David Sylvestre has been camping out in Memorial Park for about three weeks now as part of the Occupy Sudbury protest.
He said the protest is a “physical representation of the failure of our society.”
“Just because we're comfortable today doesn't mean we're going to continue to be comfortable,” Sylvestre said. “The systems are not sustainable.”
He was one of about 30 people who brought the Occupy Sudbury protest to the Paris Street bridge Nov. 12. The group stood on the sidewalks on both sides of the bridge, holding signs, and garnering the occasional honk from vehicles passing by.
Sylvestre said there are many injustices in the world related to “people giving the almighty dollar all the power.”
For example, pharmaceutical companies would never cure themselves out of business because they must make money for their shareholders, he said.
“If they do not make the most amount of money possible, they can be held accountable in our system,” Sylvestre said. “It's called breach of trust.”
He said he's also concerned that we no longer have a “sustainable food supply.” Nutrients such as iron are being depleted from the soil, robbing food of its nutrition, Sylvestre said.
David Sylvestre, who has been camping out in Memorial Park for about three weeks as part of the Occupy Sudbury protest, was one of about 30 people to take part in a demonstration on the Paris Street bridge Oct. 12. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
Laurentian University sociology professor Gary Kinsman, who also attended the protest, said the Occupy movement has “really captured the imagination of the world.”
“I'm really glad its happening here in Sudbury,” he said. “I think they're causing lots of discussion about how .... rich people are getting wealthier and wealthier, and poor people are getting poorer and poorer. The economic disparities are just growing.”
The movement has “created a space” where people can discuss alternatives to the status quo, Kinsman said.
For example, here in Sudbury, the protesters are encountering a lot of homeless people in Memorial Park, which leads them to think about how “abysmal” social assistance and housing policies need to be changed.
Some Occupy camps in Canadian cities, including London, Ont., have recently been broken up by police. Kinsman said he thinks this is “completely unjustified.”
“This is a protest movement that has political rights,” he said.
“There's freedom of speech and freedom of association, I thought, in this country under the charter. I hope municipal authorities and other authorities will let the occupy movements continue to exist where they do.
“There hasn't been the type of overt police oppression and violence in Canada yet that we've seen in the States, and I certainly hope it doesn't happen here.”
Tamara Gagnon, who also took part in the protest, said she participated because she's “part of the 99 per cent ... just like everybody else.”
“We are the 99 per cent” is the slogan associated with the Occupy movement. It is a reference to the difference in wealth between the top one per cent and the remaining citizens.
“I'm here for the environment, because I think environmental issues are key,” Gagnon, the program director at ReThink Green, said. “I'm also concerned about peak oil, the economy, everything. I think everything is interconnected.”
Posted by Heidi Ulrichsen
