ADVISORY: Victoria Courthouse Encampment Protest

Victoria, BC | November 24, 2024 — On Sunday December 1st, the Victoria Liberation Front will assemble the unhoused community and allies at Centennial Square, then march to the Victoria courthouse at 850 Burdett Avenue to set up an encampment in protest of the City of Victoria’s illegal policy of forced displacement to nowhere, in contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the British Columbia Human Rights Code.

WHAT: Encampment protest; rally at Centennial Square, march to Victoria courthouse
WHERE: 1 Centennial Square, Victoria, BC
WHEN: Sunday, December 1st 2PM

Rationale:

The protest follows the dismantling of several park encampments, the prohibition to shelter overnight in all but a few inaccessible parks in the periphery, a crackdown on the 900-block of Pandora Avenue which has since been largely fenced off, the closure of shelter space such as Tiny Town in a ball game with the provincial government, and a proposal to relocate it in a neighbouring municipality just as it reopened, the scuttling of the municipal Emergency Weather Response shelter protocol even with funding from BC Housing, the starving of the Cool Aid Society which has been reduced to closing services to nonresidents, the refusal to provide the 900-block of Pandora Avenue with a 24-hour washroom, and a project to turn the Centennial Square fountain into a splash park ostentatiously meant to chase away homeless people—to list only these. Instead, the council prefers spending four million dollars a year, in Councillor Krista Loughton’s words, “to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

But worst of all, it comes in the aftermath of alarming inflammatory rhetoric spread by city councillors hell bent on exacerbating the situation. For example, Councillor Jeremy Caradonna called upon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to declare a state of emergency, dispatch the army, turn the Bay Street Armoury into a concentration camp, and round up the homeless population for triage. Such derives have no place in civilised society as they threaten the existence of marginalised and disenfranchised groups becoming prey to ostracism and state violence, such as indigenous peoples, disproportionately represented among the homeless population.

According to the latest Point-in-Time count, over 1600 residents of the greater Victoria area are homeless, hundreds of which are unsheltered. Emergency and transitional shelters are chronically full due to shortage of beds, to say nothing of the housing affordability crisis. As a result, unsheltered people have grown desperate to the point of suicide, one case which spectacularly made the news on August 1st as Irving Park was set to be fenced off even though the remaining residents had not received any reasonable relocation offer. Many others have been coerced into accepting unsuitable or unaffordable accommodations, setting them up for failure merely for the municipal government to meet arbitrary policy targets.

Courts have consistently asserted the right of homeless people to sleep and shelter from the elements, striking down bylaws prohibiting sheltering in municipal parks when there is insufficient shelter space available. One landmark precedent, Victoria (City) v. Adams, 2008 BCSC 1363, has been made in this very city. Whittling down the list of parks available for sheltering has also been deemed unconstitutional in Bamberger v. Vancouver (Board of Parks and Recreation), 2022 BCSC 49, after the Vancouver Park Board added CRAB Park to the list of off-limits parks, which was deemed one entry too many. Several more judgements have asserted those rights, such as Abbotsford (City) v. Shantz, 2015 BCSC 1909, The Regional Municipality of Waterloo v. Persons Unknown and to be Ascertained, 2023 ONSC 670, and The Corporation of the City of Kingston v. Doe, 2023 ONSC 6662.

Furthermore, persons with disabilities are afforded additional protections under Article 15 of the Charter and Section 8 of the BC Human Rights Code, thus entitled to reasonable accommodation should they prove unable to comply with the terms of the Parks Regulation Bylaw. Yet this administration has refused to engage in honest dialogue with disabled unhoused residents asserting their rights on the ground or even addressing the Council in person.

In response, advocates have gathered to muster legal challenges against the City of Victoria. The BC Civil Liberties Association and the Pivot Legal Society sent a letter to the Council on July 30 warning of legal jeopardy under Article 7 of the Charter. Two unhoused residents of this city have each filed a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal, both of which have been accepted on the fast track. And a petition for judicial review of the latest amendment to the Parks Regulation Bylaw, which prohibits overnight sheltering at Irving Park and Vic West Park, has been filed at the BC Supreme Court.

Until the legal system settles these matters, the unhoused community’s predicament remains. In the meantime, the unhoused community will occupy the Victoria courthouse park, the only one downtown on Crown Land, beyond the reach of municipal bylaw enforcement. Such an encampment was set up in 2015 and lasted about nine months, until dismantled after a BC Supreme Court judgement declared it unsafe; residents were nevertheless spared long enough to be relocated to available shelter space. That encampment is said to have cost the province three million dollars in legal fees and cleanup expenses.

