ALL HANDS ON DECK! Volunteers Needed for Courthouse Rally, Tent City

Recently I’ve launched the Victoria Liberation Front, to counter our city council’s agenda against the marginalised and disenfranchised residents of this city, starting with the unhoused community. These people are in dire need of all the help they can get fighting back against the goons in uniforms that seek to displace them to nowhere at the command of loonies in suits at City Hall. They need advocates. They need you.

In response, I’ve just announced a rally at Centennial Square and march to the Victoria courthouse to set up a tent city over there. I know what you’re going to say, and that’s just fine. Trust me, I’ve got a plan. It’s bonkers, and it’s going to work.

But before I get to that, I’d like to express my deep disappointment of the advocacy vacuum in this city since the Alto administration started cracking down on homeless encampments this year. I’ve been very busy in the background over the past several months organising a resistance which would simply have collapsed had I not intervened at every turn, and is nowhere near the level it needs to succeed.

There is an acute gust of NIMBYism blowing across the entire country. Municipalities from coast to coast have launched assaults on the human rights of homeless people, for instance in Vancouver, Prince George, Abbotsford, Barrie, and Hamilton. The difference between these and Victoria though is that the former have mustered resistance, on both the legal and extralegal fronts. For example, two CRAB Park residents have filed a petition for judicial review against the Vancouver Park Board. Even a modest city like Barrie in Ontario is fighting back before the courts and has set up a solidarity encampment in protest.

Truly, I must ask: Where are you advocates? Because I can hardly see you anywhere in public view. We haven’t even had a rally at City Hall since August. I can’t find a single interview in the media since the closure of Irving Park. I haven’t even seen an opinion piece on the Times Colonist. The only media coverage we’ve got is one piece on the Victoria Buzz about the banners hung to fences on Pandora Avenue, which is cool but it’s not going to make council members shake in their boots. And when I ask around what fellow advocates have been doing since then, I get little more than shrugs. Nada. An unhoused man hangs himself in desperation and even that doesn’t seem to spur action.

Well, let me tell you what I’ve been doing in the background to salvage something from this rout. You may have heard me calling myself a legal advocate left and right, wondering how much substance there is to my claims, especially since I was a complete zero on the legal front at the beginning of the year. Just another formerly homeless, disabled dude living off income assistance in a supportive housing complex.

And yet in a matter of months I’ve helped two unhoused residents of this city each file a human rights complaint against the City of Victoria, both of which have been successfully put on the fast track. I’ve currently very busy bringing the respondent’s legal counsel to the bargaining table.

I’ve also reached out to the BC Civil Liberties Association and the Pivot Legal Society, and spurred other advocates to do likewise. As a result we were able to get them to write a letter to the council warning them of legal jeopardy under Article 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and threatening legal action. I’m also the one who called the media afterwards and got it coverage.

Also, remember I took a month-long break recently to work on something big, shortly after calling a meeting on Pandora Avenue? Well I mustered a legal team to file a petition for judicial review of the latest amendment to the Parks Regulation Bylaw prohibiting sheltering in Irving Park and Vic West Park, and I even did most of the groundwork. Forgive me for being scarce on details, as our legal team would rather keep a low-key PR strategy for the moment in order to protect our petitioners.

Not only that, I’ve managed to get us a hot line with the BC Civil Liberties Association, and two seats at a table with lawyers discussing national encampment litigation strategy. Not bad for a complete n00b who faked it till he made it. Oh, did I forget to mention I’m chronically in pain, tired, and sick? And that I even fought off a MRSA infection recently?

Believe me, if my modest person hadn’t barged around scheming and screaming there would be no legal challenge against the city’s agenda, as the advocates I worked with were most reluctant to put anything forward. And if I weren’t calling for extralegal challenge right now there would be nothing happening on that front either.

Fellow advocates, allow me to ask in turn what you’ve been doing since last summer. Did you engage with a politician? Did you talk to the media? Did you reach out to a lawyer? Did you forge a relationship with an advocacy group? Did you write a letter to the editor? Did you organise a rally I somehow missed? Have you pushed back against the NIMBY on social media? Have you done anything to rock the boat or sound the alarm?

