'Occupy Wall Street' Protests Spread Across US, to Canada
The "Occupy Wall Street" protest, entering its third week in New York City, has now spread to major Canadian cities even as more rallies are planned to take place across the United States.
Protests have been announced for October in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, according to Canadian media and Occupy Together, a website "for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St."
Occupy Together lists on its site dozens of other planned protests in the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and every region of the U.S.
Canadian organizers have asked activists to bring tarps, thermal blankets, sleeping bags, first aid kits and electrical generators to prepare for what could be a weeks-long action, reported the National Post.
"Remember, this is to be non-violent at all costs. Subversive elements would like us to get violent so that they could end the movement, we won't let them. There is safety in numbers. Tell everyone you know," the Canadian group wrote in a statement on its "Occupy Canada" Facebook page.
More than 700 protesters were arrested in New York over the weekend when trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge for allegedly defying police and obstructing traffic.
The original movement, "Occupy Wall Street," is a "leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions," according to the protesters' official website.The group claims it is standing up for the 99 percent of society that is being used by the one percent of society, the rich.
The protests began in New York on Sept. 17, after calls for protest were published online in mid July. The movement was reportedly started in part by Vancouver-based Adbusters Media Foundation, which urged people to occupy Wall Street to protest inherent inequalities in the global economic system.
A group of protesters that organized itself over the Internet began occupying Zuccotti Park, not far from the New York Stock Exchange, in September.
Protesters say the economic problems strangling America are the main reason for their action, and pay special attention to alleged corporate greed and political corruption.
The movement was inspired by "the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and the Spanish acampadas," according to AdBusters.org.
