CRAB Park Residents ask Legislature to Stop The Sweeps

Homeless people from across the strait came over to plead their case with the provincial legislature, having failed to make their case before the city of Vancouver.

A group of CRAB Park residents and advocates from Vancouver held a press conference at the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in Victoria to denounce their city’s unconscionable crackdown on the sanctioned homeless encampment.

The CRAB Park encampment has been the topic of headlines for several months. The living conditions at the site and the relentless harassment by the city’s park rangers have been such that the residents have filed a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal, which so far failed as a deterrent. A recent cleanup involving heavy machinery has drawn consternation by legal advocates from all over the province.

The event was attended by Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Joan Phillip, and Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Sylix Nation. The delegation also included advocate Fiona York, and Latoya Farrell of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

Joan and Stewart Phillip making themselves comfortable after the interview.

This is Latoya Farrell’s turn to have a word for the camera…

…and that of Fiona York. Interviews are a chore but someone must speak to the cameras, especially for people who often cannot advocate for themselves.

Several current and former residents of the encampment did advocate for themselves today. Some spoke very well.

Fiona York denounced politicians at the Legislature for declining to engage with the park residents, which led her to spearhead a delegation that would go to them instead. In this respect she echoes the speakers at yesterday’s press conference by the Housing Justice Project at the same location, which likewise lamented politicians’ lack of engagement with advocates and those with lived experience.

Tiffany Joseph of the W̱SÁNEĆ Leadership Council also addressed the cameras. Her own take is that solving homelessness, at least as far as indigenous people are concerned, is tied to land restitution, and pointed at the Rematriate Stewardship Project, which is raising funds to acquire a plot of land, as a solution to house Saltwater Salish women and preserve their culture.

As for the encampment residents, they expressed disappointment and outrage that no more MLAs would come greet them and listen to their grievances, even though they had come over all this way and even pitched tents on the Legislature’s lawn. We heard multiple testimonies of enforcement even more drastic than in Victoria, even escalating to violent arrests for not complying fast enough to the officers’ liking, and also the complete absence of due process around item seizures. Some former residents now housed also complained of the dismal living conditions and lack of privacy in supervised housing facilities in the downtown Eastside area.

Time for an unsanctioned encampment on the Legislature lawn?

The delegation actually arrived last night, and dropped by the Pandora encampment for a meet and greet with local advocates and residents. The dismal sight just a short walk from the Legislature dampened their optimism for today’s event, although meeting new allies gave them some hope; at least they were not alone, neither in their plight nor in their fight.