Bylaw limits overnight protest in Victoria Park
Organizers hoped to stay in tents in support of encampments residents
Kitchener bylaw officers stepped in Friday to limit an overnight protest in support of homeless people living in tent encampments.
Jaime Stief helped organize the weekend rally, inviting people to hear speakers and sleep overnight in tents as part of a 24-hour event in Kitchener’s Victoria Park. The aim was to show support for people who are sheltering in tents on Roos Island in the park, and for those who are sheltering at other tent encampments in the region.
Stief erected a large tent Friday. After hearing from speakers who explained why they lost their homes, rally supporters were forced to depart the park by bylaw officers who cited a bylaw that prohibits tents and requires events to end by 11 p.m.
Stief left the park around 12:30 a.m. Saturday after bylaw officers began showing up every 20 minutes “telling us to leave,” she said. Later Saturday she returned with a tent to complete the rally with other supporters. She figures the event drew 30 to 40 people at one point.
The City of Kitchener said Friday in a statement that people were welcome to attend but “the city will be enforcing its parks bylaw.” Stief suspects enforcement kept some people away from the event.
“We’re getting reports of cops on bikes all over the place, and that scares people off a little bit who have lived and living experience,” she said Saturday. “We’ve had a few people say they were questioned on the way to our event, questioned by police on the way here, which is a barrier for some people in terms of actually showing up.
“There are a lot of people who are really traumatized by past negative experiences with cops.”
Stief said she wants to tell the public that simply forcing tents out of Victoria Park and other places does not solve underlying social problems that lead to homelessness.
She feels municipal government is more concerned about “reducing the visibility of systemic poverty” than it is about making sure everyone currently living in a tent gets a home. “We want people to have meaningful lives where they feel safe, where they’re not robbed constantly,” she said.
Stief works in digital marketing. Part of the reason she helped organize the rally is because she has struggled at times in her own life.
“I have lived experience with mental health issues. And there were nets that caught me when my life was shaken,” she said.