Police in Victoria have deployed security cameras in some parts of the city ahead of another “convoy” protest against public health restrictions and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
It’s a temporary measure to ensure public safety, police said in a Friday news release, in accordance with provincial and national privacy legislation.
“The cameras will be taken down a short time after the events,” reads the release. “Temporary signs are posted to ensure that those in the area are aware.”
Posts on social media indicate the “Island Trucker Convoy” will take place Saturday, departing Campbell River at 6:45 a.m., stopping in Nanaimo at 9:30 a.m. and arriving in Victoria around 11:30 a.m.
One post instructs participants to “honk 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.” and states the “Island Convoy Stays until the Mandates are Lifted.”
The procession is expected to do two loops before meeting at the B.C. legislature, and participants in vehicles are being asked to keep to the right lane of traffic only.
Police are warning the public that traffic disruptions are anticipated.
The detachment said the Greater Victoria Integrated Public Safety Unit will join its officers at the protest to help ensure public safety.
“Safe, peaceful, lawful protest is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” reads a separate Friday news release.
“Dangerous and/or unlawful acts will be de-escalated and addressed through enforcement.”
The event follows a similar demonstration last weekend, held in solidarity with the “Freedom Convoy” that has occupied downtown Ottawa for days now, causing traffic and business disruption.
On Jan. 29, a convoy of protesters left Campbell River shortly before 8 a.m., gathering scores of big rigs and private vehicles before arriving in Victoria.
Thousands gathered outside the legislature waving an assortment of signs, ranging from attestations that opposition to vaccine mandates doesn’t mean opposition to vaccines, to anger about globalism, the “New World Order” and communism. Other signs expressed support for the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin, which health officials have warned against using to treat COVID-19.
Similar demonstrations will be held in cities across the country this weekend, including Toronto and Vancouver.
There are “several planned protests” in Vancouver on Saturday, police said in a Friday news conference, and extra officers will be on shift.
On social media, organizers instruct participants to adhere to speed limits and make room for emergency vehicles.
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“Protesters in this country and in this province have the right to protest,” Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth told Global News. “But they don’t have the right to intimidate, they don’t have the right to harass people, to intimidate people.
“They don’t have the right to block people from going about their business.”
In a written statement on Friday, Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the demonstrators’ planned route passes three health-care facilities, and that no one has the right to interfere with access for patients, staff or first responders.
“As the Mayor of a city with an over 95 per cent vaccination rate, my message to the convoy is this: Vancouver doesn’t want you here. Make your point and then go home,” he wrote.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said people are welcome to come to Victoria to protest but they must respect others. Messages of hate and acts of aggression will not be tolerated, she added.
“We have had complaints and worries from residents and businesses after what happened last weekend,” she told Global News. “Houses with ‘We love health-care workers’ signs being egged (and) completely inappropriate situations where there’s anti-semitic language being expressed.”
–with files from Simon Little
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