Ingersoll business decides to close ahead of planned protest

When Kendra Parkhill was informed of a planned protest that would come through downtown Ingersoll Saturday, she held a meeting with her staff at Roberts & Co Ladies wear.

“I talked to my staff to see how they felt about it. And if someone did come in without a mask on or something, how we how we would deal with it and my staff kind of felt uneasy with it,” Parkhill said. “And I didn't want to put them in that position.”

Parkhill decided it was best to close her shop, and another in Woodstock where the rally is expected to continue later in the day.

“It was a very hard decision to make, you know, I'd put a lot of thought into it. And I thought it was probably the best for both sides of the coin.”

Not all business in Ingersoll will follow her lead though.

“We will be open on Saturdays as usual. We're open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” says Gordon Lesser, the owner of Lesser Jewellers and also the Council appointed member on the town’s BIA, who informed businesses earlier this week of the protest rally.

“The BIA sends out a direct notification to the BIA businesses that this would be happening and then their choice to do what they would like to do” says Lesser, who expects business will be slow, on what is normally a brisk weekend. “Especially this weekend, you know it is Valentine's coming up. So yeah, a lot of merchants it's a little extra spurt for us right now.”

The protest is planned to begin in Tillsonburg, travel through Ingersoll and then on to Woodstock and Norwich.