Anti mask protesters banned from B.C. Ferries after causing disturbance
almost 5 years in timescolonist
TIFFANY CRAWFORD
Vancouver Sun
A group of anti-mask protesters has been banned from B.C. Ferries after they caused a disturbance on a sailing from Nanaimo to West Vancouver on Saturday morning.
The incident happened on the same day as a rally in Vancouver, where protesters demonstrated against masks, quarantine and other health measures meant to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall says about 12 unmasked people boarded the 8:30 a.m. sailing from Departure Bay to Horseshoe Bay and were belligerent to masked passengers.
“We assume they were travelling over to the protest in Vancouver [on Saturday]. They were causing a disturbance and being verbally abusive to other passengers,” she said.
B.C. Ferries has a mandatory mask policy in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“We don’t tolerate this type of behaviour,” said Marshall, adding that they called West Vancouver police, who met the ship at Horseshoe Bay when it arrived.
She said the passengers are banned from travel for at least today, and West Vancouver police are investigating.
Unloading of the vessel was delayed as B.C. Ferries waited for the police to arrive.
Many attendees at the Vancouver rally spread misinformation and touted conspiracy theories, and featured speakers included David Icke, a British conspiracy theorist who became well-known for his theories on lizard people and the Illuminati.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network calls Icke an “anti-Semitic conspiracy superspreader” because he claims that “Rothschild Zionists” control the world, that Jews financially supported Hitler during the Second World War, and that Jews were behind both the 9/11 terror attack and the 2008 recession.
Icke has also argued that schools should permit the study of Holocaust denial.
He was banned from YouTube after promoting the idea that COVID-19 was caused by 5G technology.