‘It is not about you’: Outrage in Kelowna after anti-vaxxers disrupt Remembrance Day event
Posted November 11, 2021 1:50 pm.
Last Updated November 11, 2021 3:30 pm.
It was supposed to be a peaceful and sombre event, honouring soldiers’ sacrifices. Instead, it became a tension-filled conflict, as anti-vaxxers disrupted a Remembrance Day event at Kelowna’s City Park.
The incident, which was shared on social media by KelownaNow, shows a woman standing in front of a microphone at the cenotaph at the park as members of the public shouted that she and others were being disrespectful.
“It is not about you. Leave now,” a man in a medal-clad jacket is heard in the video saying to the speaker.
Matt Glen was at the unofficial event Thursday with his wife when the chaos began.
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“We saw veterans started storming out from the centre of the crowd … and screaming. A few of them were visibly crying and upset,” Glen added.
“The anti-vaxxers were screaming with some veterans that were there, they were yelling at each other. Then other people started yelling at each other and it just turned pretty dark, pretty quick.”
The video shows several people passing by the woman with the microphone, telling her what she was doing was disgraceful.
“Not the right time, not the right place,” a ceremony attendee shouted in the video.
Glen agrees, adding “Protest all you want, but to hijack an event like that and make it your own is really unfortunate and upsetting for a lot of people, and seriously selfish.”
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In the video, someone makes a brief attempt to take the microphone away from the speaker.
A person is later seen grabbing at the generator powering the speaker. A police officer intervened before a third person stepped in an told the officer “that’s assault.”
According to Glen, most of the veterans left shortly after the melee.
CityNews has reached out to Kelowna RCMP for comment.
‘This is an absolute new low’
A Kelowna city councillor is angry at the shameful display at the cenotaph and is outraged people tarnished a day dedicated to honouring fallen soldiers.
“Today is a day when we pay tribute to our veterans. It’s a mark of respect for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Mohini Singh said Thursday. “This is so wrong, so disgusting. Unbelievable that somebody would do that on a day like today. I was just shocked. I’m still shocked.”
Singh was not at the event, as she was at the official Remembrance Day ceremony, representing the city as deputy mayor.
Kelowna has seen its share of actions from anti-vaxxers and COVID-deniers, including an incident last Remembrance Day when vandals spray-painted anti-COVID-lockdown graffiti on its City Hall building. But Singh never thought she would see demonstrators rob veterans of their moment of honour.
“Never thought that anyone would do something as disgusting as this on a day like today, where we pay tribute to those who who died fighting for our freedom.”
Singh adds protesters already demonstrate their opinions on a regular basis.
“They have their protests on the highway, they have it in front of the Interior Health Authority building, they have it downtown, and they have it at vaccination centres. Why today? Why at the at the cenotaph? It was heartbreaking.”
Absolutely disgusting, absolutely disrespectful. Today we pay tribute to our veterans this is so so wrong.
— Mohini Singh (@KelownaMohini) November 11, 2021
Upon hearing witness reports that some veterans broke into tears when the anti-vaxxers took over the event at City Park, Singh said she wasn’t surprised.
“I’m not a veteran and I don’t come from a family of veterans, and it brought me to tears … This is an absolute new low.”
Singh says they owe veterans “a huge apology” for what they did, “and I don’t even think that’s enough.”
