Starting May 13, 2026, the City of Vancouver’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Bylaw is in effect. Before and during FIFA, you can expect intensified surveillance, increased enforcement of both new and existing bylaws, and the largest deployment of law enforcement in Vancouver’s history. Know your rights before you head out.

What forces is FIFA bringing to Vancouver, and who stands to be most impacted? Join us as we explore these impacts in our new blog series “FIFA on the Block”. Read part 1 and follow along as we continue documenting and reporting on FIFA’s impacts, Pivot’s Legal Observer Program (*more on this soon*), and community led resistance!

UPDATE: Bill 11 passed through Third Reading and received Royal Assent on Thursday April 16, 2026, fundamentally undermining the legislative process and vesting virtually unfettered decision-making power in the hands of politicians and contracted housing providers.

Pivot and BCCLA write pursuant to s. 172(2)(a) of BC’s Police Act, requesting the OPCC’s review of the Vancouver Police Board’s inaction with respect to service and policy complaint (#2024-26600) as required under s. 171 of the Act. We urge the OPCC to implement its own independent investigation into the systemic causes of the use of force complaint!

PRESS RELEASE - Pivot and BCCLA request BC’s Police Complaint Commissioner’s review of Police Board inaction with respect to VPD’s use of force in Palestine protest

In May 2025, Pivot Legal Society (“Pivot”), alongside several public interest groups intervened in Dorsey v Canada (Attorney General), 2025 SCC 38. Dorsey was an appeal brought by prisoners which affirms access to habeas corpus to challenge continued unlawful confinement in more restrictive prisons and forms of confinement that deprive a person of their liberty.

These submissions highlight pervasive systemic racism against people of African descent within Canada's criminal justice system. Canada’s reliance on racialized use of force and segregation exacerbates systemic racism and social exclusion.

YOUR INFORMATION RIGHTS + MUNICIPAL POLICE DEPARTMENTS - If you experience an aggressive police encounter or are arrested and searched, what are your rights in accessing information police keep about you? This guide on how to access information about yourself from the police is borne out of on-the-ground experiences of folks engaged in direct, non-violent social justice actions, and is a collaborative project between the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and Pivot.

At a time when 51% of Indigenous and Black people are being classified and confined to maximum-security prisons, the mass incarceration and hyper-securitization of Indigenous and Black peoples, under the pretext of public safety considerations, in Canada’s prison system remains a critical racial justice issue. In an order by the SCC’s first Indigenous judge, Justice O’Bonsawin, Pivot was granted leave to intervene at the Supreme Court of Canada in Frank Dorsey and Ghassan Salah v Attorney General of Canada.

Connecting the intersecting fields of social justice and public health by illustrating the undeniable link between the structural determinants of health and a person’s social condition on their quality of life.