Women voice displeasure with Trump
Thousands of marchers downtown send message to U.S.
More than 15,000 people marched peacefully through downtown Vancouver on Saturday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s views on women’s rights.
It was one of dozens of protests organized across the world in support of the Women’s March on Washington — coinciding with Trump’s first day in the Oval Office — in reaction to the new president’s perceived views on female, minority and LGBTQ rights and threats to defund planned parenthood.
In Vancouver, a Facebook event page had amassed nearly 8,000 RSVP confirmations from local participants the night before the march. But on Saturday, the crowd in downtown Vancouver was estimated by local authorities to number almost twice that, including people of all genders and numerous races and religions. Many were children or adults attending their first public demonstration.
Among the many signs spotted in the crowd was one made up of a tiny crocheted cartoon uterus. One said: “We are not ovary acting, we are demanding fundamental human rights” Another read: “Not my president, still my problem.” There was no shortage of marchers wearing pink knitted “pussy hats.”
Rhiannon Bennett, a member of the Musqueam Indian Band, was among the speakers who addressed a peaceful crowd at Jack Poole Plaza before the march.
Bennett shared her frustrations about the many unsolved murders of women along B.C.’s infamous Highway of Tears and called again for continued action in tackling aboriginal women’s issues in B.C. As she spoke, she held her ninemonth-old daughter Maelona.
“She needs to know what did I do for her, for her to have a better life,” said Bennett of her personal reasons for participating in the Women’s March.
“She might not understand everything that’s going on but she can feel the energy.”
Pitt Meadows resident Marion Beck, along with her daughter Teija, 30, was among those who made the trip downtown to attend the march.
Beck has long considered herself a feminist but said she had never felt so “incensed” to participate in a demonstration such as Saturday’s march.
“I have two daughters and I don’t want them to think this is normal, that women are second rate. They have every right every man has, and someone in that office shouldn’t be allowed to behave the way he is so I have to show them that I believe,” said Beck.
“How does he get away with such derogatory language and behaviour in such a public office where everyone is looking at him? It’s scary to me to think that my daughters could be subjected to that behaviour.”
Similar marches took place in cities and communities across B.C. More than 2,000 protesters were reported in Victoria, while smaller events took place in Castlegar, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Prince George and Salmon Arm. A march on Salt Spring Island drew an estimated 600 people.
In Vancouver, following several speeches and musical performances, the thousands-strong crowd left Jack Poole Plaza and began making its way toward Trump Tower on West Georgia Street.
There, the main entrance to the yet-to-be-opened hotel remained fenced off due to ongoing construction. Demonstrators affixed various signs and posters to the fence, while others continued to chant and point their middle fingers toward the hotel’s signage.
Police and security were stationed both inside and outside the property, but there were no signs of violence aside from several eggs thrown at a hotel window. Vancouver police Sgt. Randy Fincham said there were “no significant incidents of note.”
Outside Trump Tower, several demonstrators confronted a man wearing a Hillary for Prison 2016 T-shirt and holding a sign that read Trump has feelings too. The man was briefly detained by police after demonstrators pointed out he had a woodworking knife in a sheath on his belt. Police confiscated the knife, and the man agreed to take down his Trump sign if any further issues were raised.
Organizers for the march in Washington, D.C. had called for participants to stand together to defend various rights, many of which appear threatened as Trump moves into the White House.
“In the spirit of democracy and honouring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore,” wrote organizers in an online post.
“The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights.”