Chief says Cenotaph no place for protest
Speaker at anti-lockdown demonstration called on veterans to join him as he addressed crowd
The chief of police says Confederation Square — home of the Cenotaph and the Citizens War Memorial — is no place for an anti-lockdown protest.
“Quite honestly, I think it’s a shame to see people using the Cenotaph for a demonstration of this nature,” Chief Scott Gilbert said Saturday in the square.
“It has the names inscribed on it of many people from Peterborough city and county that fought for freedoms. And right now, at their age, the veterans are the most vulnerable population (to COVID-19). And these people (protesters) are putting them all at risk.”
There were around 600 people at the protest on Saturday; the chief said he suspected many were not from Peterborough. Independent MPP Randy Hillier (from Perth) was the guest speaker, along with federal People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier (from Quebec).
Both were charged by police, and will go to court to face fines up to $5,000.
During remarks at the Cenotaph, local protester Neil Sheard invited veterans in the crowd to come up and stand with him.
“They fought so we can stand and be here today,” Sheard said, as six men and women advanced to the Cenotaph. Some said they’d served in Afghanistan, others in Bosnia or Romania.
Sheard said he’d been in Afghanistan himself: “It was nasty and dirty,” he said, but it still allowed its citizens greater freedom than Canada does now with COVID-19 lockdowns.
“Afghanistan at that point, in that time, is freer than we are now,” Sheard said.
Hillier said he’d spoken to a city police officer on Friday, and the officer asked if they could ticket him before the event or after the protest rather than on the spot (a claim refuted later by Gilbert).
“He was willing to charge me before I was even here! Before there was ever any offence!” Hillier said.
Gilbert said later that Hillier had phoned police on Friday.
“He wanted to make sure we had sufficient police presence — he was expecting over 1,000 people,” Gilbert said.
Later in Hillier’s remarks he taunted police, daring them to come charge him while he was at the microphone.
Gilbert said that was “a very strategic move” on Hillier’s part, “stirring up the crowd” just as Bernier was trying to make his exit from the park without being charged.
“And this is a guy who says he’s going to be the next premier,” said Gilbert.
“Does that sound like the rhetoric of someone who will represent all people?”