On this episode of What happened to…?, Erica Vella revisits the 2011 Vancouver riots that erupted downtown following the Canucks’ loss in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.
On June 15, 2011, riots broke out in Vancouver following Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup final downtown.
The Canucks were defeated by the Boston Bruins in a stunning 4-0 win over the Canadian team.
Ted Field, assignment editor with Global B.C., was working as a reporter at the time and was stationed in Surrey, B.C., but when things began to unravel downtown, he was quickly reassigned and sent downtown to cover the developments.
“You can see smoke rising, cars being set on fire. There was a parkade near the Hudson’s Bay building where multiple cars were set on fire and you just sort of go, ‘Oh, Lord, what are we going into?'” Field said.
“There’s a large crowd and there was a vehicle that had been damaged.”
The streets were packed with rioters that inflicted damage on several buildings in the downtown core.
A report found that total damage caused by the riot was just over $3.7 million. There were 112 businesses and 122 vehicles damaged, and 52 assaults were reported against civilians, police and emergency personnel.
The damage was extensive and Field and his colleague were among the people assaulted that day, but he said in the days that followed the riots, people came together.
“The day after the riot, with so much broken glass down there, the story of people grabbing their dust pans and brooms and garbage bags and going down and trying to clean up what happened to the Hudson’s Bay store,” he said.
“I get a bit of goosebumps thinking about it at the time where they came down and started decorating in and colouring and making it beautiful … and helping.”
On this episode of What happened to…? Erica Vella speaks with Field about his experience covering the events that night in June 2011 and learns more about the push for change and accountability following the riots.
— with files from Yuliya Talmazan.