Protesters prepare to Occupy Winnipeg

A protest against corporate greed and economic inequality that started in New York is going global on Saturday and Winnipeg is among the Canadian cities involved.

The Occupy Wall Street movement isan international uprising against economic inequality and corporate influence on the U.S. federal government. The campaign, which began on Sept. 17 as an occupation of Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, has generated waves that have engulfed dozens of American cities and spread to countries around the world.

On Saturday, it arrives in several Canadian cities, including Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

"We represent the bottom 99 per cent of the population people who aren't millionaires, fighting to pay their bills each month," said Sean Vulliez, whois organizing Occupy Winnipeg.

"We're concerned about abuses of power of people who have a significant amount of money."

The event inWinnipeg is set to start at 10 a.m. at the Manitoba legislature. A march will take place to Portage Avenue and Main Street,at the historical location of commerce in the city.

Following a demonstration at the famous intersection, the protestorswill return to the legislative grounds and set up tents where they will settle in for what Vulliez says "a long term stay."

More than 800 people on theOccupy Winnipeg Facebook pagehave stated their intentionto attend the event.

According to the Occupy Winnipeg group, local issues around economic justice and government accountability include:

• Aboriginal and northern communities' right to adequate housing and water.
• Urban child and family poverty.
• Control of water and natural resources by government for the benefit of all citizens.
• Government accountability to communities without corporate interference.
• Multi-national corporation Veolia's contract negotiations for the City of Winnipeg waste and water services.
• Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with Europe that threatens to have a significant negative effect local contracting.
• Potential dismantling of the Canadian Wheat Board and our further loss of local food security and erosion of family farms.