Counter-protesting freedom? Calgary police merge duelling demonstrations

Once backup arrived, the officers opened the sidewalk to allow the freedom rally to usurp the counter-protest entirely, creating a police line on either side of the counter-protest.

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Calgary has been host to the “United for Freedom” rally since the beginnings of the 'pandemic'; however, over the last few weeks, a group of counter-protesters have showed up to call for the weekly freedom rallies to come to an end.

These counter-protests have gone on for the last few weeks, and have started attempting to block the freedom march from walking down their regular route. The weekend before last, the freedom rally found an alternate route around the counter-protest, but this past weekend the freedom rally passed the opposing demonstration as police held open the sidewalk for them to pass.

Another surprise this past weekend was the style of enforcement we saw from Calgary police — specifically their failed attempt at handling both groups.

At first, police were seen using bicycles to push a small portion of counter-protesters out of the way. Then, further into the march, the rest of the counter-protesters blocked the roadway where a police line had been set up to divide both groups.

As the freedom rally continued towards the counter-protest group, police fell back to the staging grounds of the counter-protest, and had a double police line between the two.

After a brief time, many freedom rally protesters made their way around the meek police line and ended up on either side of the counter-protest, where both groups began to verbally contest one another's points of view.

Following a delay, Calgary police then called for more boots on the ground. Once backup arrived, the officers opened the sidewalk to allow the freedom rally to usurp the counter-protest entirely, creating a police line on either side of the counter-protest.

From this instance, Calgary's mayor, Jyoti Gondek, and Alberta's premier, Jason Kenney, condemned the freedom rally over the incident, seemingly as a show of support for the fringe minority of pro-government/Big Pharma counter-protesters.

Though it is disappointing that politicians would only favour the pro-government counter-protest, it should come as no surprise, seeing as for the last two years they have grown comfortable abusing the powers they hold to condemn those who disagree, and sought solace in individuals who prefer our government to play the role of Big Brother.

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