It has come to our attention that Victoria city council has recently voted in favour of banning sheltering in additional parks in the City of Victoria. The amendments, which severely restrict options for outdoor sheltering by prohibiting sheltering in nearly all parks in the City of Victoria do not accord with either existing B.C. jurisprudence or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Pivot Legal Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association have connected with advocates on the ground concerning the amendments. Based on the feedback we received, it is clear that the amendments will cause significant harm to Victoria’s most marginalized community members, particularly given the city’s lack of adequate housing and safe, legal, indoor places to use drugs. Also evident is the complete lack of engagement during council’s legislative process with people sheltering outside in your community. The amendments as drafted are unlikely to withstand constitutional scrutiny. Certainly, they do not centre the safety and dignity of people sheltering outside in your community. Further, given the clarity of existing Charter jurisprudence and the clear facts of lack of available and accessible shelter in Victoria, the city also runs a risk of liability for Charter damages to all those impacted given the arguable bad faith and clear disregard for constitutional rights. We urge council to refrain from bringing the amendments into force and to engage in serious conversation with the people the amendments will impact.
By prohibiting sheltering not only during daytime hours but also overnight in almost all public spaces, the city replicates circumstances that have given rise to previous Charter litigation: constant displacement of unhoused and inadequately housed people from all public space without adequate alternatives in place. These circumstances have been found to violate all three parts of Section 7: the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to security of the person. Promises from the city to provide storage options (such as sea-cans in sheltering parks, or storing belongings for 14 days), moreover, do nothing for people who need their possessions every day to survive, just like every other person in Victoria. Temporary storage fails to solve the underlying issue of inadequate sheltering spaces in your community.
Homelessness and drug poisoning deaths are on the rise across Canada, and your actions are consistent with the violence unhoused and inadequately housed people face in every region of this country. The amendments, and enforcement actions taken pursuant to them, leave the city open to legal action.
Anna Cooper, Caitlin Shane, Pivot Legal Society
Ga Grant, BC Civil Liberties Association
