The Trump presidency is facing global protests, and two women from Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge worked behind the scenes to coordinate the Women’s March Vancouver on Saturday.
Lisa Langevin, an electrician from Pitt Meadows, said called the march an historic event, and expected the Vancouver march to be part 600 similar protests around the globe.
An estimated 10,000 men, women and children flooded into downtown Vancouver for the event.
Langevin was joined by Bodil Geyer of Maple Ridge as two Fraser Valley women who wanted to be part of the global protest, and were key organizers of the Vancouver event.
Langevin said it was not to be a march to protest the presidency of Donald Trump, who was sworn in on Friday. It is about standing up against sexism, racism and all other forms of discrimination, she said.
“It’s important to me that every citizen around the world stand up against these attitudes. It’s important that we stand up against it around the kitchen table, or at the boardroom table,” she said.
For her, the moment that made her want to take action was watching Trump mock a disabled New York Times reporter.
“He mocked a person with disabilities in a way that I haven’t seen since grade school,” she said.
She said his sexism and attacks against immigrants cannot be allowed to be normalized.
“It’s up to every citizen to stand up.”
Will it make a difference?
“I think it already has made a difference,” she said.
Hundreds of thousands of women, many wearing pink hats, poured into Washington on Saturday for the women’s March there. There were similar scenes across America.
“We stand against hate in all forms and against targeting any groups or individuals. For ourselves and others, we express our right to respect and acceptance without bias or persecution, said the Facebook page for the event in Vancouver.
It started at Jack Poole Plaza on Saturday morning, and the march went to the Trump Tower on West Georgia Street.
Langevin said the organizers hoped to get 1,000 participants in the march, but the event attracted many times that number.
