photos and article by Pete Rockwell
Last night (Nov 24) Kristen Woodruff said in an e-mail: "We are sleeping outside tonight because we prefer to take care of ourselves. Tonight we have nowhere to go. Call us homeless or call us monks who have lost their monastery--we have no place to go. Proponents of the view that everything can and should be either bought or sold have hoarded up nearly every last corner of this god-given planet, such that any notion of a "commons"--a free place for the public to go--has all but disappeared. The marketplace has usurped the commons. And the City no longer serves the people because it has to cater to the interests of the marketplace. The Chamber of Commerce has set up shop on the Commons. This is not new news and it is not a situation peculiar to Victoria. It is a world-wide situation, only I must address it here where I am in this particular situation (which expresses the general global trend for Business to buy up every last corner of Planet Earth only to sell it back to us at a price few of us can afford.) Make no mistake about it, I am homeless because the world is homeless."
This morning (Nov 25), at 7am, I saw David Johnston, Kristen Woodruff, and Jonathan LeDrew encamped under the xmas bedecked sequoia at Centennial Square. At 7:44 Officer Jamie Pierce appeared suddenly and dismantled thier tent, saying they would be arrested if they didn't leave. Words were exchanged as to the legality of officer Pierce's actions. Mr. Johnston re-erected the tent. Mr. Pierce left. The morning wore on. Somebody said that the secuirity guar
d managing the public bathrooms (a bizzarre ticket booth/border crossing structure occupies the entrance to the bathrooms) wouldn't let him use the facilities. Apparently the security guard said; "It's closed to you guys..........We don't want you in there". When I went to see about this the secuirity guard said the bathrooms were closed for cleaning. When I questioned this he said I was a "troublemaker" and stuck his tongue out at me. Usually it's my girlfriend's grand daughter that does that. She's seven.When I asked David Johnston why he was there, he replied; " I've come back because the city has no (legal) leg to stand on and I'm going to have a tent up after seven o'clock".
