Province to seek injunction against Robson Square Occupiers

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Premier Christy Clark says the province will seek an injunction Tuesday morning against some Occupy Vancouver protesters who have moved tents and structures to the Robson Square side of the Art Gallery.

The camp was set up at Robson Square on the day of the protesters’ court-ordered deadline to pack up all tents and structures on the Georgia Street side of the Art Gallery.

Clark says the province’s lawyers will spend all night working on the case, and that the remaining protesters are “ignoring the spirit of the court ruling.”

“I think they’re undermining whatever cause it was they were promoting in the first place, and it’s just, it’s time to pack up and leave, and leave these public spaces for the public,” she says.

“The point that they were originally making, when it was a larger group… was one that, actually, I found some sympathy with. They wanted to grow the middle class, they want to shrink the gap between rich and poor. I totally support that. That’s why I went to Asia, was to try and find jobs for British Columbians that we could bring home by opening sawmills and mines and things that provide a good, middle class income.

“But you know what? I think the people that were there for that cause have gone, and what we’re left with now is a group that’s testing the limits of public tolerance.”

The original encampment on the Georgia Street side of the Art Gallery was peacefully disassembled by protesters in the pouring rain earlier in the day.

One person was arrested near the relocated camp but police aren’t yet giving details.

Most protesters left the site with bags over their shoulders or were picked up by family.

While the site where the encampment began on Oct. 15 is land leased by the city, Robson Square is provincially owned, so it is unclear whether bylaws that caused the city to seek an injunction to remove the camp will apply there.

The Occupiers began marching downtown, disrupting traffic, as soon as the BC Supreme Court’s 2 p.m. deadline to leave the Georgia Street side passed.

David Eby with the BC Civil Liberties Association was there with a team of self-proclaimed legal observers.

“We’re just watching police, making sure they act responsibly and in a patient way and de-escalate instead of escalate,” he explained.

“We’ve seen a small number of police officers, not in riot gear which I’m glad to see, and a large number of people taking things down, and I think if the police came in at this stage they’d just be interfering with the disassembly going on.”

All that’s left at the original encampment is a mess of mud and some left over debris that the city says will be cleared in the coming days.

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