Jay Michi expected to attend a Remembrance Day event at Riverside Park on Nov. 11, 2021, but he discovered the unofficial event was a veiled anti-vaccine protest.
Image Credit: TWITTER/Jay Michi
November 12, 2021 - 12:45 PM
What appeared to be a Remembrance Day event at Riverside Park in Kamloops turned out to be an anti-vaccine rally.
Jay Michi took his children to the park where a Remembrance Day event is traditionally held. They came upon a crowd of 200 to 300 people, Michi estimated, where he first noticed there was no Honour Guard and bagpipes were played through a boom box.
"There was nothing to indicate that it was a rally," Michi said.
A lack of professionalism from the speakers made him suspicious of their intentions until he realized what was actually happening.
READ MORE: Police investigating anti-vax disruption of Kelowna Remembrance Day ceremony
"The guy starts reading Flanders Fields, then followed that with a poem he said he wrote that morning," Michi told iNFOnews.ca. "Which wasn't a poem. It was a screed about anti-vax ideals."
Some started booing the speakers, while others appeared to be in support.
The official Remembrance Day event this year was held privately by the Kamloops Legion, but it was live streamed for the public here.
Anti-vaccine protesters co-opted unofficial Remembrance Day events for their own political motives in Kamloops and Kelowna yesterday, Nov. 11.
iNFOnews.ca reached out to the Kamloops Legion, but they refused to comment on the Riverside Park event because it was not an official event sponsored by the Legion nor by the City of Kamloops.
Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP and Veteran Affairs shadow minister Frank Caputo issued a statement on Nov. 12 condemning the protests in Kamloops and Kelowna, along with a defaced Cenotaph in Cranbrook.
“To use this as an opportunity for political posturing is deeply insulting to all those who have served Canada. It is my sincere hope that those who are responsible for these acts are identified,” Caputo said in a statement.
Caputo was "sickened" to learn of the defaced Cenotaph and protesters interrupting ceremonies in Kamloops and Kelowna.
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“Remembrance Day is a solemn opportunity for Canadians to come together and reflect on the sacrifices made by our Veterans," his statement reads.
Michi said he and others were yelling and booing at the anti-vaccine speakers.
When they left, his six-year-old daughter asked why he was so upset.
"I explained to my daughter why and she said, 'But Dad that has nothing to do with Remembrance Day," Michi said. "I'm proud of her. At six years old she already understands what Remembrance Day is about and I'm sad for (protesters) that they don't - and they're grown adults."
Kelowna RCMP are currently investigating the event at City Park where a woman used a microphone in front of the Cenotaph to protest COVID-19 health restrictions.
She was met with outrage from the crowd, which was captured in a video posted by Global Okanagan.
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“Kelowna RCMP officers support a person or groups right to protest, but when they choose to willfully interrupt the assembly of citizens at a Remembrance Day ceremony; this is a step too far," Insp. Adam MacIntosh of Kelowna RCMP said in a statement. "The Kelowna RCMP will be fully investigating this event to determine what offence, criminal or otherwise may have been committed and if appropriate, the submission of charges or fines.”
Kamloops RCMP have not responded to requests for comment from iNFOnews.ca.
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