About a dozen people, most of them wearing yellow vests, waved Canadian flags and anti-carbon-tax and anti-United Nations placards from the 232 Street highway overpass in Langley Saturday.
According to the participants, it was a demonstration about several issues, but mostly it was against the recent United Nations compact on migration, a voluntary set of guidelines signed by Canada along with more than 160 other countries that they say will reduce the ability of Canada to set immigration policy.
“I’m very concerned with the direction that Canada is going,” said spokesperson Terry Harder.
Harder said the yellow vest demonstrators were “following in the footsteps of France,” where thousands have marched in sometimes-violent protests against government tax policies, many wearing the fluorescent safety vests used by motorists.
The yellow vest movement launched in France on November 17, fuelled by anger over taxes demonstrators said are hurting ordinary workers and retired people.
There have been several “yellow vest” protests in B.C. and the rest of Canada, generally smaller and non-violent.
For Harder, the issues included the carbon tax, delays in building a pipeline from Alberta and the United Nations compact on migration.
“We’re not against [all] immigration,” Harder said.
“We’re against immigration where anyone can come into Canada. We’re not racists, we’re not white supremacists.”
READ MORE: VIDEO: Highway overpass protest in Langley against United Nations ‘compact’ on immigration
A previous protest at the same location on the same issue generated controversy because of the involvement of the Culture Guard group, headed by Langley resident Kari Simpson, which has been a strident opponent of the SOGI (Sexual orientation and Gender Identity) program in schools.
When asked by Black Press, all of the participants in the Saturday protest said they were not involved with Culture Guard.
Most said they learned about the demonstration from an online announcement.
