Canada Day pot fest denied art gallery site

NO PERMIT: City cites construction in area

Organizers behind an annual Canada Day pot fest in Vancouver were baffled Tuesday to learn their event may go up in smoke because they can’t have their usual spot.

Cannabis Day protesters have gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery every July 1 for two decades and organizers from Cannabis Culture Headquarters began planning the event as usual months ago, but they were surprised to learn a city staffer said their event, expected to draw more than 10,000, won’t “work for that site on that date” this year.

“We’re not issuing a permit for the event,” said deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston. “There’s going to be construction work happening on the site at the time, so the site actually isn’t available to them. Hopefully they’ll get the message and it won’t proceed.”

Johnston said if organizers go ahead with the event, the city will coordinate with police on a response and take “appropriate action.”

“Organizations that are well-organized in this fashion can’t just set up pop-up markets wherever they want. It’s far beyond a protest, which is what they’ve been saying over the years. That’s not what this is. It’s an organized event like many other events and they need to go by city process,” Johnston said.

But Cannabis Day organizer Jeremiah Vandermeer said that organizers and the city have been hashing out the details for a while and as far as they knew, the event was still on.

“Nobody has informed us from the city at all, so it’s a complete mystery to us,” Vandermeer said. “We have no indication that our event has been superseded by construction. We hope that the city would get in contact with us because we have an open relationship with them and we’ve had a pretty close relationship with them to keep things safe there.”

Vandermeer said a cancellation this late in the planning process would be a safety concern because protesters may still assemble on the grounds whether or not organizers pull the plug. He said that while the city hasn’t issued Cannabis Day an event permit in the past, organizers have received informal letters from the city outlining expectations for the unsanctioned but “constitutionally protected” protest.

In a release sent out May 28, the police urged promoters of large, unsanctioned events such as bike raves and outdoor concerts to work with cops in advance and obtain proper permits to avoid being billed for policing costs. Police said costs for policing the 4/20 pot protest and demonstration on April 20, attended by about 25,000, totalled about $50,000.

“It’s far beyond a protest, which is what they’ve been saying over the years. That’s not what this is. It’s an organized event like many other events …” — Sadhu Johnston