October 14, 2022

The man couldn’t believe all these people standing with their signs chanting. Why were they still protesting? What were they protesting? Covid was over, wasn’t it?

He had come out every Saturday since it all began two long years ago. In the beginning, he understood why they were out in the park pushing their conspiracy theories – sort of. At least there were actual restrictions to protest. But they were fooled by something or someone. The pandemic was real and many people in the world died from it. 

So Cary had come out to the park to counter their protest. 

He was the voice of reason in a world gone insane. He had his little sign and he marched to his own drum. Why did the protesters keep coming to Polson Park in Vernon to spout their bullshit? Sure the government wasn’t perfect, he would be the first to tell anyone who would listen to him.

He wished more people would listen. It didn’t matter that much, he did what he felt was right. He wasn’t a very big man and he’d suffered in his sixty years on planet Earth. So he knew what it was like to feel pain. He just wanted to show these people the error of their ways. 

Life was too short to stand idly by while these people kept pushing their ideas on the town of Vernon. 

So here he was back again. 

He had his own horn to blow in protest of the honking cars. The silent majority just drove slowly by trying to ignore the people waving signs of freedom and control. They had no idea what communism was, they had no idea what being denied freedom really was. There was no deep conspiracy to control the world using a virus. So he stood apart from them and blew his horn and made his stand.

Until they started to push him away. They pushed him right into the street and a truck barely missed running him over.

They told him his horn hurt some of the people with hearing problems. So he stopped blowing it and went to the boulevard to stay separated from the crowd. 

That’s when the guy took his sign and defaced it. His sign read “Covid is not a plot” and the idiot had taken a spray can and blackened out the word “not”. 

What did these people think it was? Why would there be a worldwide conspiracy? But here came the man and Cary stood his ground. He tried to stop him from grabbing the sign he had left. 

That’s when they wrestled to the ground. 

Suddenly the stranger was on top of him and smashing his head into the concrete. Why was this happening? 

In moments it was over, and he lay there in a daze trying to gather his jumbled thoughts. An ambulance came and checked on him and the police stood around making sure nothing else happened.

But the cops would charge the attacker. It was assault, wasn’t it?

Cary was sure there were still good people in the world. Why wouldn’t anyone testify to what happened? 

He wasn’t going to give up.

Someone needed to push back against the hate, the fear. He would be that someone despite being attacked and beaten. Maybe it would make some of them think twice, maybe…

On October 4, 2022, Korry Zepik stood and counter-protested the anti-covid mandate protester in Vernon’s Polson Park. He was assaulted and violently attacked. The protester said Korry was being confrontational and using a loud air horn that was disturbing to some of the people there who had hearing issues.

Regardless, violence is never the answer. 

There have been protesters marching in Stewart Park in downtown Kelowna every Saturday as well. I drove past a protest that had a band and it was a party-like atmosphere. I didn’t understand the point they were trying to make especially since the last of the travel mandates had been lifted on October 1. 

There are still things that don’t make sense which these people are pushing back against. The main one is the continued mandate around unvaccinated medical professionals in a already understaffed healthcare system. It is past time to lift that mandate and get back to a normal world.

Will we ever get back to normal?

Violence will solve nothing. I hope that the people protesting can respect someone who doesn’t agree with them and I hope that love will conquer hate. I hope…

I hope one day we can heal the wounds and the division from the last two and a half years and move forward united and strong.