#ShutDownCanada Protesters Make False “Assault” Accusation Against Vancouver Police (Feat. Audrey Siegl)

Audrey Siegl is one of Vancouver’s most prolific protesters, if there’s a protest going on it’s likely she will be there. She’s recently been seen at the #BurnabyMountain protests, she was a spokesperson for the Oppenheimer Park occupation, she was at a protest against farmed salmon in-front of a Costco store, she was a participant in David Suzuki’s grandson’s massive fail protesting the wrong people, and was part of the group of thugs who “resisted” Vancouver Police during this weeks failed attempt to #ShutDownCanada. Put simply, she’s everywhere you don’t want to be.

Yesterday a story was posted by alleged “no pipelines” vandal Gord Hill making the accusation that Siegel was “assaulted” by a VPD officer during #ShutDownCanada. The article claims that a VPD officer identified as Constable McKinnon “appears to have deliberately walked into three women,” causing Siegel’s drum to bash into her face and guise her inner lip. There’s one problem though, Siegel’s claim is complete nonsense- she was “assaulted” by one of her fellow protesters.

Siegel described the incident in a Facebook posting saying:

“Yesterday, Feb 13, 2015, A VPD shoved Shannon& Savannah aside, and as he marched forward, looked right at me as he shoved my drum into my face with his shoulder. We three women were standing still, drumming n [sic] singing. He could have gone around instead of using aggression to intentionally intimidate and harm three unarmed and passive women.”

But, if you look closely at the video, you’ll see that it’s not the officer who hit her, it was her friend. You see, the women were using their drums to provoke the police officers by chasing them down the street and drumming in their faces. It’s very similar to the incident we saw in 2012 where Occupy Vancouver’s Matthew Kagis ran after VPD officers banging a metal pot in their faces during the farcical Casseroles protests in 2012.

An eyewitness told me what happened this evening saying:

“I did see it with my eyes and can say 100% that it was the girl in red who accidentally hit the other girl with her drum…NOT the cop!…I saw what happened but the thing is, the girl in red didn’t notice she did it, and the girl who got hit wrongfully assumed it was the cop…but I saw it all and it was an accident involving the two girls and not the cop.“

None of this is really a surprise, Siegl is close associates with #ShutDownCanada organizer Dan Wallace. At last year’s May Day mini-riot, Wallace openly called on protesters to get violent with the police saying:

“I advocate direct violence, direct action- against the cops, they need to be put in their place. I advocate that we actually take a stand and show those motherfuckers who has the actual power- they don’t, we do.”