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

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. 

Defund 604 Network releases 6 demands to build safe, health and sustainable communities for all with release of results of the 2021 People’s Budget in advance of 2022 police budget deliberations.

Members of the Province’s Core Planning Table express grave concerns that BC’s bid to decriminalize drugs leaves behind the most marginalized drug users

Street sweeps are conducted every morning in the DTES. We must end this dehumanizing practice!

28 health and human rights groups say BC's vaccine card plans intensifies discriminations against already marginalized groups

Legal and community-based organizations submit a formal Service and Policy complaint regarding the Vancouver Police Department’s Trespass Prevention Program (TPP). Complainants are calling for the termination of the TPP and a public accounting of its operations to-date.

The complaints document a pattern of abusive behaviour by the two VPD officers, including harassment, intimidation, targeting Indigenous and Black people and interference in harm reduction responses in the DTES.

A broad-based Canada-wide coalition of human rights, drug policy, community, and drug user organizations are raising serious concerns about a proposed model for drug decriminalization that will be submitted to the federal government for approval. If adopted, the flawed “Vancouver Model,” as proposed by the City of Vancouver, could be a precedent-setting policy change—the first of its kind in Canada—that could pave the way for other cities to follow suit, including communities in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec among others. It is therefore critical that this initial model gets decriminalization right by centering the health and rights of people who use drugs, as well as the needs of their loved ones and communities.