Forget 5-person blockades; watch 75 people block an intersection instead, while half a dozen impotent cops stand by and watch.
On the eve of the RCMP’s 150-year anniversary, about 75 protesters occupied the Belleville and Government intersection in Victoria, right by the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, to denounce 150 years of oppression of indigenous minorities, punctuated by hundreds of police murders.
The event started innocuously enough, with the crowd on Legislature precincts attending a peaceful event, listening to a few speakers such as the Defund 604 Network who came forward delivering a litany of egregious police killings the officers got away with.
At this stage, the only hint we outsiders had that the event would take an unusual course was that it was scheduled to last three hours, which is longer than most rallies. That changed when the presenter announced, without warning, that we would momentarily occupy the intersection. Volunteers then moved tables and equipment to the pavement and started painting a circular “street mural” honouring 150 years of resistance against the colonial invader.
The police arrived just in time to witness a banner drop at the Netherlands Centennial Carillon, right by the Royal BC Museum. The banner read “Abolish the RCMP”.
The conspirators were many and surprisingly well organised. There were traffic wardens, a first aid attendant, several artists, a police liaison officer, a legal observer, and even a drone operator. This wasn’t their first event and they knew what they were doing.
Eventually, the police issued warnings that we protesters might be arrested for mischief; the crowd answered with laughs. There was no way for half a dozen officers to round up a dozen times their numbers, so they contented themselves to watch and take pictures, while colleagues closed the roads in all four directions. No one was arrested at the scene; it remains to be seen whether anyone will be after the event.
Once the artwork was completed and the paint dried up, the protesters peacefully dispersed. The banner was voluntarily taken down. Of course the painting is bound to remain on display for a while, to remind our elected representatives that plenty resent the government’s perpetual colonial mindset and generations of state-sanctioned police murder.
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Never take your rights for granted. Women in particular know even hard-earned ones are never far from being taken away.
Although the event was a relative success, its outcome leaves me most apprehensive. Regretfully, we had to end it early.
