A crowd gathered at the corner of Yonge Street and Davis Drive in Newmarket on Saturday to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates, in support of the convoy in Ottawa.
The group met in the parking lot of Upper Canada Mall at 1 p.m. on Feb. 5 and proceeded to march around the intersection, carrying signs and chanting.
The event was organized Christian Delaney with the group Bradford Speak Up. He said this was not an anti-vaccination protest.
"Our message here today is really to stand for our rights to bodily autonomy. We’re here to stand against the vaccine mandates, against the vaccine passports. We’re here to make it clear that we’re not anti-vaxx, we’re not anti-mask or anything like that. We are pro-choice, we’re pro-freedom, we’re pro-science," he said.
He said he thinks vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination are not in line with our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and don't represent Canada.
“As a health-care worker myself, I’m a personal support worker, I advocate for my clients' rights, including my own rights," he said. "I know that as basic and easy as it sounds, we have the right to our own bodily autonomy and these mandates definitely wipe that out the window, take that off our plate and that’s not OK."
Between 1 and 3 p.m. about 100 people, including children, attended the demonstration.
“The turnout was fantastic. From the community, people driving by — many, many people sounding their horns in support of our group and in support of our demonstration. We’ve had people throwing out masks out their window, it’s very symbolic,” Delaney said.
Along with the honking, some of the attendees carried drums and bells to add to the noise of the march.
Delaney said calling it a march rather than a protest is an intentional choice.
“We’re not here to seem aggressive toward anyone or anything. A protest sounds aggressive. This is a march for freedom," he said, adding that he also doesn't like using the term anti-mandate. “I prefer pro-freedom. Anti is a scary word for people.”
York Regional Police had one vehicle parked by the intersection on Yonge and a couple of others in mall parking lot, with officers interacting with demonstrators who approached them. However, police didn't leave their vehicles and the demonstration remained peaceful.
Originally the group expressed their plan to march into the mall without masks on after their time outside, however, Delaney told the group that to not appear threatening, anyone who wanted to go into the mall shouldn't enter as a group or with their signs.
Delaney organized a similar event in Bradford last weekend, however there was a much smaller turnout, which he said was because a number of their local supporters had gone to take part in the convoy in Ottawa.
