While hundreds of people packed into Stuart Park for Kelowna's weekly protest against COVID-19 measures, and the din of vehicle horns rang out across the downtown core, one woman held her own counter-protest downtown.
Sharon Gardner spent four hours on the corner of Bernard Avenue and Pandosy Street outside Mosaic Books with her own sign, representing what she called the “silent majority.”
“The silent majority is the people who are hard working, mind their own business, go about life,” Gardner said.
“And they might be concerned about things, but they just keep thinking it'll get better and don't do anything. So they put up with things like these noisy [protests]. Noise does not mean right.
“The appalling silence of the silent majority is what allows things to get out of hand.”
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a group of varying size has gathered in Kelowna's Stuart Park to protest the changing health measures that have been in place to slow the spread of COVID-19. In recent weeks, spurred on by the protest in Ottawa, several hundred people have gathered in the park, while vehicles drive through downtown honking their horns and waving flags and signs.
Gardner says she's found herself complaining to friends for weeks about the disruptive protests, and she finally decided to take it upon herself to put her own message out there.
Castanet's conversation with Gardner was repeatedly drowned out by honking horns, but several people who walked by thanked her for her solo counter-protest. She said about 80 per cent of people she had spoken with Saturday had agreed with her message. But she says a handful of people disagreed with her “by insulting and saying 'you're stupid' and 'F off' and those kinds of things.”
“How can you have a reasonable conversation?” she asked.
“They're talking freedom, but I say, 'Well, what does freedom mean to you?' Does that mean you just can rampantly go do whatever you want, because you're free? Regardless of how it hurts another citizen? Well every freedom we've ever achieved in our country, has got responsibility, but they don't get that.”
Gardner had photos of her father-in-law and uncle on her poster – both of whom served in World War Two – with the heading: “True freedom fighters.”
“Attention silent majority: Let your voices rise above the strident clamour of honking trucks and misinformation,” her sign read.
"I have been around the block a time or two ... and I've just learned a whole lot over a lifetime," Gardner said. “This kind of just being noisy and bullying does not solve problems, but we can't seem to get our country, and that includes all of our leaders, to have a civil discourse.”
Gardner wasn't the only “counter-protester” out in Kelowna Saturday. A small handful of people stood outside Kelowna City Hall, across the street from the large Stuart Park protest, with signs like “Vaccines are not oppression.”
But they were vastly outnumbered by those with “F**k Trudeau” flags and those holding signs advocating for the incarceration of Dr. Bonnie Henry.
A handful of RCMP officers were once again on scene of the large protest Saturday afternoon. But police have said they have not had to respond to any incidents at the weekly protest in recent weeks.
Gardner says she plans to return to her corner next weekend.
“If I just influence one person to write letters to let our MPs know what we think, I'm happy with that,” she said. “It starts with one voice.”
