Eight Minutes of Silence for George Floyd

Eight Minutes of Silence for George Floyd

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

On the evening of June 7, community members of Vegreville and area gathered to observe eight minutes and 46 seconds of silence at Vegreville Cenotaph.

This gathering was arranged by Bryan Butler to show respect for and remember George Floyd, the black man who was accused of a crime, and killed because of it by police on May 25 in Minneapolis.

Bryan Butler said he decided to host this event in response to the overt killing recently of an unarmed black person, George Floyd. “I felt it was important that we made at least a symbolic gesture available for anyone to do and still respect the COVID-19 crisis. The eight minutes and 46 seconds were meant to represent the time it took for George Floyd in the US to die when he was killed by the police officer kneeling at his neck,” Butler said.

The people who attended the gathering to remember what happened to George Floyd. (Rosanne Fortier/photo)

When Bryan was asked if he believed in the Black Lives Matter Movement, he replied, “Certainly, there are many groups that have been discriminated against. For me at this moment, Black Lives Matter is a good way of expressing the lead for systemic change that allows people of all races to have equal treatment before the law and in society,” Bryan explained.

“In Canada and the United States, we have a long history of discriminating against various groups and often because of race. I spent 13 years in Africa and my wife, Ardythe has spent 10 years, so that certainly colors or affects our perceptive of things and our biases towards and of seeing different groups of people we might not have noticed otherwise.

As well, we spent a lifetime trying to make a difference and this is one way we seek to make a difference. We don’t have to do big things to make a difference; we just do small things and we just plant seeds to make big trees. The whole idea of this gathering in the evening is we plant seeds either to make a difference within ourselves or within our community.” Bryan added.