After two years of peaceful, upbeat rallies in the area of Calgary’s Beltline community, things might be about to get rowdy..Protesters across all walks of life from Calgary and Southern Alberta have been faithfully attending rallies in central Calgary throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly without incident, to protest vaccine mandates and forced masking..Rally-goers come to hear a number of speakers and hear musicians play each Saturday. The rallies are attended by all demographics across Alberta and include families, working professionals, and retired seniors. There is always a consistent Calgary Police Service contingent in attendance that strives to keep the march orderly and respectful..The rally begins in Central Memorial Park and after speakers have finished, attendees walk approximately one-mile on the route dubbed ‘The Freedom Mile.’.To date, there have been minimal occurrences of trouble, but local residents are fed up of the disruption and noise..On one occasion late last year, a CPS officer on duty during a march was seen to shout to and warn a local resident of potential arrest if she continued to gesticulate abusive signs from the balcony of her apartment. The resident was dancing about and giving the middle finger to protesters below on the street..Residents have started to organize their own counter-protest for the same day and have a poster currently circulating on local social media encouraging people to attend..The poster calls for community solidarity, instructs potential attendees to wear a mask, bring a friend, make a sign, and “stay safe.”. Beltline-Counter-Protest-PosterCalgary Beltline community poster .The counter-protest is scheduled to begin an hour, or so, after the scheduled start of the Central Memorial Park rally and meets at a location within the boundaries of the south-west-north-east march route that traditional protest usually takes..Whether the two groups will cross paths on Saturday remains to be seen..Beltline resident Kev Sloosh tweeted late February that the mandate protesters were “terrorizing” the local neighbourhood..“The self-proclaimed ‘freedom’ demonstrators in Calgary threw a smoke bomb at Beltline residents who were counter-protesting their terrorizing of the neighbourhood today,” read the tweet..A counter-protest Twitter post by the organizers on Thursday said, “Let’s have a nice, quiet time together.”.At press time, the post had 23 retweets and 28 likes..Amanda Brown is a reporter with the Western Standard.abrown@westernstandardonline.com
After two years of peaceful, upbeat rallies in the area of Calgary’s Beltline community, things might be about to get rowdy..Protesters across all walks of life from Calgary and Southern Alberta have been faithfully attending rallies in central Calgary throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, mostly without incident, to protest vaccine mandates and forced masking..Rally-goers come to hear a number of speakers and hear musicians play each Saturday. The rallies are attended by all demographics across Alberta and include families, working professionals, and retired seniors. There is always a consistent Calgary Police Service contingent in attendance that strives to keep the march orderly and respectful..The rally begins in Central Memorial Park and after speakers have finished, attendees walk approximately one-mile on the route dubbed ‘The Freedom Mile.’.To date, there have been minimal occurrences of trouble, but local residents are fed up of the disruption and noise..On one occasion late last year, a CPS officer on duty during a march was seen to shout to and warn a local resident of potential arrest if she continued to gesticulate abusive signs from the balcony of her apartment. The resident was dancing about and giving the middle finger to protesters below on the street..Residents have started to organize their own counter-protest for the same day and have a poster currently circulating on local social media encouraging people to attend..The poster calls for community solidarity, instructs potential attendees to wear a mask, bring a friend, make a sign, and “stay safe.”. Beltline-Counter-Protest-PosterCalgary Beltline community poster .The counter-protest is scheduled to begin an hour, or so, after the scheduled start of the Central Memorial Park rally and meets at a location within the boundaries of the south-west-north-east march route that traditional protest usually takes..Whether the two groups will cross paths on Saturday remains to be seen..Beltline resident Kev Sloosh tweeted late February that the mandate protesters were “terrorizing” the local neighbourhood..“The self-proclaimed ‘freedom’ demonstrators in Calgary threw a smoke bomb at Beltline residents who were counter-protesting their terrorizing of the neighbourhood today,” read the tweet..A counter-protest Twitter post by the organizers on Thursday said, “Let’s have a nice, quiet time together.”.At press time, the post had 23 retweets and 28 likes..Amanda Brown is a reporter with the Western Standard.abrown@westernstandardonline.com
