‘We must keep this peaceful at all costs’: Rally against racism, police brutality organized in Vancouver

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — Jacob Callender-Prasad is inviting anyone who wants to peacefully demonstrate against police brutality and racism and to rally for change to join him.

The protest is planned for the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday at 5 p.m.

Three days ago, 50 people had seen his post calling for action, by Saturday night it had spread to tens of thousands.

Callender-Prasad tells NEWS 1130 that there were several different protests planned or rumoured in the city, but they’ve all agreed to join forces.

“It’s heartwarming to see the community come together because this is a good, meaningful event. It’s time for change. We want change, we want justice,” he says.

“We feel it’s been too long that we’ve sat in the silence, and sat by. We want to address the issues in Canada and the issues that are happening in America, but in a peaceful manner.”

Protests have gripped the U.S. since the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota on Monday.

Floyd, an unarmed black man, died while being arrested by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer who has since been charged with third-degree murder.

Video shows Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, pinning him to the ground with the full force of his body-weight for more than eight minutes.

Callender-Prasad says protesters want the other three officers who participated in Floyd’s arrest to face criminal charges and everyone at Sunday’s rally will be asked to give a social media shout out to U.S. officials demanding accountability.

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The call for peaceful protest comes after rioting in several U.S. cities has been suppressed by police.

“We’ve seen what’s happening in the United States of black people consistently getting arrested. We do not want to see our people maced, getting shot with rubber bullets,” Callender-Prasad says.

“For people of colour, if a riot happens we don’t want cops to have to move in and arrest people. We don’t need headlines in Vancouver showing officers arresting black youth.”

His message to anyone considering property damage, or violence: “Don’t.”

“We must keep this peaceful at all costs. We do not want the lives and the effort we put in to be risked for this just because people want to go and loot and damage things. They want to go in and just loot and steal because they think it’s fun and funny but in reality these are lives that people have worked for and created in this community and we want to honour that.”

“We do not need to destroy our community. We do not need to damage anything to get our point across. There are issues right now that we need to address and violence is not the way.”

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The central issue the protest seeks to confront is racism.

“This is very personal to me. I went through my own share of police mistaken identity, I’ve been detained, again with mistaken identity. I just want people to understand that these issues do happen here in Canada,” he says.

“In Canada, racism always gets swept under the rug and no one knows how to address it. We’re not taught this in schools, it’s a life lesson and we’re trying to teach it in the most peaceful way possible.”

He notes that ending racist violence and discrimination is a responsibility that is shared by the justice system, all levels of government, and citizens.

Violent conflict between police and protesters has the potential to further inflame what Callender-Prasad says is an already “heated climate.”

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Black Lives Matter Vancouver posted in solidarity with of the protest, also emphasizing a call for peaceful demonstration.

The group echoed the plea for non-violence made by the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet ahead of a protest that drew thousands to the streets of Toronto Saturday. 

In a statement released by the family’s lawyer Knia Singh says it thanks organizers for bringing attention to a “very serious matter.”

“The mother and the family do not want protests in the vein of anger. They do not want protests in the vein of violence,” it continues.

Korchinski-Paquet died in Toronto on Tuesday and the circumstances leading up to her fall from a 24th-floor balcony are being probed by the province’s police watchdog because Toronto police were in the home when the 29-year-old died.

Korchinski-Paquet’s mother said that she called officers to the apartment asking them to take her daughter to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She said she never thought her daughter could have ended up dead.

Black Lives Matter and Callender-Prasad are also asking anyone who attends to practise social distancing and wear a face mask.