Victoria has long been a haven for unhoused people in Canada due to its moderate winter weather, and homelessness has only worsened with the ever-challenging cost-of-living many Victorians are struggling with.
At the beginning of November, local activist Martin Girard launched a petition to advocate for the city’s unhoused population and the rights he believes the government has stripped away from them.
“We the signatories call for the continued human rights violations by the city of Victoria against its unsheltered population in the past year to be fully investigated, exposed, and legally challenged,” Girard wrote.
The most recent Point-in-Time homeless count found that there are approximately 1,665 people experiencing homelessness, and of that group, 242 live in the city without shelter.
Girard states that he believes that number to be higher in reality.
He points to the fact that the City struggled to open Emergency Weather Response shelters last winter, leading to many people being left out in the cold.
In addition to last winter’s struggles, the City of Victoria recently banned overnight sheltering in four of its prominent parks that had access to washrooms — Stadacona Park, Topaz Park, Hollywood Park and Regatta Point Park.
This was done to repeal some bylaw amendments made through the pandemic which allowed the houseless to shelter in parks that had amenities because space in local shelters was massively reduced due to social distancing protocols.
Through the past few months, as council has moved to ban sheltering in these parks, the City and VicPD were facilitating evictions with a stark lack of transparency to their media partners.
The four parks in question were officially banned from overnight sheltering earlier this month when a City appointed representative from Pacifica Housing had spoken with all of those who had been sheltering in these parks.
Their duty was to find adequate shelter space for the individuals to transition to; however, of the 25 people they attempted to provide shelter, they did not reveal how many had been successfully housed.
Now, houseless individuals are banned from taking shelter overnight in all but three parks throughout Victoria.
Related:
- Questions remain unanswered as Victoria continues to ban overnight sheltering in parks
- ‘This is but a step’: Victoria officially banning overnight sheltering in four popular city parks
In the petition launched by Girard, he accuses the City of Victoria of committing legal infractions to the rights of local unsheltered people.
The first accusation is that he says the City has been, “chasing the unsheltered away from essential amenities such as community centres and harm reduction services,” by banning them from sheltering in certain spaces.
He says many unhoused people in Victoria struggle with a vast array of mobility issues and disabilities, making it hard for them to walk to and from the services they require daily.
Girard also points to houseless individuals’ right to shelter under Article 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This guarantees, “the right to life, liberty and security of the person,” for all Canadians.
This was outlined in the 2009 Supreme Court ruling that the absolute prohibition of sheltering in Victoria’s parks is indeed a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms violation.
“Under Mayor Alto’s leadership, the council’s priority has been to test the limits of the rulings by encroaching upon the unsheltered’s vital space until there is quite literally too little left for them to fit in,” Girard wrote.
“The wording of relevant bylaws reflects the council’s intention to weasel its way around the language of court judgements by adding ‘subject to the ability to house or better shelter,’ knowing better shelter isn’t available by design.”
The wording, “subject to the ability to house or better shelter,” is what the City used in their last parks sheltering ban, but did not reveal how many individuals actually received housing.
“Victoria does not have a homelessness problem, it has a governance problem,” Girard stated.
“The city council can blame the provincial government all it wants for the housing crisis, that does not absolve it of responsibility arising from exercising its own municipal prerogative, starting with its bylaws.”
As of this publication, the petition has garnered 619 of 1,000 signatures.
Victoria Buzz reached out to the City of Victoria to provide a statement on their stance, as well as the petition, but have not yet received a response.
