Saanich tent city can stay, judge allows time to arrange for lawyer

Tenters at Regina Park in Saanich were granted a two-week reprieve Monday to arrange for a lawyer in their court battle against attempts by the municipal and provincial governments to remove them.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Power said efficiency gained by having the tenters properly represented by a lawyer more than made up for the short delay. Instead of Monday, as previously scheduled, Saanich’s application for an injunction will be heard the week of Aug. 27.

“In my view it is a short adjournment and in my mind there will be efficiencies gained by having the defendants represented by counsel,” said Power.

Saanich owns Regina Park, while the province owns the grassy border nearby to adjacent Highway 1. Both are seeking an injunction to remove about 90 people who have set up tents at the park.

Jeff Locke, lawyer for Saanich, said at least two orders from the Saanich fire commissioner to make the encampment fire safe — removing propane bottles and fuel cans, for example — have not been followed.

Power issued a court order giving the tenters 72 hours to comply with the fire-safety orders.

The encampment, which tenters call Camp Namegans, was set up in April as part of what was initially promised as a “rolling” protest moving from location to location to bring attention to homelessness. But it stayed at Regina Park and grew.

Neighbours have complained of ongoing thefts, open use of injection drugs and the constant leavings of trash and human feces.

Saanich has responded with cleanliness stations and portable toilets, but neighbours complain the problems persist.

On Monday, Locke said Saanich is not even seeking to permanently ban the tenters from Regina Park. It merely wants them out for two to three weeks so the municipality can clear it up and make it safe.

Afterward, a layer of wood chips will be laid down and tenters can return and set up tents between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. as allowed by a Saanich bylaw. Outside those permitted tenting hours, campers can use the parks like any citizen. They just may not set up a campsite.

Locke said Saanich has amended its bylaws to allow overnight tenting in 102 of its 171 municipal parks, including Regina Park. If tenters must leave one park they can go to another to spend the night.

But speaking for the tenters, Doug King, a Victoria lawyer and executive director of the Together Against Poverty Society, said the interests of justice demand the tenters are allowed proper legal representation while the application for an injunction is heard.

King said the alternative to granting a two-week delay would be having all the tenters defend themselves.

“The individual defendants who are all indigent and all homeless would be clearly prejudiced if they could not have counsel present,” King said.