Honour Their Names, an art exhibit and organizing space presented by #JusticeForJared returns to Gallery Gachet, opening on March 15, International Day Against police Brutality, and runs until March 24, 2023. #DefundThePolice #JusticeForJared

Just 10 years ago, the VPD budget was $219.8 million. In the last decade, the VPD’s budget has almost doubled, with little to show in terms of “public safety.”

Continuing to overfund the VPD, while people’s most basic needs are not met, amounts to a tacit approval of the havoc the police are wreaking on those made vulnerable by a discriminatory system. #PoliceOutOfPolitics #PoliceOutOfEverything

On February 10, 2023, Pivot Legal Society filed a petition at the BC Supreme Court to challenge the City of Campbell River’s newly adopted bylaws. The bylaws, which directly undermine BC’s new decriminalization policy, were illegally passed and fall outside the scope of local government powers.

The legacies of racialized policing & controls continue to be replicated under expanding police budgets, with devastating impacts of state violence shouldered by Black & Indigenous communities.

MEDIA ADVISORY - On Thursday, December 1, Laura Holland and her family, as well as the BC Civil Liberties Association, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and Pivot Legal Society, held a press conference in response to the final decision of the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) regarding the investigation of the police-involved killing of Jared Lowndes.

The City’s enforcement of this bylaw is constitutionally suspect, as it is being undertaken without due consideration of the human rights and social conditions of Hastings Tent City Residents.

We write as seasonal weather changes take place, to inquire about housing plans from the city, province, and federal government for people who shelter in public space, including for the residents of the Hastings Tent City. Members of Our Streets have worked with Block Stewards, leaders and organizers who reside in the Hastings Street Tent City, to develop demands that reflect their housing needs: • Hands off tent cities • A real public option for housing • Real fire safety • Make landlords fix buildings • Protect all tenants’ rights under the law • Power to the tenants • Housing now

VPD's "Vancouver's Social Safety Net: Rebuilding the Broken" report is manufactured disinformation and a distraction from the critical, life-limiting conditions that profoundly affect the most vulnerable members of our communities, across Vancouver.

Support the calls of West Coast Leaf, BC Association of Social Workers, YWCA Metro Vancouver, Raincity Housing, Parents Advocating Collectively for Kin (PACK) BC, and Keeping Families Together, to dismantle the family policing system, and #StopTearingFamiliesApart https://act.newmode.net/action/west-coast-leaf/stop-tearing-families-apart

PRESS RELEASE - Residents of the Hastings Street tent city (represented by the law firm Arvay Finlay LLP) sought a Judicial Review of the Fire Order issued by Vancouver Fire Rescue Services in late July 2022. The review of this Fire Order and the City of Vancouver’s enforcement actions highlight the gross disparities that people who rely on public space face as they seek shelter in the community now known as the Hastings Tent City.

NEW CAMPAIGN ALERT: Addressing stigma is part of the solution to ending discriminatory policies and bylaws that harm already marginalized communities. From by-laws to provincial and federal legislation we must #EndTheStigma

A win for our client, a missed opportunity for law reform - Read our latest blog post: A mixed ruling from the BC Court of Appeal in R v Ellis

OPS are necessary—both to save lives and in accordance with public health laws. When local governments or police obstruct OPS, they contravene a Ministerial Order; violate provincial jurisdiction over health; discriminate against people who use drugs; and put people’s lives at even greater risk amid overlapping health crises. When health authorities fail to establish or otherwise protect OPS, they breach their legal obligations, potentially amounting to negligence and/or discrimination.

Your stigmatizing policies and practices are driving social murder. It is time to amend the BC Human Rights Code and to include Social Condition as a protected ground. @kennedy.stewart @johnhorganbc @MurrayRankinNDP @nicholas.simons.73 @melaniejmark @dave.eby