Another weekend of COVID-19 protests sparks counter-protest in Whitehorse

For the third Saturday in a row, hundreds of people drove around downtown Whitehorse honking in their vehicles in support of the so-called Freedom Protest happening in Ottawa.

Even though this demonstration had fewer vehicles than previous weekends, honks were still blasting for an hour and a half.

Ross Mercer, who was in attendance, is a trucker and the owner of Mercer Contracting. He said the protests have evolved beyond just the vaccine mandates.

"This is standing up against hateful, divisive manipulation of the public perception," he said.

When asked what he hoped to accomplish with the protest, he said he wanted to encourage the "silent majority" to speak up.

"I feel very strongly that we need to move forward together as a country, look for unity, stand up for informed consent and make the best decisions we can collectively for society ... and bring us back to an open society where we're not stigmatised for engaging in free speech or dissenting with the popular narrative or disagreeing with the government," he said.

Pedestrians were not so fond of another convoy protest in town. 

One person told CBC he thought the convoy was a waste of time, since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will not meet with the protesters.

Another pedestrian told CBC the honks were annoying and they should be protesting in a more "peaceful" way.

Counter-protest

This time, drivers in the vehicle convoy were not the only ones on the streets on Saturday afternoon.

During the weekly demonstration at Shipyards Park, a small group of people stood across the street on 2nd Avenue for a counter-protest.

"I'm here to protest what's happening in Ottawa. It's just so awful and so unnecessary," said Lee Willett, a Whitehorse resident who was holding a sign that read 'I Love Public Health.'

"To do this now, at this stage of the pandemic when it's almost over, is ridiculous."

The counter-protest was not an officially organized gathering, Willett said. 

It happened after she and Shannon Corrado, another Whitehorse resident, decided to message their close friends to see if they also wanted to express how they felt on Saturday.

"I think there's a silent majority out there that does not agree with what this this rally is all about, and maybe we should be out here showing that there's a lot of people that think the way we do," Willett said.

Willett explained this majority is the group of people who have complied with the vaccine mandates and follow public health restrictions.

Willett said her local business has been targeted multiple times in the past for following public health guidelines. 

"Everyone is doing the best they can, including the government, including public health," she said. "Nobody's had this situation before, and for this people to say 'you're taking away our freedom' is just ridiculous."

Corrado is a retired nurse. She said she attended the counter-protest to show her discontent with the Ottawa protests and to target disinformation.

"I'm just really having a hard time with all of the disinformation that's out there," said Corrado. "Vaccines help. Vaccines work. That's what's going to get us back into working and back to what's normal. It's not the trucker convoy that's going to get us back to normal life."

Their signs read "End The Convoy," and "Honk If Vaccines Work."

People driving by were confused to read a different message from previous weeks.

The counter-protesters received a lot of support from drivers, but they were also faced with threats and verbal harassment.

"Most of the support we received was positive, but the negative attention we received was just horrible," Corrado told CBC later in the weekend.

"We were called all kinds of names, threatened and had our business directly threatened by one woman in particular. She yelled my full name out to her compatriots, calling me a b-tch, yelling the name of our business and threatened to hurt the business, waving her arm and wagging her finger at me.

"We were literally just standing on the street with signs and the amount of aggressive vitriol we received was overwhelming."

Similar counter-protests occurred in Ottawa.