In conclusion, observe that we traverse a period in which the power of the judiciary is being eroded, especially pertaining to the rights of homeless people. Many municipalities across the country have recently not only flouted the law and landmark precedents, but also violated relevant court orders: for instance in Vancouver, Prince George, Abbotsford, Barrie, and Hamilton. In a highly controversial move, municipalities in Ontario have even petitioned the Ford administration to invoke the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to dismantle encampments, thus circumventing the judicial system entirely. Legal recourse, while instrumental, is no longer sufficient to guarantee our rights, and this is why unhoused communities must stand up for themselves against those that would deny their very existences along with that of the legal provisions meant to protect them.

References:

Documents:
City of Victoria: Parks Regulation Bylaw
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
British Columbia Human Rights Code
2023 Greater Victoria Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Housing Need Survey
COVID 19: The beginning of the end of homelessness
Homes for all: Evaluating the Right to Housing in Victoria
BC Civil Liberties Association: Letter to Mayor and Council, City of Victoria, RE: Bylaw No. 24-038, Amendment to Parks Regulation Bylaw No. 07-059

Legal precedents:
Victoria (City) v. Adams, 2008 BCSC 1363
Abbotsford (City) v. Shantz, 2015 BCSC 1909
Bamberger v. Vancouver (Board of Parks and Recreation), 2022 BCSC 49
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo v. Persons Unknown and to be Ascertained, 2023 ONSC 670
The Corporation of the City of Kingston v. Doe, 2023 ONSC 6662

Irving Park encampment releases:
Open Letter on Behalf of Irving Park Encampment Re: Sheltering in Victoria City Parks
Open Letter to the City of Victoria Re: Pacifica Housing
Open Letter to the City of Victoria et al. Re: August 13th at Irving Park

News articles:
CTV News: Legal loophole: Tent city springs up on Victoria courthouse lawn
BC Gov News: Province shuts down courthouse encampment
Times Colonist: Province spent $3M on Victoria tent city court costs and clean up
Capital Daily: With snow on the horizon, Victoria is preparing overnight extreme weather shelters
Capital Daily: As cold weather persists, Victoria shelters are understaffed
CTV News: ‘Saved my life’: Victoria’s ‘Tiny Town’ housing site closing down in September
Times Colonist: Tiny Town container-housing village set to reopen at Royal Athletic Park parking lot
CBC News: No place for home: CBC series dives into Victoria’s housing crisis
Times Colonist: Victoria adds four more parks to its no-sheltering list
Times Colonist: Centennial Square redesign drops fountain, keeps artwork, cuts down a giant tree
Times Colonist: 24/7 bathroom needed for Pandora homeless encampment, Victoria councillors say
Times Colonist: ‘Pretty grim’: Few options for people sheltering outside in record cold
CHEK News: ‘Where do people go?’: Over 1,600 homeless in Victoria far surpasses shelter space
CHEK News: Victoria council moves ahead with camping ban in Irving, Vic West parks
Times Colonist: Victoria council calls for stepped-up effort to halt sheltering on streets
CHEK News: Unhoused man hanged himself to protest new Victoria camping restrictions
Times Colonist: Campers at Irving Park refuse to obey order to leave
CHEK News: Victoria councillors looking to move Caledonia Place to nearby communities
Capital Daily: The growing complexity of client needs prompts Cool Aid centre to temporarily shutter
Times Colonist: More fences installed as City of Victoria works to end Pandora encampment
CBC News: Remaining CRAB Park residents ordered out as Vancouver enforces eviction
Global News: Prince George to evict unhoused people from encampment, citing safety concerns
Abbotsford News: Arguments heard in court over encampment at Abbotsford City Hall
Barrie Today: What happens next for residents of Berczy Park homeless encampment?
CBC News: Hamilton council bans encampments in 7 parks nearest new shelter beds
CBC News: Local councillors sign letter asking Premier Ford to ignore calls to use notwithstanding clause

Victoria council meetings:
April 18 Committee of the Whole meeting: Council Member Motion: Reducing Reliance on Parks Sheltering in Victoria
July 18 Committee of the Whole meeting: Council Member Motion: Ending daytime sheltering/camping in Victoria parks, and on Victoria streets, boulevards and sidewalks

About the Victoria Liberation Front:

We at the Victoria Liberation Front are the unofficial opposition at City Hall. Our mission is to rally advocates and activists against the agenda of an administration that undermines the human rights of vulnerable residents. Our motto is to respect existence or expect resistance.
Read more at https://victorialiberationfront.org/
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Media contact:
Martin Girard
Phone: [redacted]
Email: martin.girard@victorialiberationfront.org