Occupy Vancouver's tent village is on the move, but a member of the protest camp's communications committee said it is not going next door.
B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie granted City of Vancouver's injunction application Friday, allowing Vancouver Police, RCMP and other police to arrest anyone who disrupts with city staff from removing tents and structures after the 2 p.m. Monday deadline.
Occupy Vancouver communications committee member Eric Hamilton-Smith told the Courier after a Monday morning news conference beside the Robson Square ice rink that the camp on the north plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery would not reappear under the domes of the provincial government complex.
"People would be angry at us for preventing use of the ice rink," Hamilton-Smith said.
The ice rink reopens Dec. 1, three days before the Rogers Santa Claus Parade which was rerouted to avoid VAG because of the anti-corporate greed protest camp. The plaza is not a venue for the Nov. 24-27 Grey Cup Festival and Saturday's parade is primarily on Burrard Street.
"We were in touch with people at the Grey Cup and we were intending on having a Grey Cup celebration, people were calling it Occupy the Cup," Hamilton-Smith said. "We still may do that. I haven't heard any movement to protest the Grey Cup from anybody at Occupy. I can't speak for everyone."
Among the festival sponsors is Scotiabank, a target of criticism by northern B.C. aboriginal tribes because the bank finances controversial Northern Gateway Pipelines proponent Enbridge.
Rental moving trucks on the plaza were packed with items Monday as several people hurried to comply with the court order. Wendy Pedersen of the Carnegie Community Action Project was gathering a list of homeless campers to help them seek emergency housing.
Hamilton-Smith offered no hints about the next step. Fellow Occupier Suresh Fernando said the movement could reappear in parks, buildings or even on SkyTrain, but would also remain intact via social media.
Monday's cold, weather under dim November skies was markedly different from the Oct. 15 rally on the so-called international day of rage when 5,000 people showed up under mid-autumn sun.
City hall sought the court's backing to enforce city bylaws after the Nov. 5 death of 23-year-old Ashlie Gough of a heroin and cocaine overdose. That happened two days after an Arizona man survived a heroin overdose and two days before a skirmish erupted when police and firefighters attempted to douse a fire in an oil barrel considered sacred by aboriginal elders at the camp. Two police officers claimed to be bitten, but nobody was arrested.
Fernando was critical of the media for paying too much attention to those incidents instead of the issues of economic inequality raised by the movement.
"A bunch of random people who all came together on Oct. 15 to take up the space at the art gallery, a lot of beautiful and powerful things came of that," said Fernando. "What would make it such that random strangers would come together and build a community? What would motivate us to do that? That is a much more interesting story."
Since Oct. 15, the Occupy Wall Street-inspired group held various marches through downtown Vancouver against banks, mining and oil companies, salmon farming and the high cost of housing. Occupy Vancouver did issue two proclamations: on the need for social housing and space for the homeless in the Olympic Village and another on municipal electoral financing reform to end the influence of real estate developers at city hall.
