A group of North Bay activists is planning a "counter-rally" Saturday, opposing one by the Yellow Vest group, that also has plans to assemble downtown.
The Yellow Vest group will rally in front of City Hall, while the people opposing them will rally in front of the Multicultural Centre on Main St.
Both will take place at 11 a.m.
See: Yellow vest protest coming to North Bay
The Yellow Vest platform is about ousting Prime Minister Trudeau and "protest against the carbon tax and the treason of our country's politicians who have the audacity to sell out our country's sovereignty over to the globalist UN pact and their tyrannical policies," according to local organizer Alex Barbu Caron.
The U.N. reference is to the UN Global Compact For Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
"You can see if you go on their page there is a lot of anti-immigration sentiment being expressed so we're troubled by that just as concerned citizens," organizer Shawn Moreton told BayToday. "It's a shame that this is happening in North Bay. We wanted to put together a counter rally to show that that's not what North Bay stands for, that we're a welcoming community and we've rallied together in the past to bring Syrian refugee families here and we strongly believe in respecting and protecting human rights especially those fleeing persecution.
"We just don't want that voice of hatred to be the dominant message."
Moreton says the idea behind rallying a block away from the Yellow Vests is to avoid any sort of confrontation.
"People have emotional feelings around issues, and we know the subject does promote emotions, so we don't want to have a conflict we want to peacefully send our message so we're going to do it in our own space because we have no interest in confrontation."
The group is called Solidarity Nipissing but Moreton says it's a very loose organization with no structure.
"It's literally just whoever wants to take part in social justice or environmental causes and this gives us a platform to share our ideas and plan these sorts of things."
For details, check their Facebook page.
"We just want to let people know that North Bay is open and welcoming to anyone."
