Canoes greet hulking icebreaker upon arrival at the waterfront

Two canoes representing Musqueam, Squamish and TsleilWaututh First Nations greeted the Canada C3 icebreaker Polar Prince on Monday as it sailed under the Lions Gate Bridge and docked on the downtown Vancouver waterfront off Canada Place.

A lot has changed since canoes welcomed British captain George Vancouver as he entered these waters by the same route in 1792 while charting the B.C. coast.

“My territory looks nothing like it did when the newcomers arrived,” paddler Rhiannon Bennett of the Musqueam First Nation shouted up from one canoe alongside the ship’s starboard side.

“It makes me emotional to think what it would have been like to go out and greet captain Vancouver compared to what it looked like to come out to greet you today.”

Bennett said she appreciated that reconciliation is a central theme of the Canada C3 voyage.

“What’s happened on land and water has not been kind to my people,” she said.

The 72-metre Polar Prince carries 60 crew and participants, including Andrew Strang, a former Vancouver criminal lawyer who now co-owns the popular FlyOver Canada tourist attraction at Canada Place.

It’s the first time he entered the city under the Lions Gate Bridge.

“A beautiful morning with the sun breaking — spectacular,” he said. “I get to see the city from a different perspective, as well.”