Hey everyone,
While not traditionally a Canadian event — we don’t celebrate our national day with the same amount of patriotism, reflected in the U.S. motto of “The first duty of a patriot is to defend his country from tyranny (of the one percent) — our national holiday does give us an opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a dissident on Canadian soil.
I wanted to announce that a state-wide call went out across the United States to gather all occupiers together for a national conference in Philly that runs from Saturday to July 4, 2012.
In the U.S., the Occupy movement respective to each city has been occupying the AGMs of large, multinational corporations such as Wal-Mart and holding demonstrations against NATO.
It will be a chance for Occupy Wall Street and all its sister movements to gather at the historic Independence Mall for a series of demonstrations and workshops ending with a large demonstration on American Independence Day.
That said, Occupy Toronto has been spending the General Assemblies (GA) in a series of Visioning Sessions to plot out the future months of Occupy.
Occupy Vancouver has an active environmental working group building momentum to stop tar sands pipelines from being built to the B.C. coast and opposing tar sands tanker traffic.
Occupy Winnipeg has had a series of demonstrations, including a funeral procession to mark Anti-Harper Day on July 1, 2012.
Occupy Ottawa recently had a conference to discuss strategy for that city.
Occupy Toronto has two active groups.
Occupy Gardens is guerilla-planting across Toronto and is still maintaining their garden at Queen’s Park.
Occupy Free Skule holds weekly Sunday school at Alexandria Park (Bathurst Street and Dundas Avenue West) which is chalk full of skill share and discussion workshops.
Occupy Toronto’s GA still meets every Monday at Cloud Gardens (on Richmond Street between Yonge and Bay Street). This is where the visioning sessions are taking place.
Occupy Wall Street is already beginning to prepare for its one-year anniversary, as well.
So while there may be no permanent camps in Canada right now, that does not mean that the Occupy movement in Canada has disappeared.
Keeping checking in with http://www.rabble.ca for more updates in the week ahead.
And I’ll fill you in on the highlights of the U.S.’s Occupy the Fourth of July conference.
Hella Hella Occupy!
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