The Media Co-op
Local Independent News
Occupy Ottawa to stay despite finding needles on the camps perimeters.
About 400 used needles were found near Occupy Ottawa camp site
The campers at Occupy Ottawa were surprised to find 400 – 500 used injection needles that were scattered around the camping site in Confederation Park, late last night.
"We regularly monitor the park for suspicious activity, and we have determined that this was a deliberate attack against the Occupation," said Mitchell Broughton, in a statement.
Broughton is an Occupy Ottawa protester who discovered one of the needles.
"It would be absurd to consider this to be the result of massive drug use. This is clearly an attempt to discredit us," he added.
Ottawa police say they received calls from Confederation Park about discarded needles but would not confirm who the caller was.
The City of Ottawa denied knowing anything about the needles when asked if they could pose a safety risk.
However, this did not shake the protestors’ confidence, as they plan to stay despite this incident.
“We plan to stay through the winter, [and expand] to create room for more people” said a protestor who identifies as Salvador Dali Lama.
To this time, there has not been any word on plans to evict the protesters. Last night, London’s Occupy camp was the first to be evicted forcefully by the Police.
The Mayors of Vancouver, Victoria and Quebec City also told Occupy protestors to leave their camps. The mayor of Montreal, on the other hand, publicly declared his support to Occupons Montreal and promised to ensure the camp’s safety.
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Ottawa
Member since February 2011
About:
Crystel is an Ottawa based writer and organizer. She has been active in the climate justice movement for 6 years as a founding member of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition – Ottawa chapter, Climate Justice Ottawa and the Logistics Coordinator of PowerShift Canada 2012. Crystel has also worked for Leadnow.ca as a Local Action Coordinator and served as a board member of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group OPIRG - Ottawa for 3 years. She is also a feminist and an anti-war activist and has been actively trying to connect with other movements and learn about the interlinkages and similarities. Crystel is a wannabe journalist; she is on the editorial board of the local paper The Leveller and a founding member of the Ottawa Working Group of the Media Co-op. She has been recently elected as the Contributors' representative to the National Media Co-op board. Currently, Crystel is covering the UN Climate negotiations COP18 in Doha Qatar, for the Media Co-op. In her free time, she enjoys reading, vegetarian cooking, gardening, biking, sewing, knitting and writing/ blogging.
Comments
OCCUPY AND PLANTED NEEDLES
Submitted by Co-operative (not verified) on Fri, 11/11/2011 - 14:24.
Why doesn't it surprise me that the needles were very likely planted there by guess who!! Mitchell Broughton is absolutely spot on! Happy to hear that the Montreal Mayor has taken a very different stand than the Victoria, Quebec City, Vancouver. I was at the Occupy Victoria Centennial Square site a few times but when I read the newspapers I couldn't believe we were talking about the same place!! You bet there is "fear mongering by police" and many business communities who only care about their Ca-Ching!! It is quite disgusting. We ought to boycott those businesses.