The #StopTheSweeps Coalition denounces Vancouver City Council and its refusal to end the practice of street sweeps.

Community rally at Carrall and Hastings to protest the City of Vancouver’s brutal practice of street sweeps

This year’s blog features an interview with Gabrielle Peters. Gabrielle is a disabled writer and policy analyst and a commissioner on the Vancouver City Planning Commission. She is co-founder of Dignity Denied and the Disability Filibuster. Gabrielle’s work often focuses on further developing the radical theory of accessibility by integrating the lessons of disability justice, harm reduction, trauma-informed practice and grassroots community development and transformative change activism. On Access Awareness Day, we are reminding municipalities that accessible and inclusive communities don’t rely on municipal violence to displace people. To better understand the place of #StopTheSweeps within broader disability justice struggles, Gabrielle Peters shares important insights.

This Investigation uses stigmatizing assumptions and terminology, and is a rushed and inadequate process that is not centered on people’s basic human rights and their lived experience of criminalization.

#StopTheSweeps report is a part of a broad campaign to end the constant displacement and dispossession of unhoused people in Vancouver.

SCORPA was tasked with understanding the role of police with respect to complex social issues including mental health and wellness, addictions, and harm reduction. Community advocates have reviewed the report and its 11 recommendations, and have responded to the proposals for transforming policing and community safety in BC. 

Daniella Barreto and Meenakshi Mannoe encourage Vancouver City Council to firmly oppose any calls for the expansion of CCTV in our communities.

Joint letter from 15 organizations expressing deep concern about Vancouver City Council motion for CCTV cameras.

Next week, City Council will receive the Report on the Vancouver Police Board Budget Increase. We’re asking our allies to sign up to speak or write in support of Council Member Jean Swanson’s Motion “Rejecting the Increase to the 2021 Police Budget.”

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the VPD killing of Chester. This year, Pivot is supporting members of the Defund 604 Network and VANDU, who are coming together to mark the first anniversary of his murder.