"Motion B2 assumes that policing is best-suited to respond to a myriad of social and economic issues, rather than grappling with what interventions could be made available through defunding police and investing in community-led crisis intervention."

"We are making the difficult decision to cease any involvement with the process. In order to move forward with defunding police while supporting community-led initiatives, police and/or police-adjacent organizations cannot be at the table. "

Civil, legal, and community groups request an investigation into a May, 2021 incident of unauthorized police enforcement activity related to COVID-19.

Pivot Legal Society writes the Vancouver Police Board to urge them to: "substantively engage with the individuals, communities, and organizations that are calling for defunding the VPD as a matter of survival"

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.

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.

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.

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.