Why the Yellowknife protest's 'event planner' didn't actually plan the protest
Protesters dressed up their vehicles with Canadian flags and signs denouncing vaccine and mask mandates
Over 100 protesters drove across Yellowknife on Saturday to voice opposition to public health restrictions and show solidarity with the convoy in Ottawa.
Several vehicles attached Canadian flags and signs expressing disdain for vaccine mandates.
A single flatbed truck led the procession with a sign that read "Thank you truckers."
Drivers passing by either honked in support or shook their heads at their sight.
Who planned the event remains a mystery.
CBC News was unable to reach the organizers and was informed by an attendee that they didn't want to speak publicly for fear of reprisal at their place of employment.
The week leading up to the event included a bizarre social media situation involving someone impersonating a Yellowknife resident and posing as the event's organizer.
Public event impersonator
A false Facebook page for an event planner, impersonating Yellowknife resident Brie O'Keefe, created one of the only online public events for the protest.
O'Keefe is not a professional event planner nor did she organize the rally.
The online event didn't get much traction, as only one person said they were going before it was taken down by its creator.
"I'm hesitant to even speak to the media about it because I don't want to give them the attention that I feel like they are craving, or the fact that they seem to want to inconvenience or upset me," O'Keefe said of the impersonator on Thursday.
"So I'm just trying to keep a good sense of humour about it, and I'm not really concerned that anyone will actually think that this is me."
The page included photos that were lifted from O'Keefe's personal Facebook page, but she wasn't too bothered by that.
"I mean they chose nice photos," she said with a laugh.
The account has since been removed after the real organizers persuaded the individual behind it to do so, she said.
She said she was unable to get Facebook to remove the impersonating profile because it was a page, not a personal account.
CBC News reached out to Facebook, but did not receive a response by deadline.
CBC News also reached out to the individual who created the fake account.
The message was read, but not responded to.
O'Keefe said she thinks the person did this because she gave a thumbs down sign to the protest that was held last week, and then posted about it on social media.
"I did post on social media that I was proud to have been able to make eye contact and give this person a thumbs down to indicate I didn't approve," she said.
Protesters gather in Ottawa
The protest in Ottawa started as a movement against the mandate for cross border commercial drivers to be vaccinated.
Protesters, including truckers, drove from across the country, growing in size and messaging. It now includes people protesting all vaccine mandates, masks mandates, lockdowns and a variety of other health restrictions that came in as a response to COVID-19.
A number of business groups, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, issued a warning earlier this week, saying the trucker mandate could disrupt the free flow of goods between Canada and the U.S.
The Canadian Trucking Alliance issued a statement in opposition to the convoy, stating that the vast majority of truckers are fully vaccinated.
But it warned that anywhere from 12,000 to 16,000 Canadian cross-border commercial drivers — roughly 10 to 15 per cent of all truckers who regularly cross the Canada-U.S. boundary — could be sidelined by the federal mandate.
The world's top doctors and scientists maintain that a high vaccine uptake is most effective way to end all COVID-19 restrictions.
A protest against public health restrictions was also scheduled to be held in Hay River on Saturday. The organizers of this event refused to be interviewed by the CBC.