by Andru McCracken
A Valemount family is frustrated after being mistaken for protestors against the Trans Mountain pipeline. In an interview on Monday, Wayne Brown said when his wife was mistaken for the leader of the Tiny House Warriors protestor Kanahus Manuel, it brought consequences for her livelihood.
Brown believes the mistake was made because someone saw an image of Kanahus wearing a similar hat and sunglasses to his wife Annette Ryerson’s facebook profile picture. They received a phone message on Thursday from Ryerson’s part-time employer who said if Ryerson continued to protest she would lose her job helping in her garden.
Brown called the employer, a family friend, to explain the situation and patch things over, but he’s still upset.
The affair has Brown worried about other repercussions too.
“This pipeline stuff is a hot topic. There are people who feel really strongly this way and really strongly that way. I don’t want somebody coming and ripping a rock through our window because they think we’re protestors,” said Brown.
Brown said people have been approaching his wife while shopping asking how she could have anything to do with it.
“We got some phone calls on Thursday giving us a blast about Annette being part of the Tiny House Warriors,” said Brown. “We have nothing to do with it, we are blissfully ignorant of the whole thing. Tiny house, big house, outhouse, I don’t care, let them do what they want to do.”
“We’ve had enough of it and want it to stop,” he said, “Leave us alone.”
