The first women's memorial march was held in 1991 in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine's Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Unceded Coast Salish Territories. Twenty one years later, the women's memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women.

Occupation is an autonomous tactic that seeks to draw attention to critical social issues. Occupation is just one tactic among many others. It exists because many of us believe that political engagement should not be limited to voting and signing petitions. Many of us believe that Canada's archaic political institutions have become disconnected from reality and corrupted by corporate influence, and that these institutions have intentionally stifled and limited public involvement in the decision making processes that govern our society. Perhaps they were disconnected from the start.