Police say planning paid off in controlling Day 1 of Fredericton protest

Fredericton police say they're happy with how a downtown protest against COVID-19 mandates unfolded Friday, adding their preparations paid off.

Speaking to reporters at around 4 p.m., Deputy Chief Martin Gaudet said the protest in front of the New Brunswick Legislature, which numbered as many as 300 people, has been peaceful so far.

"Our preplanning was spot on," he said. "So far we are very happy that people were able to peacefully protest downtown, and we maintain their rights to do that and we were also able to maintain the rights for others to freely move around the city."

The number of protesters swelled during the afternoon under the watchful eyes of a heavy police presence.Gaudet said about 60 officers from other police forces were brought in to help control the crowd.

Protesters brought in loudspeakers and other sound equipment, which they used to play music and make speeches from the northern corner of St. John and Queen streets.

By sundown, the crowd of about 300 had shrunk to a handful of people, however organizers have billed the protest as a two-day event and are expected to return Saturday.

Asked whether he expected the protest to be bigger on Saturday, Gaudet said: "We absolutely are anticipating a different type of approach tomorrow."

"It will be what it will be. We have intelligence coming in our way. We are prepared for tomorrow like we were today."

Lots of signs, few masks

Many protesters carried signs and flags,and almost no one wore a face mask. There was sporadic honking, chants of "freedom," and one man with a bullhorn siren.

Protesters also loudly lamented vaccine requirements, espoused conspiracy theories about microchips, and repeated calls for lifting restrictions put into effect to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were brief traffic snarls, but police were able to keep vehicles moving pretty smoothly through downtown streets throughout the afternoon as the crowd on Queen Street continued to grow.

Since police had blocked Queen Street immediately in front of the legislature, the actual convoy of vehicles circled the downtown on nearby streets, including St. John Street, which passes by the side of the building.

Gaudet said protesters were allowed to park a pickup truck at the corner of Queen and St. John streets, which included loudspeakers, other audio equipment and a generator.

The line of vehicles did not include any transport trucks, since police were preventing them from entering the downtown area without a "valid manifest," Gaudet said.

About 300 protesters gather in downtown Fredericton

3 years ago

Duration 2:41

Protesters hoping for an Ottawa-style rally against COVID-19 mandates gathered outside the New Brunswick Legislature on Friday.

Protest organizers were hoping for an Ottawa-style protest and called on supporters from across the province to cause"gridlock" in the city, with participants encouraged to sleep in their vehicles.

Police countered those plans by installing barricades blocking vehicleaccess to areas around the legislature, along with checkpoints blocking trucks from entering the downtown if they weren't going there for business.

Gaudetsaid those tactics worked at keeping large transport trucks out of the city, adding some trucks that were already in the downtown before this morning were ordered to leave.

Policeissued three tickets under the province's Motor Vehicle Act, though Gaudet did not say what specific offences the tickets were issued for.

With organizers planning to protest again Saturday, Gaudet said the same measures willremain in effect until the protest is declared over.

As protesters gathered at various locations outside the city on Friday morning before making their way downtown, police set up severalcheckpoints leading into the city, includingon Lincoln Road and Kimble Drive.

Groups were trying to makealternative plans as word spread that trucks would not be allowed into downtown Frederictonunless they could prove they had official business there.

That prompted one of the organizers to encourage truckers to get fake delivery orders in order to access the downtown area.

Mike Babineau, president of Downtown Fredericton Inc., said businesses in the area submitted a list of their expected deliveries for the day to police, to help police control who goes into the area.

Babineau said owners don't mind if expected deliveries are not permitted in the downtown core until Monday.

Speaking alongside Gaudet Friday afternoon, Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers said the protest wentas she'd hoped, adding thatbusinesses were co-operating with the city's efforts to control the movement of trucks downtown.

"Iwould say the businesses are co-operating and open and looking for business," she said. "There's a feeling of safety and security downtown and Iknow the businesses feel that as well."

Earlier in the day, Fredericton police warnedpeople on social media to avoid the protest area unless absolutely necessary.

'Businesses have been through enough'

Three Chamber of Commerce CEOsin New Brunswick delivered an open letter toprotesters on Friday: businesses have been through enough.

In addition to the pandemic, they've had to deal with increasing inflation, labour shortages, supply change disruptions, and now "ongoing blockades of critical infrastructure across the country that enables our economy to function."

The open letter from Fredericton'sKrista Ross, Moncton'sJohn Wishart, and Saint John'sDavid Dupliseaasked protestersto "express themselves without bringing similar harm to our local economy and small businesses."

While acknowledging widespread weariness with the pandemic, and the right to protest one's views, the CEOs said these protests go too far.

"The talk of 'gridlocking downtown'is already having a negative impact and the timing could not be worse for small downtown businesses who have recently come out of Level 3 lockdown and aretrying to get back on their feet."

They say some businesses in downtown Fredericton have relocated for the weekend, restaurant reservations are being cancelled on a big weekend for the industry, and some businesses have closed completely because of the protest.

The letter asks organizers to not "exacerbate the pain of downtown businesses. Be respectful and kind to these businesses, their employees and the residents of downtown."

Schooland campus closures

Several elementary and middle schools in Frederictonpreemptively announced they would be closed on Friday because of the protest.

The University of New Brunswick announced Thursday evening that its Fredericton campus would be closing earlyon Friday for the same reason.

The university said on Twitter that in-person classes starting after 11:30 a.m. were cancelled.

One high school, Leo Hayes, asked parents to encourage their children not to participate in any demonstrations but to come to school and respect COVID protocols.

Social media and social inequality

Organizers for protestslike the oneshappening in Ottawa and Frederictonhave used social media platforms to spreadword about events and enlist supporters.

A Facebook event for Friday's protest in Fredericton, for instance, has more than 200 people marked as going and another 400 interested, with a description of the event asking participants to "join us in Fredericton as we shut down the legislative assembly of New Brunswick."

In recent years, social media has beena breeding ground fordisinformation, creating distrust forinstitutionsand rallying a"fringegroup" of Canadians,said David Shipley, a cybersecurity expert in Fredericton and CEO of Beauceron Security.

"It's the social media funhouse mirror distortion," Shipley said. "We think that social media is a reflection of our society, and it is absolutely not. And we have to get that distortion under control. That is an existential threat to Canadian democracy, and we better wake up about it."

While social media has played a role in polarizing people around certain issues, it's not the full picture, said Matthew Hayes, a sociology professor at St. Thomas University and Canada Research Chair in global and transnational studies.

Hayes said the pandemic has hit parts of the working class population with job losses and closed businesses, resulting in lost wages and a lower quality of life.

The protests now being seen are a manifestation of those frustrations, thoughCOVID-19 vaccine mandates have become a "lightning rod" for grievances over other issues exacerbated by the pandemic.

"So certainly,the issue right now is the vaccine mandates, but what I think is really interesting sociologically is that you also see so many other symbolsthat are kind of being brought into this protest that are about other grievances that have been politicized on the political right," Hayes said.

"And some of those ... relate to things like inequality, growing inequality, the lack of opportunities for working class people, the housing affordability crisis that we're we're seeing throughout Canada.

"Many of these issues also are of huge concern for people, but they've been politicized by people on the far right as a way to kind of push back against the vaccine mandates and todestabilize also some of the institutions that have kind of grounded Canadian democracy since the 1940s."