Activists Call for Boycott of Indigo on Black Friday

While one group of organisers promotes weekend protests at the Legislature, another makes sure Palestine solidarity protests don't become routine.

About 75 activists armed with banners gathered outside Mayfair Mall calling for the boycott of Indigo, whose brand is associated with supporting the so-called Israel Defence Force (IDF), which has lately committed graphic atrocities in the Gaza strip to the world’s consternation.

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So says the sign. Somehow genocide has grown out of fashion these days.

The event was organised in conjunction with a worldwide campaign of Black Friday Shut It Down For Palestine rallies which target brands on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) lists, such as of course Indigo, whose founder and chief executive Heather Reisman also founded the HESEG Foundation, which grants scholarships to former IDF soldiers.

“Resistance is justified (when people are occupied!)” By the way, Vancity across the street embraces socially responsible investing, unlike Scotiabank which is known for its holdings in Elbit Systems, which supplies the IDF.

For the most part the event proceeded peacefully. Protesters had prepared several banners the night before at an art build event hosted by the Red Cedar Cafe. I volunteered for banner duty, and was introduced to an interesting tactic: we stood on the crossings holding our banners before cars during red lights, and retreated to the next corner before our time was up. VicPD officers showed up and asked to talk to organisers, although they didn’t have any issue with us as long as we weren’t blocking traffic.

The green light across Finlayson at Douglas lasts about a minute, which gave us plenty of time to display our banners in front of the cars, without technically blocking traffic. Brilliant!

Most of tonight’s pictures are bad. I assumed banner duty for the first hour and after that I had to content with the dark and the glare, with the second cheapest cell phone camera on the market. The slightest movement would ruin the shot.

We had a good turnout tonight. It’s just as well the pictures are a bit blurry though; the participants were for the most part nervous about being identified.

Somehow I had expected trouble though, and indeed neither the mall’s security nor the police ruining the show turned out too good to be true. Late in the event a notorious troll walked in and brazenly attempted to take closeup pictures of the protesters, most likely in a vain attempt at doxing; most of his targets were wearing face masks precisely to avoid being identified. Although he proved extraordinarily persistent even in the face of wardens shooing him away, he eventually walked away, most likely with only blurry pictures to work with.

Notorious troll Charles Bodi trying to look like a hero. Don’t talk to that creep, and if he shows up at your event then shoo him away; see the clip below for reference.

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I give this protest a good grade. It got a lot of visibility and the public was overwhelmingly supportive, with continual honking throughout. Volunteers distributed leaflets and stickers which also proved popular, even with drivers riding with their window open. The event proceeded under the glare of the mall’s security, which opted not to complain despite participants flirting with the line of what protesters can get away with while stepping on private property. If you want to attend more like these then follow lekwungen2palestine on Instagram for announcements—although they’re not always announced ahead of time.