnes of Uranium Concentrate- more commonly known as ‘yellowcake’. I was shocked when I heard this- thought Vancouver was a nuclear free zone? I’ve been following this story since March- it appears it was only finally resolved last week.

On January 3rd, 2011 the ship was half-way between Hawaii and the Midway Islands when the crew noticed that containers (loaded with yellowcake) had shifted in rough seas, the doors had opened, and two drums spilled out an opened in the ship’s hold. The ship had initially planned to return to Hawaii, but the US authorities refused. So, the ship turned-around and came back to Vancouver for clean-up.

The ship arrived back at the Port of Vancouver for cleanup on January 20th. I then took until March 22nd to complete the clean-up, and the containers were then shipped back to Saskatchewan to the company that owned them- Cameco. The ship was then anchored near Dollarton (North Vancouver) and sat there until last week when it was sold last week to an Indonesian company- it has been renamed “Meratus Palembang”, and has been docked a few meters from Harborview park in North Vancouver.

There wasn’t much coverage of this story in the mainstream media- but I did see a story on Global last week. That said, they missed-out on the renaming of the ship- tricky…

But, not a single story in the media questioned why a ship with 100’s of tonnes of Uranium was in the “Nuclear Free Zone” of Vancouver! Disappointing really- because, had they covered the story properly, it would have been a sensation. Wait, why wouldn’t they want a sensation? Is there something more to the story?

I’ll continue to research, and will keep you updated when I find more information. Until then, if you have any info to share, please let me know!

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