They must have eaten all the bannock. I didn’t see a slab in sight. But then it’s all about me isn’t it?
I lived in a tent city on the front lawn of The Vancouver Art Gallery back in the 90’s. My friend Paul helped me set up my tent as I excitedly got to know the rest of the campers. We were prepared to save the world. I think it was an environmental protest of some kind. I can’t remember. I was only excited to live in a tent in the middle of the city, rent free, and hit on the eco-feminists.
These folks seem to have less selfish motives.
I did a quick drive-by glance to see if, indeed, there was a tent occupation. I found 20 plus campers and supporters with 7 tents and pile of Tim Horton’s goodies. I asked around to see if anyone wanted to talk to The Prairie Dog. Young Piper Stretten, 11 from Arcola School agreed to a quick interview:
You camped overnight? “I did.”
What are you protesting? “The 99% and what is going on right now. And the whole conflict with the Government of Canada and practically the world’s governments are in a clash of money and everything. And our economy isn’t working out that well. But it’s just a start, yeah.”
How long do you plan on camping out? Don’t you have school tomorrow? “Yeah so I can’t really camp out. I camped out yesterday. It was fun. It was a good experience to camp out in the in the middle of the city downtown. And yeah, there was a lot of people here last night. It kind of died down when the rain happened in the afternoon. We are expecting more people tonight. Yeah, we are waiting for the best to happen. Everybody’s been asking when are we going to take down the tents. We are saying when the conflicts stop. If we have to stay here for the rest of our lives then we will.”
It’ll be interesting to see how long they will be allowed to occupy Regina. How long before the good-looking sweet-smelling office workers find them an eyesore? Or will they drop off more doughnuts for the cause?
