Friday’s Extinction Rebellion protest in downtown Vancouver ended peacefully, police said, but not without a few arrests.
The protest, which started around 1 p.m. with a funeral procession and included a die in at Pacific Centre mall as Black Friday shoppers looked on, ended around 7 p.m. at Robson and Thurlow streets where the group set up a “post-funeral wake.”
In a statement sent out Friday night, Vancouver police said officers “were forced to arrest six people for mischief after they stopped traffic and erected structures blocking a major intersection.
“Protestors perched themselves on top of the structures and refused to leave the area, despite several requests, and then warnings, from officers.”
The department added that the protest was peaceful and there were no major incidents until the arrests.
“This is a sombre occasion to mourn the many people already suffering and dying, as well as the millions of species that are threatened to Earth’s sixth mass extinction,” Extinction Rebellion Vancouver spokesperson Maayan Kreitzman said in a press release before Friday’s event. “The urgency of the crisis is severe. But we need to take time to grieve together as we acknowledge this uncomfortable reality so that we have the courage and love to actually do what’s necessary.”
@JessicaEKerr
