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Housing
Tent City judgment is a revolution
By Tavis W Dodds
It took those with the least resources to put up the strongest fight to defend the Charter that benefits us all |
In a decision to a case which will be forever after referred to in courts as Victoria Vs Adams, Madam Justice Ross has this morning recognized for the first time in Canadian justice that homeless people have rights guaranteed under the Canadian constitution, and that policies directed against the poor illegally infringe on those rights.
There is a celebration developing amongst the street community in Victoria and across the nation. Dozens of people have been coming to the lawyers' office and to the lawn of the court house. There is an overall sentiment that there will be tents erected tonight.
The date of this judgment comes exactly three years after the application was first championed by Catherine Boise-Parker and Irene Faulkner. It also falls within the holiday season which is celebrated by the Jewish faith as including Sukkot, a festival of tents in reference to Leviticus 23:41-42 where God commands that seven days be spent living in tents. The judgment coincides with the federal election day as well. But much of the original source of the social movement that brought us this far dates back farther than any of today's administrations.
In 2000-2001, a group that became known as the Spiral Islanders, after a protest by a small group of young campers who tried to refuse to move along, but were continuously displaced by Christ Church Cathedral, the Province of BC, the Victoria Police Department, The Provincial Capital Commission, the City of Victoria, and many other organizations including even the local media monopolies. The movement gained steam and momentum, grew in numbers, and was invited into a warehouse by Jeweller Rob Lund, only to be cast out again after police forced the landlord to cancel the lease. At one peak of the escalation, City Hall was occupied for weeks, and after extreme measures taken by the police which saw at least one homeless activist rail-roaded into jail for three months and others seriously brutalized, the group moved to the Legislature lawn in solidarity with the Students' Day of Action.
After weeks of occupation, the camp established itself as a truly benevolent community. Hundreds of police moved in and arrested protesters for simply being on the Legislature grounds, which at that time was on Songese disputed territory. The Attorney General on both the federal and provincial levels admitted in court that they never had evidence sufficient to have made the arrests. The camp was thrown into a dumpster at six in the morning.
One of those arrested, David Arthur Johnston, helped establish a subsequent tent city, this time on the grounds of St Anne's Accademy, the first Catholic Church in BC. Police and security again used extreme measures, and the campers set up across the street, at Cridge Park, the tent city which became the subject of the case of Victoria Vs. Adams. Campers held on for weeks, but were eventually wiped out. David Johnston continued to return to the gates of St Anne's, facing whole battalions of security guards hired expressly for the purpose of torturing him, carrying him off the property, threatening him, keeping him awake, and stealing his things. Police drove him repeatedly to the city limits, even in the winter rain, only to have him return again to the gates of St Anne's. This continued for over two years with David facing longer and longer jail terms through which he refused to eat in custody. Eventually, in what witnesses describe as a totally bogus trial in which Legal Aid seemed to be making arguments for the Crown, David was sentenced to seven months in jail. He was released a month later trying to hold up his pants while media interviewed him.
There have been thousands of people that have sacrificed so much, people who have so little to sacrifice. Those without food or housing, the people facing basic survival, have proven themselves to express the highest dignity of humanity and the most steadfast defenders of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Now the authorities must account for having ever fought against the rights of the poor in the first place, for having broken and disregarded their oath to uphold the constitution. Our society at large has been found by the courts to be unlawfully oppressing the poor, but everyone has always known this. It’s a fact that was officially recognized for the first time this morning, October 14th, 2008.
Tavis Dodds is the Work Less Party candidate for Victoria City Council
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The Republic of East Vancouver masthead
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