Court shuts down homeless camp at CRAB Park
A judge on Wednesday granted an injunction to shut down an encampment of largely homeless people near CRAB Park on Vancouver’s waterfront.
The order of B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson came following an injunction application filed by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the federal agency that operates the parking lot where the camp was set up in May. The camp has grown to upwards of 130 to 150 people living in dozens of tents and other structures.
The judge gave the encampment three days in which to cease occupation of the parking lot, removing all tents, shelters, personal items, rubbish and other things on the site.
He said the injunction was good for 15 days, meaning that the port will have to come back to court in 15 days if everyone in the encampment is not gone and police haven’t dealt with it.
The port had sought an enforcement order giving police the power to arrest and remove anyone remaining on the site but the judge, noting that the police had agreed to carry out the injunction without an enforcement order frequently granted in such injunction cases, declined to make that order.
During two days of submissions in court, the port argued that the same COVID-19 concerns that had closed down a tent city at nearby Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside following an order issued by the B.C. government also applied to the homeless at CRAB Park.
Lawyers for the port also cited complaints from nearby residents about lack of social distancing within the encampment, near continuous burning of an open-flame bonfire and smoke entering apartments, trash within the encampment and an increase in garbage and needles in the area.
People were seen urinating and defecating in the bushes and ocean and loud music and noise was heard, according to the port, which also argued that there was housing available to accommodate the homeless. Lawyers for the homeless questioned whether there was in fact alternative accommodation available and argued that their clients felt safer being in the tents at CRAB Park than on the streets.
They claimed that the liberty rights of their clients would be violated if they were made to close down the encampment.