The fight against BC Hydro smart meters took to the Qualicum Beach Farmers’ Market Saturday as protesters waved placards, collected petitions and talked to passers by about the issue.
Spokesperson Leanne Salter said the protest will be at the corner of Veterans Way and Memorial Avenue every weekend.
“It’s really a resistance movement, I think, to let Hydro know they can’t tell us what they will be doing on our own property,” she said. “People feel this is an imposition on the charter, on their rights and freedoms. They’re going into our homes now and we can’t allow that.”
Salter said a photograph of an electricity meter in The News was in fact a smart meter, complete with what she called a Digby chip, which is not found on normal digital meters.
“You can see the chip,” she said. “That’s a smart meter.”
Salter said she doesn’t believe BC Hydro is the force pushing for the installation of the smart meters.
“I believe it is coming from some other place,” she said. “They are doing what they have to do to keep their jobs, but I don’t think they are the ones to blame in this.”
Salter was reluctant to say who she does think is to blame, but her colleague, John St. John, did not.
“It’s a lot bigger than smart meters,” he said. “There’s chem trails, things in our food. I believe it’s a shadow government that’s behind it. To me, it’s population control and that’s the end of it. I will also be the end of us if they get their way, but they won’t.”
The protesters vow to be at the site both Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 10 a.m.
