How It Started
A father, a son,
and a sign on the road.
It began with Richard Strachan — a longtime Gabriolan who put up
an endgenocidebc.ca sign on his property in the summer of 2025. Shortly after,
his son Alex — me — put one up too.
Richard's sign — still standing. March 5, 2026.
My sign was stolen. I put it back up. It was stolen again.
I put it back up. It's still there.
My sign — still standing. April 8, 2026.
One neighbour complained — we spoke, everything got smoothed over.
The conversation ended amicably. The sign stayed up.
Someone tried to steal it the other night — ripped it. I replaced it with the new sign. It's still standing.
I was walking my dog Zoe near Whalebone Drive when a simple thought hit me:
why doesn't every neighbour have one of these?
I started asking people I passed on the walk. The response was encouraging.
That morning became this campaign.
Signs are going up across Gabriola — a cluster on South Road near the village, more on South Road near the Community Centre, and more on North Road and Taylor Bay Road. The goal is 50 — a new, bolder octagon design professionally printed by a Gabriolan, with gabriolastandsup.ca right on the sign.
Not because Gabriolans are radical. Because Gabriolans care —
and have always been a community that doesn't look away from the wider world.
Since October 7, 2023, over 72,593 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza
according to the Ministry of Health — including over 20,000 children. Independent
researchers put the true toll above 75,200. Since the ceasefire that came into
effect in October 2025, at least 817 more have been killed. The killing has not stopped.
If Gabriola does this, maybe Salt Spring will too. Maybe Denman, Hornby, Quadra.
It starts here, with a sign on a lawn — the way it always starts.
