A B.C. participant in the Ottawa convoy protest organized a pot luck barbecue and some parking lot hockey games for kids in a Langley recreation centre parking lot on Saturday, Feb. 26.

John Bancroft, an excavator operator who lives in Langley91裸聊视频檚 Brookswood neighbourhood, said he would like the event to lead to other, similar in-person meet-ups, to start a process of reconciliation and help heal divisions in the country.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 bringing the community together,91裸聊视频� Bancroft told the Langley Advance Times.

91裸聊视频淛ust getting everyone shaking hands again and talking. Once we get that going, it will all fix itself.91裸聊视频�

The George Preston get-together was not, he stressed, about the anti-vaccine-mandate protest that he took part in.

91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 completely separate [from that],91裸聊视频� said Bancroft.

91裸聊视频淭hat91裸聊视频檚 my personal thing.91裸聊视频�

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Bancroft said he left Ottawa before the police moved in and began making widespread arrests.

91裸聊视频淚 had a gut feeling,91裸聊视频� he recalled.

His memories of the Ottawa event were positive.

91裸聊视频淢y experience was nothing but community coming together,91裸聊视频� Bancroft remarked, adding he did not personally witness any of the reported incidents of bad behavior while he was in Ottawa.

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Another convoy participant, , drove in to bring the 91裸聊视频淯nity Cup,91裸聊视频� an improvised replica of the Stanley Cup created by convoy participants, to the event.

Fortin explained the cup was created from a 91裸聊视频済arbage can and a mop bucket91裸聊视频� after he and fellow convoy participant Ron Rotzetter decided to put an an empty stretch of street to use.

91裸聊视频淚 said, let91裸聊视频檚 start some hockey, here,91裸聊视频� Fortin recalled.

91裸聊视频淔or about two and half, three weeks, we went down every day with it and played hockey and got people to sign it,91裸聊视频� Fortin related.

The cup was completely covered with names.

91裸聊视频淚 don91裸聊视频檛 know how many signatures are on there, but there91裸聊视频檚 a few,91裸聊视频� Fortin said.

91裸聊视频淎 small fringe minority, let91裸聊视频檚 go with that.91裸聊视频�

Like Bancroft, Fortin left Ottawa before police began making wholesale arrests.

91裸聊视频淚 wanted to leave with that experience of the unity. That91裸聊视频檚 what I saw, the whole time I was there, the unity.91裸聊视频�

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The event was held without permission from Langley Township, but Mayor Jack Froese noted that while the municipality generally doesn91裸聊视频檛 rent out parking lots, they also don91裸聊视频檛 prevent people from meeting up in an empty lot, as long as there are no violations of laws or regulations, such as liquor laws.

91裸聊视频淧eople use our parking lots for meetings all the time,91裸聊视频� Froese said.

- with files from Matthew Claxton