QUESTION:
People were notified in Chicago and Vancouver that March for Our Lives events are canceled. What's the deal?
ANSWER:
No, this wasn't the work of hackers or NRA supporters as internet rumors suggest. The administrators of some March for Our Lives events had a scheduling glitch. After deleting duplicate events a hoard of cancellation notices went out. BOTH VANCOUVER AND CHICAGO MARCHES ARE STILL ON.
SOURCES:
March for Our Lives Vancouver , Emma Busch, Facebook Admin
March for Our Lives Chicago , River Finnegan, Facebook Admin
National Park Service- Spokesperson Mike Litterest
DC March for our Lives permit application
Film student group permit application
PROCESS:
In less than two weeks, half a million students will join the March for Our Lives on Pennsylvania Ave., one of 686 marches planned across the world.
When Viewer Jennifer Kilmer got an email saying her local march was canceled, she reached out to Verify to find out whether it was spam, a joke or something more nefarious.
Turns out others online are reporting similar incidents in Chicago and Vancouver.
But it's NOT Russian hackers or the NRA as rumors suggest: tack it up to a scheduling glitch. March for Our Lives Chicago addressed it last week on Facebook:
Hey Everyone! Some of you may have received an e-mail notification saying the March for Our Lives Chicago was canceled! The march is still on and will be bigger than ever!There were two duplicate entries for this event, and today the system merged them into one with the Grant Park starting point. In deleting the duplicate, it sent out this message in error. So sorry about the confusion!
Organizers in Vancouver were hit with the same problem.
"There had originally been two Vancouver event Facebook pages and we have consolidated into one," Emma Busch, an admin for Vancouver March for Our Lives said. "I think it was a message on the page before it was deleted... If people didn’t see the post in time, that may be where the confusion came from."
Despite the glitch, both marches are on.
One reason a march could get canceled is if your permits not approved.
The big march is here in DC—where 500,000 plus people are expected according to march organizers.
It’s supposed to be taking place along Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd & 12th Streets. That’s according websites put up by rally planners. But the organizers are still waiting for the official permitting to be green-lighted. They are working with the DC police department and National Park Service on this.
March planners originally wanted to have their rally on the National Mall. They first hit a snag when a a student film group applied for a permit on the National Mall first.
"The “first-come, first-served” rule ensues that value judgments do not become part of the permitting process," National Park Service Spokesperson Mike Litterest said. "Just as we don’t approve or deny First Amendment demonstrations based on the content of their message, neither should we attempt to determine which permit requests are large enough or important enough to take precedence over others."
March for Our Lives organizers amended their permit application on February 28 to host the march on Pennsylvania Avenue, according to Litterest.
