A nationwide demonstration against fossil fuels on Saturday also included Kelowna, with around 20 people gathering near Orchard Park Mall.
Other B.C. communities where peaceful rallies for Fossil Fools Day were planned included Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Duncan, Courtney and Nelson.
In Kelowna, the demonstrators gathered near a bank, and sang and chanted.
A group called Fridays for Future Kelowna, says it’s raising awareness of the Coastal GasLink pipeline being constructed near Houston in northern B.C., and is asking Canada’s largest banks to divest themselves from funding fossil fuels.
“We are standing in solidarity with the people of the Wet’suwet’en, their land defenders and their hereditary chiefs who have not consented to this pipeline,” said Erin Delfs, one of the demonstrators.
This week, police arrested five people in relation to the gas pipeline, citing violence against a pipeline employee.
According to Houston RCMP, Coastal GasLink says one of its security workers had been swarmed by a group of individuals wearing masks and camouflage.
Police say the group fired flares and gained access to a work vehicle, when an employee left the area because of intimidation.
“These persons allegedly poured liquid on the vehicle and stole a chainsaw from the truck bed.”
A search warrant was granted for two locations: Along Morice Forest Service Road, and a campground site at Lamprey Creek Campground.
Police say all five were arrested for obstruction of a peace officer, and that four refused to cooperate with police direction, while one attempted to prevent the RCMP from executing the warrant.
Meanwhile, the defenders say police arrested mostly Indigenous women, and “the raid accompanied a search warrant for theft under $5,000 with no clear relation to the Gidimt’en village site.”
While demonstrating in Kelowna, Delfs was asked about this week’s incident.
“There is no merit behind their actions and we think it’s completely unjust,” said Delfs. “It shows how much Indigenous peoples are over-surveyed by the RCMP and government here in so-called Canada. We do not stand for that and we are here to stand in solidarity with those land defenders and say this is wrong.”