The Pivot Blog

Joint letter (HLN, CDPC, and Pivot) urging Vancouver to develop a “Vancouver Model” for decriminalization that is appropriately broad and responds to the aspirations and needs of people who use drugs.
Pivot Legal Society's written submissions to the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act contain 26 specific recommendations
Threshold amounts must be appropriately high in order to eliminate both the abuse of police discretion and the enforcement and confiscation of below-threshold amounts.
Over 20 organizations are calling on the City of Vancouver to invest in non-police interventions that support people who are impacted by homelessness, toxic drug supply, mental health distress, and those working in informal economies and criminalized industries, such as sex work
There is truly no time to waste. We urge Health Canada to listen to the health and human rights experts who have already spoken about this, follow the public health evidence, and issue these exemptions quickly, without onerous and unnecessary conditions or restrictions. Lives and health are at stake.
The VPD’s Trespass Prevention Program is another deliberate attack on poor and unhoused people. Once again, police expend vital public resources to criminalize people who rely on public space.
A vigil is being called for Tuesday, January 12 at 380 East Hastings to commemorate our fallen friend’s tragic death at the hands of the Vancouver Police Department.
On patrol for less than 2 months, the VPD’s untimely deployment of the Neighbourhood Response Team was a flashpoint for the continued criminalization of poverty in Vancouver.
Last week, Vancouver City Council approved over $340 million in police funding and rejected a motion calling for a budget cut of $5 million. The failure to decisively defund the police – by both Council and the Police Board – enables the VPD to continue a longstanding pattern of interference, degradation, and harm in over-policed communities.
On International Human Rights Day, the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition and Pivot Legal Society are renewing calls for an amendment to the BC Human Rights Code to include protections based on social condition.
Pivot’s Criminalization & Policing Campaigner, Meenakshi Mannoe, writes about defunding the VPD and the importance of shifting away from criminalization and enforcement and leaning into equity, inclusion, and social justice.
Principally, we support full decriminalization. We do not support the use of administrative or other regimes to control, coerce, medicalize, pathologize, or penalize drug use.
As the opioid overdose crisis devastates communities across Canada, groups hope that other jurisdictions will follow Vancouver's lead to take meaningful action on full drug decriminalization.
Complaint to the Vancouver Police Board by Pivot Legal Society, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society opposing VPD's new Neighbourhood Response Team
A group of community organizations serving the Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside filed a Service and Policy Complaint with the Vancouver Police Board opposing the creation of a new VPD Neighbourhood Response Unit.