A new, Richmond-based parent group calling itself the BC Parents’ Federation crashed a pro-BC Teachers’ Federation rally on Sunday in Downtown Vancouver, causing a small skirmish.
CBC News reported the two sides required Vancouver police to step in as some BCTF supporters became incensed when the handful of parents, most wearing surgical masks, had confronted them.
Photos of the protest by CBC and local Chinese media websites show parents holding signs reading “We love teachers but not the BCTF.”
It’s unclear exactly who the parents are, however, a man named Tom Tang told CBC he was the group’s spokesman.
Tang may now face disciplinary action from his workplace, the Richmond Centre for Disability (RCD), for using its website to procure supporters, organize rallies and make anti-BCTF statements.
“It was unauthorized use of the server,” said Ella Huang, RCD’s executive director, who made it clear that RCD had nothing to do with the rally.
“It has been rectified, and we will take any internal review and disciplinary action that is necessary,” said Huang, noting the sub-pages to accessrichmond.ca that promoted the parents group have since been taken down. Meanwhile, an associated Facebook page up and running on the weekend has also been deactivated.
When the pages were active, they indicated the group had just 32 members.
The parent group had staged its own, uninterrupted protest on Sep. 7 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Tang did not respond to inquiries, via email, from the Richmond News.
