CBC.ca reports, “The death of a young woman at the Occupy Vancouver protests has prompted the city to announce they will clear the camp. ‘I have directed the city manager to expedite the appropriate steps to end the encampment as soon as possible with a safe resolution being absolutely critical to that,’ Mayor Gregor Robertson said Saturday night. Protesters listening to the mayor’s announcement yelled their disagreement, and accused Robertson of using the woman’s death for political purposes. Police said the cause of death has not been determined and would not confirm reports the woman died of a drug overdose. ‘Shutting down the encampment will not alleviate the heroin epidemic that’s going on in this city,’ one of the protesters said. ‘We need people to pay attention to this fact. We need funding, we need help.'”
Do you agree with Vancouver’s decision to clear the Occupy camp?
To vote NO in this CBC.ca on-line poll, please go to http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/11/do-you-agree-with-vancouvers-decision-to-clear-the-occupy-camp.html.
At this hour (10 am ET), the vote is:
Yes – 5,523 votes (56.83 percent)
No – 3,812 votes (39.23 percent)
I’m not sure – 383 votes (3.94 percent)
This past weekend, Postmedia News reported, “A 20-something female died late Saturday afternoon of what authorities are calling a ‘medical emergency’ after she stopped breathing in a tent at the Occupy Vancouver site. The woman, whom Occupy participants were calling ‘Ashley’ was found unresponsive by Occupy’s medical team around 4:30 p.m. and was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. …Chris Shaw, a 61-year-old former Army medic, was the first medic to respond to the woman in question. He said medics were alerted by someone who found the woman not breathing in a tent bordering Howe Street. Shaw said at the time they didn’t know when she stopped breathing. Shaw said he, along with two other Occupy medics, performed CPR on the woman for 10 minutes while they awaited the arrival of an ambulance.”
“Shaw could not confirm whether the woman died of a drug overdose… ‘People (tragically) overdose in the city all the time, we were arguably there faster than EMT would have been there’. …Vancouver Police spokeswoman Janna McGuinness would not confirm whether the death was an overdose and said in a press release that ‘…no evidence has been uncovered at this early stage in the investigation to suggest the death is suspicious.’ …The B.C. Coroner’s service attended the art gallery site and McGuinness said efforts to locate next of kin are underway.”
“Occupy Vancouver participants (are now) discussing how best to reduce harm on a site they say is alcohol and drug free. Around 8 p.m. staff from the InSite supervised injection site came to the art gallery and gave the medical tent nasally-administered doses of Narcan, a drug that can quickly reverse an overdose brought on by opiates like heroin.”
