Photo's from Occupy Montreal: Day 21 - November 5th, 2011

Yesterday I took many photos from around La place du peuple. The tents, the placards, but not so much the people.  For the 2nd day, I was verbally assaulted by a woman who didn't want her photo taken. Here's the thing, I had decided I wasn't taking pictures of people without asking at Place du peuple, unless it was group shots, or of the March.

I was taking a photo of a sign when I heard mumbling behind me. I ignored it and kept taking photo's of signs and tents. Some woman comes up to me and says "I don't like having my picture taken without being asked". I looked at her and said "Ok but I didn't take your photo". She says "I saw you take a photo". I answered "I'm presuming you were the person next to the sign I took a picture of". She re-iterated she didn't want her photo taken. I said again, I was taking photos of the site, not of her. Then she left me alone.

Like seriously girls, if you don't want your photo taken, don't live in a PUBLIC PLACE called "La place du peuple".  Or you see a camera, walk in the other direction. Do you really need to verbally abuse anyone you see with a camera? Are you looking for a fight, for the sake of a fight? How about stopping and thinking about others? The movement isn't about just about YOU! If people are going to document the movement as is, then they need real pictures of real people. The movement needs exposure to expand.

Imagine if I was someone from say CBC or the Gazette or some other media? How does it reflect on the movement. I would think it makes the group look like a bunch of crazies who have no clue why they are there other then to be verbally aggressive. Here's the other thing, I'm NOT the enemy, so why not save all that bitterness and aggression for a worthy cause, or to help out around the camp. It's not like I saw either of these young women at the marches or working to do anything useful! I'm mostly really disappointed that this happened.

I was chatting with someone from Trois-Rivieres on the live stream chat and he said he had the same experience taking photo's in the same area of the Place du Peuple. He also pointed out he's travelled to 4 different occupations, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto and took photo's. Only in Montreal did he get verbally abused.

Sadly at most Occupy locations both homeless and mentally challenged people do end up causing trouble, and this is because society is not taking care of them properly. Unfortunately I'm sure the media will be using it against the Occupy movement.

As for the photos, here are the photo's I took around "La place du peuple". Here are the photo's I took of November 5th, march going through old Montreal and China town, before stopping at Place des Arts and then finally walking back to La Place du Peuple. The Montreal police did a great job of escorting us through our march. Thank-you to the officers involved, they were friendly and supportive :)