How a real estate van ended up in Saturday's protest convoy to Vancouver

When the owner of Metro Vancouver real estate firm Orca Realty saw a photo of one of his company vans participating in Saturday’s convoy protesting COVID-19 restrictions, he was flabbergasted.

“Shocked I guess, stunned,” said Michael Welsh in an interview with CTV News. “It was not sanctioned at all. It was not checked beforehand with ownership or management.”

Welsh says Orca Realty does not support the protest convoy or its anti-restrictions message, and the van was being driven without his knowledge or consent by the husband of one of the company’s property managers who is based in Mission, B.C.

“So her husband, without checking with anyone, basically, chose to use one of those vehicles and go in the convoy,” said Welsh, who says he spoke to the property manager in question. “I did not delve into if she actually knew or not. Her husband obviously has quite strong beliefs, and to be honest I’m not sure if that’s her belief as well.”

Welsh would not name the property manager, who has been placed on indefinite leave from Orca Realty. That hasn’t stopped some people online from calling for a boycott.

“There is a lot of venom out there and a lot of anger, and I guess I do understand the reaction,” said Welsh.

Alyn Edwards with the crisis public relations firm Peak Communicators says incidents like this can be a hit for a company’s reputation.

“I’ve looked on the internet. A lot of people are putting negative postings about this company. All the employer can do is a full face-plant mea culpa: 'I’m sorry. This shouldn’t have happened,'” said Edwards, adding “When you mess up, you fess up and dress up.”

He suggests Orca Realty adopt a strict policy on use of company vehicles so this doesn’t happen again.

“It’s common sense not to use a company vehicle in a way that’s damaging to a company’s reputation, but that’s what happened here,” said Edwards. “I think the only thing worse is if your vehicle ran over protesters or demonstrators. This is really a bad situation for the image of this company. But I believe that the employer has done the right thing and he’s done it very quickly.”

Welsh says he understands the outrage, and it’s been a learning opportunity for Orca Realty, adding, “I just hope at some point in the future, they can get back to how they thought about us before.”