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.

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.