Abbotsford Protesters Leave Encampment – Await Judge’s Ruling

Update December 17,2013 – 5PM Mr. Justice William of the BC Supreme Court has reserved judgment regarding the injunction application by the City of Abbotsford until Friday December 20, 2013 at 9:15am.

UPDATE December 16. 2013 – 11:53: The action in court scheduled for Monday morning between the City of Abbotsford and its homeless citizens has been put off until Tuesday according to court officials.

December 16, 2013 – 07:30 am
Release – Abbotsford, BC, December16, 2013 – The City of Abbotsford will be seeking today to have a BC supreme court judge give them the power and authority to use their police in order to use force against the homeless protesters of the Abbotsford BC/Yukon Drug War Survivors (DWS) and have a number of them locked up for as many as two years in jail.

The City is also seeking to have all public park land in the City included in an order that would apply to any and all homeless people in Abbotsford who are caught anywhere but in the City’s ditches and under its overpasses.

In response to the City of Abbotsford’s latest legal manouevre in its war on the homeless, the Abbotsford Chapter of the BC/Yukon Drug War Survivors has announced it will leave the walled compound on the parking lot next to Jubilee Park and return to the part of Jubilee Park which the judge has left for them to occupy safely until they re-appear in court Tuesday when the City tries to, once again evicted from the park.

One of the reasons the DWS protesters were so reluctant to leave the walled encampment was that they were reluctant to leave behind the materials to be used in building 30 of the structures included in their plan which has received a positive response, privately from some senior bureaucrats.

The wall of the structure itself is the donated wood required to build the floors of the housing in their proposal.

“The City of Abbotsford and its police force are, in effect, declaring war on all homeless people in this City because of the fact that some of us have stood up for our rights as human beings and told them we will no longer be abused, harassed, dispersed, displaced and left for dead because of the beliefs of a few misguided people with political power,” says Barry Shantz, head of the Abbotsford DWS.

The world has now witnessed a full circle Abbotsford Shuffle. Move 100 ft this way – move 100 ft back – move 100 ft that way. To the outside world this appears nothing more that legal gymnastics, i.e. a back flip back to the park they asked them to vacate.

The City has fenced off all of the rest of Jubilee Park and used concrete barricades to block all access in and out of the parking lot.

The Drug War Survivors intend to continue their law suits against the City of Abbotsford on behalf of the homeless men and women who were victimized by the City’s use of chicken feces last summer and it’s use of its police against its homeless citizens over many years.

The Anti Harm Reduction Bylaw which the City of Abbotsford passed making it illegal for Fraser Health or anyone else to provide harm reduction services to Abbotsford’s homeless addicts will also be challenged in court and before the BC Human Rights Tribunal in the new year.

A judge is expected to rule on the City’s latest application for the right to terrorize its homeless citizens later today.

The DWS has eight lawsuits against the City. The City has responded with four legal actions against the DWS seeking to further terrorize Abbotsford’s homeless.