22 February 2022
Mayor Kate Rogers
City of Fredericton
397 Queen St., Fredericton NB
E3B 1B5
Via email: kate.rogers@fredericton.ca
Chief Roger Brown
Fredericton Police Force
311 Queen St., Fredericton, NB
E3B 1B1
Via email: roger.brown@fredericton.ca
Dear Mayor Rogers and Chief Brown:
Re: Protests in Fredericton – February 11 and 12
I am writing today to congratulate and thank the City of Fredericton, the Fredericton Police and your partners on a successful operation on February 11th and 12th, 2022 regarding the protest held on and near the legislature grounds. The clear communication during the week leading to the protest along with the proactive planning (and execution of those plans) lead to minimal traffic flow disruptions, which was the biggest concern leading up to the event.
Although we are not aware of any specific acts of physical violence committed during the weekend, we are concerned about violent language and racist imagery used by protestors. We agree with NB Racism Commissioner Varma’s comments regarding speaking out against racism in all forms. We take these events and the associated comments from Dr Varma as a call to action for the entire community and are confident that we will be a better, stronger community as a result.
We appreciate Mayor Rogers’ comments this week denouncing the use of hateful and racist symbols and speech. As a community, we need to do that more and as Dr Varma says, “be actively anti-racist”. As you know, one of our key priorities as a chamber and as a community is increased international immigration and we cannot expect Fredericton to be a destination of choice without this anti-racist attitude.
One of the low points of last week (and probably of my entire career) was hearing from a newcomer business owner that had decided to close his operation entirely for the weekend as he and his staff in his words “have brown skin” and did not feel safe operating that weekend. We simply cannot have people feeling that in our community and I look forward to working together to do better.
Sincerely,
Krista Ross, CEO, Fredericton Chamber of Commerce