KITCHENER – A southwestern Ontario native who has been living and working in Hong Kong for over a decade is watching the events unfolding there with a sense of despair.
Vici Egan is from Sarnia and graduated from school in Waterloo. She's lived in the city for 14 years.
She says the streets of central Hong Kong look like a warzone after more than five months of unrest.
"It's like something out of 'The Twilight Zone' or 'The Walking Dead.' It's just, it's unbelievable. This was such a vibrant city, and the fact that it's been allowed to happen like this, that Carrie Lam, the government is doing absolutely nothing," she says.
As a teacher, she knows that the students at Hong Kong Polytechnic University are in for what could be a fight for their lives.
As of Tuesday morning, about 100 anti-government protesters were still holed up at the university as the police siege entered its third day.
Initially, Egan says she was sympathetic to the protesters.
"I feel for the kids, I feel for the protesters initially, but now it’s just become a free for all. Petrol bombs and Molotov cocktails, and gratuitous, obscene violence," she says.
"I keep thinking, 'this can't continue much longer.' But it does and then it just gets worse, I keep thinking the tanks are going to roll in. God forbid, I certainly don't want that, but just the fact that this has continued and continued, we keep thinking this is the bottom and we can't get any further down, but it just keeps happening."
Egan says she has many connections to Waterloo Region. She wants them to know she's safe and believes she will stay safe, but remains worried about what's going to happen next.
With files from Dawn Kelly, the Canadian Press
