'Occupy' protests underway in cities across Canada

CTV National News: Canada braces for protests
Across Canada, preparations are underway in anticipation of mass protests against corporate greed and inequality. Omar Sachedina has more on the expected protests.

CTVNews.ca Staff
Date: Sat. Oct. 15 2011 12:46 PM ET

A month after the movement began in New York, protesters are beginning to "occupy" parts of several Canadian cities on Saturday.

Protests are planned for Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax, Fredericton, Moncton, Guelph, Windsor, Kingston, London, Nanaimo, Courtenay, Duncan, Kelowna, Kamloops and Nelson, B.C., Lethbridge, Regina, Winnipeg and Ottawa, but the largest rally is under way in Toronto.

CTV News Channel reported that Occupy Toronto protesters gathered at King and Bay Sts. but would move on soon "to occupy a downtown park." With crowds spilling onto the streets, transit buses were rerouted around the intersection.

In an interview, protester Kate Heming said the plan is to occupy the park "through the winter." The protesters will live in tents and have made arrangements for portable toilets at St. James Park, she said.

"We hope to see a peaceful protest," said Heming, an independent film producer who was part of the Occupy Wall St. protest in New York City last week.

Maura Drew-Lytle of the Canadian Bankers Association said downtown bank branches and corporate towers have increased security, although "it's peaceful and we're hoping it stays that way."

The grassroots protest movement's vague plans have raised concerns among downtown businesses, especially after last summer's violent and destructive G20 rampage in downtown Toronto.

"The protesters aren't the problem, it's the people who throw rocks are the problem," said Garth Whyte, CEO of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. "What we want is an orderly protest."

Whyte said the G20 protest cost downtown Toronto restaurants more than $80 million and such losses are not covered by insurance. He said businesses had to wait months for compensation from the federal government after the G20 protest.

"We're the meat in the sandwich, we're not Bay St.," he told CTV News Channel.

While the "occupy" movements across Canada and the United States have diverse demands and complaints, they do find common ground on the issues of corporate greed and who runs the governments at all levels.

A spokesperson for the Occupy Edmonton march, Chelsea Taylor said Alberta's oil industry dictates government policy.

"Oil might run your car but it really shouldn't run your government," she said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty have dismissed the movement's complaints, noting that that Canada has weathered the economic crisis better than the U.S.

But the protesters say the gap between rich and poor in Canada is growing faster than in the U.S.

Among other issues, they decry poverty, tar-sands pollution and exploitation of Aboriginal people.

Despite hundreds of arrests, the protests across the U.S. have been largely peaceful, and those involved in planning the Canadian demonstrators are insisting they, too, will be non-violent.

Still, the police and protester violence of the G20 in Toronto in June last year and hockey riot vandalism in Vancouver four months ago are casting shadows over the Occupy Canada planning.

The Occupy Wall Street protests have also spread around the world.

Supporters in Sydney, Australia, waved signs such as "You can't eat money" as they demonstrated on Saturday.

About 200 people in Tokyo joined in protest, and Philippine supporters in Manila marched on the U.S. Embassy to express their support. Hundreds of people also joined peaceful protests in Hong Kong and Seoul.

In Europe, the movement is joining up with anti-austerity protests that have raged for months across the continent.

A car was burned and shop windows were smashed in Rome after a small group of violent protesters broke away from the main demonstration on Saturday.

In Frankfurt, some 5,000 people took to the streets to protest in front of the European Central Bank.

Hundreds marched through the Bosnian city of Sarajevo carrying pictures of Che Guevara and old communist flags that read "Death to capitalism, freedom to the people."

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/201110 ... st-111015/