At the Nov 5 public hearing, a downtown resident who described herself as a queer disabled low-income woman from a refugee background shared her experience of the occupation.
“I’m used to protests and demonstrations downtown, there’ve been many protests during the 20 years that I’ve lived here but none that I’ve experienced have been as personally disruptive and disturbing to me and my neighbors as the convoy occupation. It re-traumatized me and others who are disabled, or of queer, or immigrant or refugee backgrounds. The number of bylaws that were broken and the level of fear, discomfort, and intimidation and inconvenience it imposed on both myself and the residents of this downtown core. I’ve never seen this before.
I was personally harassed by Convoy supporters in the neighborhood who followed me and screamed and yelled at me for wearing a mask, moving close up to my face and then they started to videotape my angry reaction to the harassment. They taunted me and they told me they would post my reaction on Facebook and dox me. On the corner of Lyon and Queen Street, there was a truck with an anti-trans slogan written on its body. It was parked there for days. My neighborhood is home to many queer persons and seeing this kind of hate speech, it was extremely upsetting.”
You can view the full testimony here.
