Occupy Vancouver Woman Dies

An Occupy Vancouver tent city resident has died of a suspected drug overdose, and the city's mayor is calling for the encampment to be shut down. A woman in her 20s was found unresponsive in a tent and rushed to a local hospital over the weekend, but died shortly after, reports the Vancouver Sun. "Obviously, really tragic circumstances, this loss of life, clearly demonstrates that the situation in camp has deteriorated. Life safety is paramount," said Mayor Gregor Robertson. "I have directed the city manager to expedite the appropriate steps to end the encampment as soon as possible, with a safe resolution being absolutely critical to that."

But an Occupy Vancouver medic on site said: "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. People overdose in the city all the time, we were arguably there faster than EMT would have been there. The drug issues in the city are what they are and the city has to address them. In the camp I would argue people are safer" than two blocks away in the British Columbia community. (More Occupy Vancouver stories.)