Last night, during the Canada versus Curaçao Concacaf Nations League soccer game at BC Place in Vancouver, two old-growth protesters charged the field and attached themselves to the goal posts.
The man and woman removed their shirts to reveal the words 'we have 1022 days left' written across their bare chests and had little difficulty jumping the barriers and making their way to the goal.
The game had been cancelled twice already and over 17,000 fans were gathered to watch the match finally take place. The crowd booed loudly when the protesters interrupted the game and forced it to come to a halt.
Some of the players from both teams approached the protesters in an attempt to make them stop. Curiously enough, however, there was very little interference from BC Place security.
Several fans who were at the game last night took to Twitter to express frustration or mock BC Place security for their inaction. One video shows the protesters walking directly passed a guard between two barriers separating the crowd from the field without being stopped.
Other critics of the BC Place security team raise the question of how this incident will affect the 2026 FIFA Championship which Vancouver is set to host. Some fear that FIFA will insist on hiring additional security and expect the Province to foot the bill in light of the in-house security's ineffectiveness. But it was also suggested that perhaps BC Place security staff (misidentified in tweets as Guardteck; they are employed by Genesis) are not allowed to stop people from running onto the pitch or making full physical contact but that claim is unsubstantiated.
BC Place has yet to publicly comment on the incident or the state of their security although they did announce on June 2nd that bags are no longer allowed in the stadium so, you know, that will help.
And in case you were wondering, Canada won.
