Believe it or not, I’m not talking about Mayor Boss Hogg and sidekick Donut Dougy. No, I’m talking about Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver. You see, boys ‘n’ girls, Mayor Robertson is starting to feel a little antsy these days, wondering when or how to end Occupy Vancouver.
Robertson said the city wants the protest to wrap up quickly, especially with upcoming Grey Cup, Christmas and Hannukah celebrations planned for the same site at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Ok, my friends at Occupy Vancouver, which would include my virtual partner in crime, here at SSM, Jymn, have a heart! Grey Cup! Christmas! Hannukah! Whatever will that mayor do?
Yanno who this mayor is starting to remind me of? Those rich societal “long suffering” matrons about to host a dinner party of her hubby’s business partners and she’s fretting about how to hide the black sheep son or daughter no one talks about.
It also smacks eerily close to when they were sweeping away homeless folks so the tourists coming to see the Olympics can see the fake pristine-ness of Vancouver.
Uh, Mayor Greg, has it occurred to you that perhaps one of the many reasons why folks are occupying public parks across Canada and around the world is because many families don’t have the means to meet their basic needs, let alone have a Christmas or Hannukah for their families? Let alone over priced Grey cup tickets, so they may perhaps catch a football or be seen on some jumbotron, choking on overpriced hotdogs and beer. Instead of fretting or feeling sorry for yourself, perhaps you should start thinking about why parks are being occupied. Contrary to what you may like to believe, your city isn’t just made up problem-free folks. And doing all to sweep them away in some feverish effort to pretend to the world they don’t exist is futile. Trust me, our former right winged mayor, Pierre Bourque, tried that, when he went condo happy in Montreal. It didn’t end well.
I will say this though, Mayor Greg appears to be learning from Occupy Wall Street at Zuccotti Park, as well as various occupy camps where police have been plowing through like bulls in China shops, that attempts at evicting them by force won’t end well and given the support the movement has been getting, bad publicity will be on him.
However, it looks like he has found another tactic, boys ‘n’ girls. Friends occupying Vancouver, you may want to pay particular attention:
There’s a dialogue with people on the site right now. Police and city staff are checking in, watching very closely to see if there are any breaches of health and safety.”
“If there are real health and safety violations and danger to people on site or the public surrounding, then we will intervene.”
Again, no problem with inspections. Cooperating with authorities is always a good idea. This way, if an eviction notice is served or the cops have been handed an order to evict, the authorities will look worse in the public eye. But, if one notices they get a tad too tedious…well, you get my meaning. In other words, he’s afraid of eviction by stealth force, but what if he plans to have them evicted on some strange technicality?
To all the campers participating in any occupy movement, all the best! And stay safe!
Again, Mr. Mayor, sorry the occupy movement has put a kink your plans, not!