Occupy Toronto

by Niloufar Sadroddini

On Saturday, October 15, about 2,000 to 3,000 people marched from Bay St. to St. James Park, located at King and Church St. All these protestors were part of a campaign known as “Occupy Toronto”. Now before I go on, it’s important for me to give a gist of what the campaign is all about. When I looked on their website, they stated something along the lines of being an independent branch of the Occupation of Wall Street and that they are a peaceful grassroots movement that are fighting against economic and social inequality.

Basically all these protestors are on the streets of downtown Toronto’s Financial District for the same reason, and that is, equality for all. There are two things that stuck out for me with this campaign: how committed the protestors have been in getting their message across and having their voices heard. For one thing, they have been outside protesting in the streets; rain or shine. A number of protestors didn’t even go home to the comfort of their own beds, instead, opted for camping out at St. James Park.

Another interesting thing about this campaign is that it didn’t only last for the day, but lasted for a week, right up until Saturday, October 22. Although the protestors were less by the end of the week, nonetheless, I think this really shows that the protestors really stood up for what they believed in. The second thing that struck out for me was the constant emphasize of the protest being a peaceful one.

When I looked on their Facebook page or on their official website, I noticed that the words non-violent were capitalized and written in bold, and I really enjoyed seeing this.  This really shows that the organizers of this campaign stood for what they believed in, but they also achieved this in the right way and that is through a peaceful, non-violent movement.

Image courtesy stock.xchng