ATHABASCA – Athabasca mayor Colleen Powell is calling on whoever may show up in town for the scheduled Enough is Enough rally Friday afternoon to follow public health guidelines by wearing a mask and physically distancing from others.
Rumours abound, and they are nothing but rumours that have not been confirmed, but the publicly-available vitriol going back and forth on social media between supporters of the rally and those who do not agree with lifting government restrictions in relation to COVID-19 has reached a fever pitch, with both sides of the argument trying to convince others their opinions are correct.
Powell said in an interview Thursday morning that she is a supporter of the freedom to express oneself in such a way, but is concerned for a number of reasons.
“There is, first of all, the worry that you have people who are not masked. People that close together could actually spread the virus to the rest of us. There are also concerns about some of the people who might come, who are not necessarily there just simply for an end the lockdown,” she said. “It has to be said there is freedom of speech in this country, people have a right to protest. However, they don't have a right to go against government regulations.”
Organizer Benita Pedersen has held two rallies in Westlock and Barrhead in the past two weeks, and has participated in other demonstrations at the Alberta Legislature and Edmonton Remand Centre, calling for an end to the lockdown so businesses are allowed to reopen. She is also seeking the release of a pastor who is being held at ERC, after holding in-person church services in defiance of public health orders and has refused to agree to conditions for release.
Rumours involving counter demonstrations have been bandied about on social media. Some of them allegedly involving local groups, and some from out of town. Pedersen’s encouragement of the use of tiki torches has also cast a racist shadow over the rally, and is coming to the attention of anti-racism groups across Western Canada.
In her second rally in Westlock this afternoon (Feb. 25), Pedersen again encouraged supporters to show up in Athabasca with tiki torches to “bring the light.”
Tiki torches became synonymous with white supremacy in 2017, after a rally in Charlottesville, NC, featured a large group of racists, carrying these torches and shouting, “Jews will not replace us!” That imagery was also used in promotions of the Edmonton event Pedersen took part in. The rally in Charlottesville ended with a white supremacist driving through a crowd of counter protestors and killing a woman. Before that though, torches were already associated with the Ku Klux Klan, who used them to light crosses on fire and terrorize racialized people.
Pedersen said in Facebook posts responding to that concern that symbols can represent different things to different people.
Powell said she hopes the rally “goes as safely and as sanely as possible,” noting the RCMP will be making their presence known as they have at previous rallies.
“The rules are there to protect the rest of us. Sometimes, individual rights have to give way to the right of the community to be safe,” she said. “The health order was a regulation that is now considered the law of the land and they can be prosecuted. Our council has supported Dr. Hinshaw, Alberta Health, and government regulations and we continue to do so.
“If you are going to this rally, please remember to wear your mask. Please social distance. Those rules are there to keep us all safe. We want to get out of this. This kind of behaviour, if you don't do this, is only going to prolong the agony.”
