Dec 13 18:17 After seeking an injunction to allow them to use force to move a group of homeless men and women out of the park, the City went to court in order to force them back to the park after they moved out of the park.
Believe it or not, the homeless protesters who, Wednesday night, moved from Jubilee Park to the adjacent parking lot, have been ordered to move back to the park by 4:30 Saturday afternoon according to DJ Larkin of the Pivot Legal Society which is acting for the homeless.
The City of Abbotsford appears determined to move the men and women, many of whom suffer from mental illness, drug addictions and alcohol dependence, and have been chased with chicken manure, pepper spray, eviction notices and police harassment for years in this City which refuses, not only to assist them but to allow them to stop moving.
In a press release issued Friday evening (8:18 pm), the City expressed its version of events:
Late this afternoon, Mr. Justice Blok of the BC Supreme Court granted the City of Abbotsford:
• an injunction requiring and directing the Defendants and all persons having knowledge
of the Order to vacate and cease occupying the large wooden structure (the ‘Structure”)
located on parking lot lands by 4.30 p.m. Saturday, December 14, 2013;• an injunction requiring the Defendants and all persons having knowledge of the Order to
forthwith cease undertaking any further construction, alteration, or work on or to the
Structure; and• an injunction requiring that the Defendants and all other persons having knowledge of
the order shall by 4:30 pm on Saturday December 14, 2013, remove and cease from
erecting, constructing or building tents, shelters, structures or other constructions other
than the Structure on the parking lot lands.Justice Blok also expressed his approval of the City seeking orderly resolution of this matter in
court, saying that “is how we do things”, and that people associated with the defendants saw fit
to escalate the trespass while next week’s court date was pending.The City of Abbotsford has posted this order online at www.abbotsford.ca and will be providing
notice to the protesters and occupiers of Jubilee Park tomorrow morning.The City’s remaining Court application to have the tents removed from the park and the
structure from the parking lot has been rescheduled from Monday December 16, 2013 to
Tuesday December 17, 2013 in New Westminster BC Supreme Court next week.
To read Justice Blok’s order click here
Dec 13 9:23am City of Abbotsford lawyers are currently in court fighting a emergency stay against them granted by a judge yesterday ordering them to stand down in their attempt to remove homeless people from their refuge in the parking lot beside Jubilee Park.
After the homeless members of the Drug War Survivors chapter of Abbotsford moved from Jubilee Park to the ajecent parking lot Wednesday night, City workers and police cordoned off Jubilee Park and began confiscating vehciles from the parking lot erecting concrete barracades around trhe walled encampment the homeless citizens built Wednesday night and threatening to move them out at 6 pm Thursday.
At 5 pm Thursday a judge order the City to stand down.
A ruling on the City’s desire to move ahead and demolish the structures, which the homeless are hoping to use once their proposal for temporary housing is approved, and forcibly remove the citizens and their belongings from the encampment is expected later this morning.
We will update as the day progresses.
Dec 12 5:21 pm A judge has granted an emergency stay against an order by the City of abbotsford to evict the homeless protesters from the parking lot adjacent to Jubilee Park where they had sought refuge.
According to the Vancouver Sun, “DJ Larkin, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, got an emergency stay Thursday afternoon of a city order that had warned residents that if they were not out by 6 p.m. the city would take action to remove all their tents and belongings.”
Dec 12 2:21 pm – By Mike Archer. It hasn’t taken long for the City of Abbotsford and the Abbotsford Police Department to show their true colours in response to last night’s move by Jubilee Park protesters out of the park and into a walled wooden city in the adjacent parking lot.
Reports from the site as of 2:21 pm say the homeless residents have been given until 6:00 pm to vacate the parking lot; Abbotsford Police are removing all vehicles from the parking lot and erecting concrete barriers around the walled city which was built during the night by volunteers in order to protect the protesters.
More on this breaking story as it develops …
Photo of Eviction Notice by Lilly Kaetler
I drove by the homeless site around 3 pm. and the city now has a
special crew placing barricades around the empty parking lot @
McCallum beside Jubilee Park.
If the city wants to dismantle and remove the wooden structure, why have they placed a barricade around the entire parking lot?
How much is this move costing the taxpayers?
Why didn’t the city wait until Monday’s court hearing to proceed with further action in their attempts to have homeless moved out of Jubilee Park?
I heard that the towing alone was $2000.
And the city didn’t even bring enough of those cement barriers to finish the job.
Perhaps, someone from the city can explain reason for the barricades?
The city wants the lumber structure moved, but makes it impossible to back a truck up. Mmm ok. What a bunch of fools.
The real concern I have here is that in putting up their fence the homeless may have let the City off the hook of its Monday court appearance. Changing the focus from the City’s behaviour in failing to take positive action on homelessness and its treatment of the homeless to ‘lawless citizens seizing city property and building barricades to keep police out”.
I thought the city wanted the court to order the removal of the protesters from the park period, not just from the parking lot?
It sounds as if the judge is ordering everybody back to the positions they were in before this idiocy – by both parties – took place.
The positions that existed when the Monday court date was set to have the court examine the facts and make findings and judgments about the rights and duties of both parties – the city and the homeless.
Having the courts define the playing field [as it were] gives a firm base to proceed from and understanding of the constraints and rules of moving forward.