By Mike Archer. Today’s BC Supreme Court ruling, ordering the homeless protesters who moved out of Jubilee Park Wednesday night to move back to the park removed the criminality the City was seeking in order to allow its police force to arrest anybody who was either unable or unwilling to move out of the way.
Bas Stevens Photo
That may have removed the ability of the City to have its police force arrest anyone who is unable or unwilling to make the move. It may also have opened the door to a weekend of peace and quiet for the protesters who say they are simply to sick, tired and worn out to move back to Jubilee Park.
“We have a tremendous amount of respect for the supreme court and the justice who has ordered us to move back to Jubilee Park,” said Barry Shantz, head of the Abbotsford chapter of the BC/Yukon Drug War Survivors Friday evening.
“But, we find it hard to believe the judge intends for us to go wallow in a mud hole where we will be less safe than we are now. That is a complicated endeavour fraught with difficulties. Some of these people are ill and, at the risk of upsetting a supreme court justice, it is simply not a healthy or safe thing for us to do to move them back to the rain-filled mud hole Jubilee Park has become,” he said.
“We are trying to find a way to have the supreme court understand that we have nowhere left to be moved to. There is nowhere for us to go and the materials we need for the proposal which City officials have told us they support, are sitting in the parking lot,” he said.
Those assembled in the parking lot under police guard and surveillance have been chased around the City of Abbotsford for years and many were among those attacked by the City of Abbotsford with chicken feces and then moved up and down Gladys Avenue last summer.
The two sides are scheduled to meet in court again Monday when the City presses for the injunction it has requested which would allow to forcibly remove the same homeless people from the park where they were ordered to move today.
I would point out to Mr. Shantz they have an abundance of plywood and lumber on hand to construct dry flooring for the tents.
I would also point out that it is not ‘respectful’ of the Court or the Judge to apply your own modifications to what was, and is, a pretty clear order in order to amend it to mean what you want to hear..
It is no different from all those who claim to follow the teachings of Christ who modify his instruction to help someone if they are in need of help with the qualification “if they deserve it”.
There is a term for that type of behaviour: weaseling.
it is imperative to move back to the park, in order to keep the
focus on the need for a permanent campsite. The city is using
diverson tactics, plain and simple!