Medicine Hat hosts first yellow-vest rally of 2019

One of the four yellow-vest organizers, Tamara Lich explains.

“We want Bill C-69 stopped,” said Lich. “We want C-48 stopped. There’s a lot of concern over Bill C-71 and the signing of the UN Migration Pact as well. The yellow-vest movement is not anti-immigration. We want legal immigration. That’s it.”

Lich then explained she doesn’t know when these protests will end.

“I hope to see this going until we see some changes at our top levels, the federal level. That’s the most important thing.”

Another important thing when it comes to these protests is public safety.

“I spoke with a constable from the Medicine Hat Police Service (MHPS) yesterday. He said their concern is the safety of the public and I assured him we as protesters were on the same page.”

Lich furthered her comments by saying protesters are not trying to be disruptive.

“We’re not coming out here to cause disruption or violence. We simply want to be seen, we want to be heard and we want to support all Canadians and Albertans.”

If things were to get out of hand, Lich said they had the full-support of the MHPS.

“The constable said if we ever feel unsafe or threatened, they will happily come and be here for us.”

In regards to the yellow-vest protest, Lich said she wasn’t sure what the next step was.

“There was a petition being advertised today by one lady, but we as organizers haven’t been circulating anything at the rallies. Like I said, we’re trying to keep this very positive and keep it moving forward. We don’t want any negative connotations with what we’re doing.”

That ‘one lady’ was Crystal Graham.

“I wanted to give information about the Canadian Peoples Union (CPU), Freedom 2017,” explained Graham. “It’s about Canadians taking back their rights because our government isn’t hearing what our yellow-vest’s have to say.”

Graham feels the Liberal Government has turned their backs on Canadians and this is the next feasible step.

“They need 51% of Canadians to sign the form. They are going to go to court and speak on all of our behalf. They can be found at www.myfreedom2017.com and there’s a form there just to sign your name.”

If the petition garners enough Canadian signatures, that is when Graham said the action will begin.

“This would be so our rights could be heard in court. This will kind of put everything in a stand still, so that maybe a proper investigation could be ran. People need to know ‘where is our money going?’ ‘What is really going on with our oil and gas industry’.”

Graham then stated that Alberta needs help.

“These people are going to fight for us. They’re going to be fighting for everything that we as protesters stand by.”

If you would like to educate yourself on the petition, Graham said she isn’t going to push it upon you.

“I’m going to leave that up to the people to decide. Go to the website and read more about it. You’ll see all the benefits that could come out of this and why we need to stand up for ourselves.”

And just like Lich, Graham said the yellow-vest movement has many issues with the Liberal Government. Picking one to tie to this rally would be difficult.

“At one point it was all about the oil and gas sector and then it just snowballed out of control. The next thing you know, we’re having conversations around veterans and immigration. It’s just all starting to snowball and people are slowly starting to realize we as Canadians are not being heard.”

Graham said she knows what her next step will be.

“I did send a very nice and professional letter to the Prime Minister. It’s been months since that letter and I haven’t heard anything. Now, my next step is this petition and to get signatures from those willing.”

The next yellow-vest protest in Medicine Hat is slated for Saturday, January 12th from 12-2 p.m between Safeway and Superstore on Carry Drive.

by Taylor Chartrand

Medicine Hat hosts first yellow-vest rally of 2019

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