By Sarah Stone

Million Mask March goes above ground in P.A.

Nov 5, 2014 | 6:44 PM

A handful of Prince Albert residents are only a few of a “million” in the world who marched Wednesday night in demand of change and freedom.

Across the globe hundreds of groups who refer to themselves as “Anons” or “Anonymous” held the Million Mask March, which “is a truth movement advocating hacktivism as self-defense for unconstitutional government. It is our aim to shed light on corrupt government in order to set people free from oppression,” according to the Million Mask March website.

In Prince Albert around 10 people gathered at the South Hill Mall on the Fifth of November donning Guy Fawkes masks.

“We’re fighting against censorships around the world like the Internet has recently been attacked by NSA [National Security Agency] and many governments around the world.  They’ve been trying to censor the freedoms around the Internet forever,” said the local movement’s spokesperson.

The mask of the notorious member of the Gunpowder Plot, a group that plotted to blow up the House of Lords in London, England in order to assassinate King James, is in commemoration of Guy Fawkes Day held on the Nov. 5.

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“We like to keep our identities safe because recently the government have been hunting Anons … putting them in prison and treating them like war criminals,” he said.

This is the first time the movement has come “above ground” in the city, according the local spokesperson and he feels even in small numbers, it makes a difference.

“We’re hoping to accomplish to wake up the people … liberalize them,” he said.

As they chanted different slogans of freedom, the spokesperson said they’ve had some members of the public stop and inquire about the protest.

One of the biggest misconceptions of the movement, according another masked member who stepped forward, is they’re terrorists—something he said is completely false.

“We are here to help the people and I don’t think that’s fair that the government sees us as such a bad group just because we’re trying to change the things that they can’t or that they don’t care about, that the people actually do care about,” he said, citing Internet censorship.

The movement, which according to the Million Mask March website had 481 locations going across the world, was trending on Twitter at No. 1 at the hashtag #MillionMaskMarch.

 “We’re everyday people.  We’re your family, we’re your brother and sister, we’re your barbers, we’re your cashiers at the local drug mart; we’re everywhere,” he said.

To see a map of the all the movements occurring across the world click here.

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sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84