PRESSURE RAMPS UP TO OUST PROTEST CAMP

‘Laws should be enforced,’ says Moe, but police see no need to act

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REGINA Regina police and the Saskatchewan government are at odds with how to deal with an ongoing protest in front of the Legislative Building.

With Canada Day fast approaching, Regina police remain steadfast on not taking down teepees currently located on the west lawn unless there is a public safety risk. But Premier Scott Moe is backing calls by the Provincial Capital Commission to have officers remove the protesters.

“The fact (is) that the protests that we do see across the way are breaking laws here, and those laws should be enforced,” Moe said Thursday.

Regina police have said there’s no need to step in at this point, because a meeting is scheduled for Monday between the protesters and five government ministers in Fort Qu’appelle.

Moe won’t be present when a handful of his government colleagues meet formally with members of the Justice For Our Stolen Children protest camp next week.

Police Chief Evan Bray chose not to respond to Moe’s comments on Thursday, but said earlier this week the focus is community safety.

“We don’t feel a police response at this point … would do anything to help,” he said. “We make sure that there’s no risk to the public, which at this point we don’t feel there is. And so our response right now is to let that discussion happen and ultimately hope for a peaceful resolution.”

The camp was set up to protest racial injustice and the disproportionate number of Indigenous children apprehended by childwelfare workers.

It started in late February and stayed for more than 110 days, marked by a teepee, before the camp and the teepee were taken down earlier this month.

Police officers were present — they took six of the protesters into custody — and stayed on scene as government employees tore the teepee down.

But more teepees went up, with nine spotting a section of the park by Thursday.

In an announcement Wednesday, the PCC blamed location changes for July 1 celebrations in Wascana Park on the protest camp’s continued presence and police inaction. The PCC stated it had on “three separate occasions … officially requested that the Regina Police Service enforce the law and remove the structures.”

Bylaws prohibit overnight camping, placement of structures and burning wood and other combustibles in the park.

“It is disappointing that last minute changes are necessary to an event that requires year-round planning because of an unpermitted and illegal protest,” PCC executive director Carrie Ross said in a news release.

A PCC spokesperson did not respond to an interview request Wednesday.

BRANDON HARDER What started out as a single teepee at the Justice For Our Stolen Children camp across from the Saskatchewan legislature has grown to nine. While the politics surrounding the camp are heated, the scene itself is almost serene as summer daylight fades to night over Regina.