Anti-fracking protesters harass Rebel News reporters while shutting down Vancouver’s Cambie Street Bridge

On Monday, a new group of climate activists called “Stop Fracking Around” hosted a protest to demand the end of fracked natural gas in Canada. Around 80 people attended the protest with the intent of shutting down northbound traffic on Vancouver’s six-lane Cambie Street Bridge, before heading to hear speeches in front of CBC’s headquarters in an act of “nonviolent civil resistance.”

One of the lead organizers of the protest, Sophie Papp, declined to be interviewed but confirmed to Rebel News that she was the individual who was arrested after dumping molasses over Gastown’s historical Steam Clock last week.

The protest began at Vancouver City Hall and was followed by a march to the bridge lead by a Wet’suwet’en ( Wet’suwet’en ) Nation hereditary chief named Namoks and others from the anti-pipeline group Gidimt’en . The demonstration obstructed northbound traffic for approximately 25 minutes, while chief Na'Moks and a couple of other demonstrators spoke.

Cheif Namoks (John Ridsdale) made headlines in 2021 after pleading guilty for shooting his neighbourhood dog.

According to The National Post, Risdale shot a Pitbull named Baily with a rifle while inebriated. "The dog, who had been on the woman’s front porch, was taken to a vet clinic but died early the next morning," said the Post.

Rebel News was on site to cover the protest, including the bridge obstruction, but many of the protesters seemed more concerned with harassing our staff and impeding our journalism than articulating for our viewers why they believe that “it’s all over for humanity if we don’t join together and resist the most dangerous governments in history that continues to allow fossil fuel expansions and fracking.”

Things got sticky on the Cambie Street Bridge.

It appears the anti-fracking protesters have demands they want heard, but only by people who they think are likely to agree with them 🤷🏾‍♀️

Apparently Rebel News viewers “are not welcome”
Full report coming soon @RebelNewsOnline pic.twitter.com/UG87JwEPZh

— Hungry for Truth with Drea Humphrey (@DreaHumphrey) August 15, 2022

One of the most aggressive protesters of the group, who dangerously waved burning sage at myself and B.C. producer Matt Brevner while telling us we were not welcome there, was a familiar face to Rebel News. This protester was the same woman to order me to leave a public park I was reporting on in Vancouver that had been taken over by a homeless encampment, where she had been in some sort of leadership capacity.

After demonstrators finished impeding half of the Cambie Street Bridge, they marched to the front of CBC to hear more speeches. Unfortunately, while their arranged speakers spoke about some of the group’s concerns, including the need for First Nation communities to have clean water, their demonstrators continued to impede our ability to capture much of what was said.

Thankfully, Rebel News has already covered the need for this basic human right to clean water extensively, and we even have a way for you to help. My colleague Adam Soos has put together a petition at our special website called CleanWaterNow.ca that you can sign and share to demand that the 27 First Nation communities still under water advisories get immediate access to clean water.

It’s ironic that a group that opposes much of how the government operates was happy to give interviews to and allow state-backed media reporters to freely cover their protest, but chose to harass reporters from Canada’s largest independent media outlet, Rebel News, for attempting to do the same. Thankfully, the Vancouver Police did an amazing job making sure that we were kept safe from the protesters while bringing you this story.

If you appreciate that Rebel News journalists had our boots on the ground to cover this demonstration even though we were “not welcome,” please consider donating at RebelFieldReports.com to help cover the costs of reports like this.