A tragic death happened this weekend.
Occupy Vancouver protesters say they will not be peacefully removed from the lawn of the city's art gallery following the death of a demonstrator.
An official cause of death of the woman in her 20s has not been released, but a worker with the tent city says it was a drug overdose, the second in three days, although the first was not fatal.
The woman, whose name has not been released, was found unresponsive in her tent at around 5 p.m. PT on Saturday and taken to hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. There was nothing to indicate her death was suspicious, police said.
No matter that Vancouver has had a very bad track record dealing with those with addictions. No matter that the average month in Vancouver sees many overdose deaths. The city wants the occupiers to leave, and this is going to be the excuse they will use.
On the one hand it illuminates a massive problem. On the other, it provides "cover" to the authoritays and their own agenda.
Like the occupy movement in the US, the homeless and other souls who are on the streets are going to stay in the encampments. There is food and camaraderie. It probably feels much safer than wandering places like the DES.
If the city succeeds in moving the occupiers out, it will only mean that the next OD may just be somewhere else. Out of sight. Out of mind.
The occupation medics, may have in fact been responsible for one life that was saved last Thursday.
(Chris Shaw, a 61-year-old former Army medic)
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.
"We did what we could. As a first responder you start CPR regardless and carry on until you are told by a higher medical authority to cease," Shaw said. "We saved one person, unfortunately we were unable to save this other one."
Shaw could not confirm whether the woman died of a drug overdose, but did say in some ways the situation mimicked last Thursday's medical emergency where a man overdosed, but was saved by Occupy medics.
"I don't want to see the media portray this as a reason to shut down the camp because of safety issues. You had medics on the scene as fast as possible," Shaw said. "People overdose in the city all the time, we were arguably there faster than EMT would have been there.
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