While thousands of Vancouverites protested Russia's full-scale invasion into Ukraine over the past week, many others continue to demonstrate in the city's streets for a completely different reason.
The federal government recently invoked the Emergencies Act to bring an end to anti-government blockades in Ottawa and across the country. However, many of the demonstrators continue to express their frustration with Canada's coronavirus rules, including mask and vaccine mandates.
But a concerned group of locals have come together to counter the "far-right led convoys" who plan to demonstrate on the same day thousands of people plan to show solidarity with Ukrainians.
On Saturday (March 5), the Ukrainian community and its supporters will gather outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery to share support for Ukraine. During that same time, dozens of anti-vaccine mandate demonstrators plan to protest in the downtown area. In response, a network of individuals, unions and community groups has come together under the title "Community Solidarity Vancouver" to counter what it calls a "far-right" demonstration.
“These convoy participants come from outside our communities and do not represent us”, says a spokesperson for the group in a release.
The group hopes Metro Vancouver residents will attend the counter-protest at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning in the plaza at the southeast corner of Homer and West Georgia. They say the protestors have only been "emboldened" by recent government opposition and that most British Columbians are in favour of reasonable public health measures.
"We will counter their effort to harass and intimidate journalists and other workers at the CBC building a block to the east," said an organizer.
Attention #Vancouver #bcpoli
— unmasktheright.org (@unmasktheright) March 3, 2022
Saturday March 5 @ 10:30AM
Come out to oppose the far-right convoy movement! pic.twitter.com/rIgFqhhCMa
One of the people associated with the anti-vaccine mandate demonstrations, organizer James Davison, shared an image in a Facebook post of a flyer that states the group plans to meet at 700 Hamilton St. on Saturday for a "CBC News Rally." The flyer proclaims that "media is the real virus."
Also called the "Vancouver Stands with Ukraine against Russian Invasion - Anti-War Rally," the pro-Ukraine demonstration is planned for Saturday (March 5) at 1 p.m. at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Event organizer Pavlo Ponikarovskyi thanked the people who came out in solidarity for the Ukrainian people last weekend but writes in a Facebook post that "bombs are still killing civilians" and that more pressure needs to be applied on governments around the world to take action.
