The Abbotsford Police Departmet’s (APD) refusal to hand over documents to the BC Supreme Court because, according to the APD, the cost of surrending those documents could run anywhere from $24,000 to $29,000 will be reviewed by an Appeals Courts judge this week.
Pivot Legal Society, representing Abbotsford homeless, has said their clients can’t afford the APD’s request for payment.
In Wednesday’s issue of 24 Hours Vancouver, Pivot’s DJ Larkin is quoted as saying, ““Any litigant could end up in this same situation where they have to pay thousands of dollars to get police records in order to hold police accountable and that’s really troubling.”
The appeal by Pivot of the APD’s refusal to hand over public documents unless the homeless pay them $29,000 will be heard in the BC Court of Appeals on Thursday and Friday.
Pivot represents the Abbotsford Chapter of the BC/Yukon Drug War Survicors (DWS) which is facing off with the City of Abbotsford in the BC Supreme Court, the BC Humnan Rights Tribunal and BC Small Claims Court over issues ranging from the infamous Chicken Manure Incident to the Standoff in Jubilee and the abuse, theft and harassment of homeless people by the APD..
[From file] The cases involve abuse and damages to citizens at the hands of police and city workers and the much debated Anti-Homeless Bylaws Abbotsford uses to keep the poor from using public land as a place of refuge.For years the APD has followed Chief Bob Rich’s ‘displace and disperse’ policy of moving people who suffer from mental illness and drug additcion around town. A.K.A. the ‘Abbotsford Shuffle’, the policy has thrown into question the relationship between cities, the police and their citizens and promises to make Canadian constitutional history.
Pivot Legal Society, which represents the city’s homeless, has been unable to get the documents it requires from the APD. The documents are important because they show how the APD and the City of Abbotsford worked together to enforce the City’s bylaws.