North Vancouver RCMP explain why demonstrators aren't being removed from Highway 1 overpasses

It’s been more than a month since the province was granted a court injunction prohibiting demonstrators from affixing banners to or congregating on the Mountain Highway overpass of Highway 1 in North Vancouver.

The weekly overpass rallies, which have included signs disparaging the prime minister, COVID-19 vaccines and most recently the transgender community, have been held every Thursday for months now and are offensive to many motorists.

“This is hateful speech, it’s discriminating against the trans and queer community of the North Shore and everyone who drives on Highway 1. And I don’t understand how it’s been allowed to continue for as long as it has,” said Stephanie, an activist who asked CTV News not to use her last name because rally-goers have targeted her in the past.

After Stephanie spoke to North Vancouver council about the issue on Monday, RCMP issued a media release explaining why they’re not enforcing the court injunction.

Constable Mansoor Sahak also spoke to CTV, saying he shares the community’s concerns. “I drive past those signs, those messages don’t align with our community that we stand for, and they don’t align with the RCMP’s core values,” said Sahak.

But he said shutting the weekly rallies down isn’t as simple as taking the offensive signs away and arresting participants.

“Our priority right now is not to go out there and make mass arrests, that’s not what we want to do. We want people to lawfully protest and also follow the injunction, that’s our main priority,” said Sahak. “If we enforce the injunction, we have to make sure that doing so does not infringe on anybody’s charter rights.”

Stephanie says the queer and transgender community’s charter rights are being violated by the hateful signs at the overpass rallies.

“Imagine bring a queer or trans person you have to drive past these horrible signs every Thursday afternoon and all the RCMP can say is, well, they have a right to be there,” Stephanie said. “One person cannot use their rights to discriminate against another group, and that’s what’s happening now.”

She said the court order has given RCMP the ability to remove the demonstrators. “The police need to enforce it, and they are failing queer and trans people by failing to enforce it.”

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure also wants the injunction enforced, saying in an emailed statement: “Enforcement of the court order is the responsibility of the police. We continue to ask police to act on the injunction to provide for the safety of the travelling public.”

The injunction only covers demonstrations on the Mountain Highway overpass, and last week the rally was moved to another overpass in North Vancouver. At Monday’s council meeting, mayor Mike Little said he wants the ministry to amend the order.

“It was obviously very easily avoidable by moving to the next one on the highway,” said Little. “They need to expand it to all bridges in the region, and that seems to be the only teeth that we actually have to make change.”

The ministry’s statement said it is continuing to monitor the situation and will need to review further actions.

Stephanie wants to see the overpass rallies banned on all provincial highways, and not just because of hate speech. She says they’re unsafe.

“We have seen…one banner fall off the overpass onto Highway 1. I have personally witnessed rally participants engaging with vehicle traffic, walking onto the overpass onto traffic lanes, trying to district drivers,” Stephanie said. “They’re trying to hurt people, and this is unacceptable.”