When Lauren Whalen arrived at Occupy Ottawa’s general assembly Oct. 15, she said she was sorely disappointed.
No more than 15 people had shown up. But all that changed when she turned around 15 minutes later and saw not a handful of protesters, but a rapidly swelling crowd behind her.
“We were like, ‘Oh God, this is going to be horrible,’ ” said Whalen, a third-year human rights student at Carleton. “And then we went to the outside of the park and we looked back and there were hundreds of people there. That was really cool. Just all the people coming together at once . . . It just felt really good.”
Whalen was just one of about 500 protesters who showed up at the general assembly to discuss where the protesters would march and what space they would occupy, among other things.
She ended up carrying a big sign reading “Occupy / Occupons Ottawa” with three others for the next four hours.
Because she has to work so often, Whalen hadn’t been to a protest since she attended one of the Drop Fees campaigns two years ago.
However, she said she felt strongly enough about the Occupy Ottawa movement to go downtown last weekend.
“Personally, I chose to go to Occupy Ottawa in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement,” Whalen said. “We’re part of the 99 per cent and I feel like the 1 per cent should be held accountable for what happened on Wall Street and what happened financially to the United States.”
But she was quick to point out that a lot of people went for totally different reasons. There were several groups of people who went to the event to gain support for their own causes.
“Some people were there because they lost their jobs, or they lost their retirement savings, or they want more unions,” she said. “That’s the beauty of it. You could be there for various reasons, but the point of it being that we are the 99 per cent and here’s all the things [we think are] wrong.”
Whalen said she was also personally motivated by the fact that tuition fees are so high.
Although she’s taking five classes, she also works 30 to 35 hours a week at a grocery store to pay for school.
Whalen said she plans to keep supporting Occupy Ottawa, so her next goal is to camp overnight in Confederation Park. Even though it may mean booking more time off work, she said she’s willing to do that because she felt so involved with the movement.
She recalled her favourite moment of the day.
“There was one kid that held a sign that said, ‘I am here because you are here for my future,’ ” Whalen said. “I thought that was so sweet . . . I really felt like I was a part of it. I loved the whole experience.”
