Pro-Palestinian rallies continue in Vancouver, including car rally
Posted January 12, 2024 6:18 pm.
Last Updated January 12, 2024 9:30 pm.
Pro-Palestinian rallies are continuing in Vancouver, despite the cold weather, and it appears some protestors took to their cars Friday evening.
CityNews has had reports of convoys of cars bearing Palestinian flags on the Cambie Street Bridge, in the Trout Lake area, and at Vancouver Community College’s Broadway campus.
A post online shows a car rally starting at John Hendry Park at Trout Lake was organized to begin at 5:30 Friday.
The post calls the event “Vancouver All Out for Palestine, All Out for Yemen,” and asks participants to come in their cars with signs, banners, and flags.
“Join us to raise our voices, our flags and our demands for the liberation of Palestine,” it says. It goes on to say that the demonstration is also in response to attacks on Yemen.
“Today, the U.S. and U.K. launched a series of attacks against the people and nation of Yemen, with the support of Canada in addition to Australia, Bahrain and the Netherlands,” it says.
There have been no reports of traffic interruptions.
This is in addition to a gathering of healthcare workers at Vancouver’s Broadway SkyTrain station Friday evening, also in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Callers to CityNews report seeing people gathering around one of the entrances to the station with signs saying “Healthcare workers against genocide, free Palestine” and “Ceasefire now.”
One caller said transit police officers were on scene to observe the situation, but did not see any issues.
It is unclear whether or not these events are connected.
This comes a week after hundreds of people gathered near Science World to march in a similar protest. Participants gathered at nearby Creekside Park Jan. 6 for a rally and then marched through the area.
On Dec. 30, demonstrators hung banners in multiple locations around the city. Banners were unfurled over thee Georgia Viaduct, the Granville Street bridge, and at the corner of Hastings and Commercial back on Dec. 30, one of the organizers of the event, Charlotte Samidoun, told CityNews at the time.
