Groups say DVBIA, Civil City actions discriminatory

Vancouver, July 17, 2008 - Pivot Legal Society, VANDU and the United Native Nations have filed a Human Rights complaint against the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) and Geoff Plant in his role as Civil City Commissioner.

The complaint is filed on behalf of Vancouver’s street homeless population and alleges systemic discrimination by the Downtown Ambassadors program, which is run by Genesis Security and the DVBIA under the guidance of Geoff Plant.

“Our constituents have had some concerns about the program for a while,” said Pivot lawyer Laura Track, “However, the expansion of the program by Geoff Plant and the upcoming Olympics has pushed us to try to clarify the rules around private security guard conduct in relation to the homeless.”

The DVBIA manages the Genesis Security Downtown Ambassador program, and Geoff Plant, Civil City Commissioner, commissioned and secured funding for the Downtown Ambassador program. Plant is also in the process of expanding the Downtown Ambassador program to other Business Improvement Associations.

“Geoff Plant knows the populations that are getting ‘moved along’ by the Ambassadors,” said David Dennis, Vice President of United Native Nations. “He’s commissioned a panhandler study that surely says exactly what we allege, that aboriginal people and disabled people are targeted by this program disproportionately. He’s a lawyer, he knows that’s discrimination.”

The complaint alleges a number of behaviours it calls discriminatory, including telling people who are sitting or sleeping on the street to move along, regardless of location or circumstances; telling people to stop searching for recyclables in garbage cans; identifying particular individuals as undesirable and telling them that they are not allowed within a particular geographic area (“no go areas”); and following or staring at and taking notes and photographs of individuals identified as undesirable.

The Complaint asks the Human Rights Tribunal to award $20 to every person affected by this conduct to a maximum of 1,000 people, and asks the Tribunal to order the DVBIA amend their policies to prohibit all discriminatory tactics.

The complaint also asks the Human Rights Tribunal to order Geoff Plant and the DVBIA to adopt an appropriate procedure for receiving and responding to complaints the public may make about the practices and conduct of security personnel funded by the DVBIA.