At the Nov 5 public hearing, a pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church shared their experience of the occupation.
“Through four consecutive Saturdays, the occupation severely affected our particular church’s outdoor meal distribution. Many of our regularly more than 100 guests didn’t show up, volunteers couldn’t travel in for reasons of anxiety or traffic restrictions. Thankfully we had a good core of new Centretown volunteers able to fill gaps on very short notice. I also recall the following, protesters urinating against our church walls, volunteers mocked by protesters for wearing masks, our dinner guests in line being harassed to take off their masks.
On February 12th, during my walk to Knox to assist our volunteers, I was verbally threatened by three protesters. The incident was recorded by a local resident walking past and I’ll never forget how the loudest person’s unmasked face shouted directly into mine from about four inches away ‘get the hell out of my face’, ironic.”
You can view the full testimony here.
