Lake Country Remembrance Day event moved after threat of violence

• Legion member 'disgusted' by events of recent days
• Threat received in Oyama about use of United Nations flag

Legion members in Lake Country were forced to cancel their plans at the Winfield cenotaph Thursday after being informed by the RCMP the day before of death threats.

“Basically, the message passed on to us by the RCMP was that should the United Nations (UN) flag be flown, someone could get killed,” Oyama Legion president Rob Nairne told Kelowna10.

He said it made no sense why someone would be offended by the efforts of Canadian peacekeepers under the UN flag.

RCMP confirmed Friday they had received unsubstantiated information of a potential threat to the ceremony on Wednesday and a safety plan involving 'precautions' was put in effect. They did not elaborate on what those were.

Nairne’s immediate reaction was to shift the venue of the invite-only event from Winfield to their legion branch parking lot in Oyama, because “… there are too many nuts out there, we’re not going to chance it.”

He put up signs on the memorial in Winfield informing guests - and anyone from the public who might attend - that it had been cancelled, although a YouTube video shows a group of people did end up gathering there anyway.

“It was so sad I had to go there and put up those signs cancelling because of a threat of violence, and I’m putting the sign under the Canadian Peacekeepers sign. There’s something horribly wrong with that.”

Asked about the interference of Nov. 11 events - whether in Oyama, or the interruption of the informal event in Kelowna by anti-vaccination protesters – Nairne said it was wrong.

“We’re there to honor the veterans who gave their lives and spent so much time in hardship … so we have the right to protest, I guess. I just don’t understand the thought process behind those people trying to do that,” he said, noting Remembrance Day was not the day to make such protests.

Asked if the media was helping to give protesters a high-profile outlet for their actions, Nairne said journalists have an obligation to report and he does not blame the media, but “... it does give [protesters] a platform and enables them, and I sometimes think ‘don’t give them the airtime, they don’t deserve it.’”