The Regina Leader Post reports, “Most demonstrators in Regina have no plans to move – even if it means facing the brutal weather. …Thirty tents are still set up at City Square plaza in Victoria Park. …Protester Stella Rogers said a challenge is finding a place to go to the bathroom at night because the surrounding buildings are closed. On Thursday, the Regina Chapter of the Council of Canadians donated portable toilets to the protesters for the next month.”
In a media release, Regina chapter activist Jim Elliott says, “The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to affirm ‘the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights’. And this is how we are providing that right to the occupiers in Regina. For the next month and perhaps longer, there will be that service on the site.”
On October 16, CBC Radio reported, “a group has donated three portable washrooms to Occupy Vancouver”. Those portable washrooms were provided by the Council of Canadians, while their maintenance is funded by the Canadian Auto Workers. The Council of Canadians has also made funding available to Occupy London which has identified portable toilets and a wash station as a need. As in Regina, the washroom facilities at Victoria Park (adjacent to City Hall) in London are open during the day, but locked overnight.
This past August, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, released her report on the state of these rights in the United States. Her report said, “All municipalities (should) provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation to homeless people, including through ensuring the opening and regular maintenance and upkeep of public restrooms, as well as availability of public water fountains, including during the night.”
