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.
We need a ceasefire from the VPD in the #DTES - Joint Statment Regarding the 5th VPD Murder in 2022
MEDIA ADVISORY - #StopTheSweeps Denounces the Forced Decampment of Hastings Tent City and City/Police Campaign of Terror in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
Hastings Tent City Residents give City of Vancouver and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services an overall "E" grade + Fact Sheet which highlight myths and misunderstandings created by City, VFRS and VPD.
BCCLA, Justice for Jared & Pivot write to demand accountability for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) actions on Saturday July 30 & about the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) actions on July 30. These actions included shooting a community member, pulling another community member to the ground and striking them repeatedly, and verbally abusing and intimidating onlookers. These incidents occurred in the middle of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community, with no support provided afterwards, and during a heatwave and forcible decampment along Hastings Street.
July 8, 2022, marks the 1 year anniversary of the execution of Jared Lowndes by the Campbell River RCMP. Jared Lowndes, a proud Wet’suweten man and member of the Laksilyu (Small Frog) Clan was murdered on the morning of July 8, 2021.