Letters from the Front Lines: Vancouver Riot

The Positivity of June 16th - From Someone Who Helped Clean Up The City

I went to bed on June 15th feeling horrified and ashamed of the events that had befallen my city. I had been downtown when the riots broke out, and my friends and I chose to make a quick beeline for the SeaBus and watch the events of the riot unfurl from the safety of the evening news, rather than stay downtown and get in the way.

I woke the next morning still feeling terrible, so I grabbed a broom and garbage bags and met some friends downtown to help with the cleanup. We got there at 9 am, and so many people had already been working for hours to repair our beautiful city. Decked out in Canucks gear and great attitudes, the volunteers were everywhere.

All the major cleanup had already been done by these amazing volunteers, so we spent the day sweeping, picking up glass, and removing litter from the streets. I really feel the need to emphasize what a positive experience this was. Vancouver was full of hundreds of people who devoted their day to being part of a solution to a problem that they had nothing to do with in the first place…

Many people handed out cleaning supplies, and someone from a local business even went around handing out iced tea to volunteers. As this was a Thursday, the majority of Vancouverites had work.

However, literally hundreds of times throughout the day, people stopped to shake our hands, pat us on the back, and thank all volunteers for cleaning up the city. A tearful off-duty cop told me what the volunteer efforts would mean to his colleague who had been injured while on duty the night before and was still in hospital.

I spoke to another woman who pulled her 10 year old daughter out of school for the day to help with the cleanup, teaching a valuable lesson that the previous night’s behaviour was never okay. And throughout the day, the Wall of Love exploded with messages.

Some may not know this, but Hudson’s Bay Company, aside from being looted, was also grafittied extensively.

Many selfless volunteers spent the entire day with Mr. Clean erasers scrubbing at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s walls.

The support that was shown on June 16th was incredible, from volunteers, passerbys who took the time to thank volunteers, and people who were committed to improving the city’s morale.

By 2pm, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find things to clean up, because the army of self-motivated volunteers had done so much.

I went home that day feeling so much better about our city. For every sleazebag that chose to act the way they did, I saw hundreds of well intentioned people who deeply care about Vancouver.

While much of the international media is choosing to define Vancouver by the actions of a minority of rioters, I choose to define it as the enormous amount of compassion I saw by the majority of Vancouverites on June 16th.

A sincere thank you to all the amazing volunteers that were cleaning up the city on June 16th. May others choose to follow this kind of “mob mentality.”