If your answer is business as usual, please come up with a better one. And if I had to prod you into doing something, that doesn’t count. Can’t think of something you can do? Then swallow your pride and follow my lead. I do have a plan and I know how to get shit done. Because right now the unhoused don’t need more tents and supplies that bylaw officers will throw in the garbage the next day. They need escalation.

Maybe you indeed wonder what exactly the unhoused need to begin with, in spite of your experience in advocacy, because you have no lived experience of your own. I keep saying the unhoused don’t need our pity, they need allies to fight alongside them. But you don’t listen to me. Then at least listen to this former CRAB Park resident in Vancouver who just wrote a piece titled “Evicted CRAB Park tenants don’t need charity—they need justice” and had it published on the Georgia Strait:

I’m not asking for charity. I’m asking for justice.

The residents of CRAB Park don’t need pity—they need action. They need affordable housing, healthcare, and dignity. They need a city that sees them not as nuisances to be swept away but as people worthy of respect and support. Vancouver can do better. It must do better. For every life at CRAB Park, for every person left behind, we must demand more.

This is why I’m calling on the public to stand with us. Your voice matters. Your outrage matters. Together, we can demand better from a city that has failed us for far too long.

CRAB Park is a story of resistance. It’s proof that even in the face of overwhelming odds, community can thrive.

As I keep saying, we are not powerless, we are disorganised—and meek, if you don’t mind me putting it bluntly. Let’s learn from those who do resist, and sometimes win, against their oppressors, so we in turn can take on ours.

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First of all, I am indeed calling for all hands on deck. Yes, that means you. If you want to help, reach out to me at martin.girard@victorialiberationfront.org and I’ll find you a role, even if you skill set is modest; so was mine when I started.

In particular, I seek people with experience running encampments. I can handle logistics to a certain extent, but I’m the cerebral type; I’m way better at coming up with plans than implementing them.

We are going to need food, clothing, and supplies, may these be hygiene products, hand warmers, fire extinguishers, garbage bags, or harm reduction supplies. We’re also going to need tents for unsheltered participants who’ve had theirs disposed of—hopefully for the last time, as they will camp beyond the reach of rabid bylaw officers.

We will need turnout on the day of the rally. We could also use allies to camp with us, if only for the first night. I myself will be there pitching my tent alongside theirs. You don’t need any skill set to attend a demonstration or sleep outside for the night, only commitment. And since the event takes place on a Sunday, you’re unlikely to have anything better to do.

You’re an advocate, just not for the homeless? We still need you. I’ve recently encountered two indigenous hostiles at Palestine solidarity rallies fuming over how little outrage in contrast they get pertaining to their own genocide, and their peoples are disproportionately represented among the unhoused community. Come support their cause, and they’ll warm up to yours.

If you can write, try getting a letter published in the mainstream media such as the Times Colonist. Don’t let the NIMBY monopolise public discourse with your silence. And don’t wait any further—do it right away, it’s already post-urgent. If you need material to work with, have a look at the references I listed in the rally’s media advisory.

We need speakers for the event. If you’d like to speak to the attendance, that’s good. If you would speak to the media, that’s even better. You don’t need to be special, only to speak well. If you have lived experience to boot and experiences to share, that’s golden.

Of course we could use wardens and legal observers. No experience necessary, only enough guts to keep your nerve in tense situations. We won’t need a police liaison officer; I’ll take care of the cops myself, and no one else talk to them.

Finally, I could use some help mustering the unhoused participants. I’ll be on the ground all week night and day for this purpose, but I’m only one person. And I cannot help with transportation for those with limited mobility on the day of the event.

The one thing we won’t need from you is your money. It’s not edible, it doesn’t keep warm or dry, it doesn’t treat ailments, and it doesn’t put out fires. If money is all you have to offer, send it to a charitable organisation like Neighbourhood Solidarity with Unhoused Neighbours (NSUN), which will know how to put it to good use. Even then, remember that the homeless don’t need charity, they need you. Show up on Sunday 2PM at Centennial Square and march with us to the Victoria courthouse, that will matter far more to them than an anonymous Interac transfer, because throwing money at the problem solves nothing.