Today is the 29th day since protesters began to gather in lower Manhattan to speak out against the corporatization of America, kicking off the Occupy Wall Street movement. The protest has grown and spread considerably in the weeks since, with hundreds of cities across the U.S. and the world hosting demonstrations. This weekend, Occupy is coming to Canada as well, with protests planned in at least twenty cities across the country. But as protesters in New York speak out against American corporate greed, joblessness and bank bailouts—issues more often discussed in association with the U.S. economic crisis than its Canadian equivalent—there’s an inevitable question: what will the movement mean in the Canadian context? To help you get to the bottom of the issue, here’s our guide to Occupy Wall Street.

In Halifax, the first Occupy Nova Scotia demo is set for 11am in Grand Parade Square, today. The group says the sit-in will then go on indefinitely. We will have reporters on the ground, and will file reports as the occupation develops.

Just what is Occupy Wall Street, anyway?

Occupy Wall Street began in New York in September, but the seeds of the movement were sown two months earlier, in July, when Adbusters published an open call for protesters to occupy Wall Street. “Are you ready for a Tahrir moment?” the message asked, gesturing to the Arab Spring as an example of the type of action required get Washington back on the right path. “We demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington,” the call continued. “It's time for Democracy, not Corporatocracy.”

Hundreds of people took these words seriously and set up camp in lower Manhattan on September 17, occupying Zuccotti Park, near the New York Stock Exchange. Though at the beginning the movement seemed to flounder—dwindling numbers, accusations that police were trying to stymie protest—by early October, one of the largest mass arrests in American history and a surge of union support propelled OWS into the spotlight.

What are the protesters calling for?

As with any large-scale protest, the Occupy movement is not monolithic in its opinions or aims, but certain ideas have risen to the surface. Standing up to corporate influence is a big one. The OWS website calls for a sea change in the relationship between money and American democracy: “we can no longer afford to let corporate greed and corrupt politics set the policies of our nation,” the site states.

The protesters are also highlighting growing income inequality in the United States, as evidenced by the development of the “We are the 99 per cent” campaign (in case you’re not sold on the gravity of U.S. income inequality, see this excellent set of infographics at Mother Jones). On their website, the 99 percenters feature photographs of members holding written manifestos explaining why they’re part of the movement. They tell stories of people who have been laid off, who have no medical insurance, who are in student debt and who can’t afford to feed their families. “We are getting nothing while the other 1 per cent is getting everything,” the website states.

Protesters are choosing to draw attention to these issues by focusing on what they see as the source of the problem. As John Nichols wrote in The Nation, “By aiming activism not at the government but at the warren of bankers, CEOs and hedge-fund managers to whom the government is beholden, Occupy Wall Street went to the heart of the matter.” There is an acute awareness of bailouts and executives’ bonuses, of recession-era layoffs and the still-bleak job market, even as economic growth rebounds.

How are these issues relevant in Canada?

When we hear about bank bailouts and the recession, it’s often from the American media, with American examples. But a deeper look suggests that protesters who will occupy Bay Street, Square Victoria, and the Halifax Grand Parade this weekend share many concerns with their counterparts in the U.S..

To start, new research suggests that income inequality is on the rise in Canada, and is actually growing more quickly here than in the U.S. According to a study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, higher salaries, lavish bonuses and historically low tax rates for the extremely rich have propelled a shift whereby Canada’s richest one percent —“the 246,000 privileged few whose average income is $405,000”—held 16 per cent of the nation’s total income in 2007, a figure that has doubled since the early ’80s.

As the income gap widens, Canadians are also taking on more debt. Indebtedness is rising here so much that in 2010, Bloomberg reported that “the indebtedness of Canadians surpassed U.S. levels for the first time in 12 years.” And although tuition north of the border doesn’t reach the astronomical levels of U.S. universities, the Canadian Federations of Students reports that the average university graduate here is nearly $27,000 in debt. And joblessness is still an issue. Although unemployment is lower in Canada than in the U.S., new graduates are facing an uphill battle to find work.

When the Occupy movement begins in Canadian cities today, these are likely to be some of the issues that protesters will be vocal about. For information about demonstrations in your city, see Rabble’s directory here.