Shea Smith was such an outstanding advocate that he was worth not one, but two celebrations of life. Today was the main event, for those who wished to say farewell with proper ceremonial.
65 community members gathered at Centennial Square to remember Shea Smith, a prominent homeless advocate whose untimely death last month shocked everyone.
The event was organised by Niki Ottosen of the Backpack Project, and was attended by a wide circle of friends, relatives, and acquaintances. I for one went to say farewell to a client and an ally of the Victoria Liberation Front.
Shea recently made headlines for being one of three petitioners for a judicial review of the latest amendment to the Parks Regulation Bylaw, which proscribed sheltering at both Irving Park and Vic West Park. He was evicted from the former on August 26 when it was fenced off and had been drifting in the following months, displaced to his death.
He had spent the last few years of his life documenting the plight of fellow unhoused residents of this city in his podcast The Homeless Idea, in which he chronicled his fight against the system that conspired to displace him from Beacon Hill Park, and everywhere else he went after that. He unsuccessfully ran for Victoria city council in 2022, on a platform to reform the system, and would come to be remembered by the event’s attendance as the “Mayor of Beacon Hill Park”.
The gathering’s chosen location is ironic, since Shea was under conditions not to be at Centennial Square; on December 1st, mere days before he died, he attended a rally I called at that location from the sidewalk, not one metre away from the threat of arrest. I held another celebration of life for him on December 21 in front of Our Place, for the benefit of community members on Pandora who would not attend an event at the Square and hadn’t even heard of his death, at which I commented that he was indeed only ever allowed on the sidewalk.
Today’s event being a proper memorial, I took few pictures and no recordings. I likewise have little to say about how the ceremony unfolded. It was an open mic event at which I declined to speak, having already said my piece last month. To be honest, I do not feel inspired to write a lengthier piece and would rather let the pictures do the talking.
Rest In Power, Shea. And fuck Bylaw!
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