Housing advocates stood outside of the Halifax provincial courthouse on Wednesday, calling for government and police to issue a public apology over the encampment evictions in August, and for the charges against protestors to be dropped.
On Aug. 18, hundreds of people poured into downtown Halifax to call to attention police-led evictions of unhoused people living in parks.
Twenty-four demonstrators were arrested outside the former Halifax public library, while police and city contractors removed temporary homeless shelters.
Tensions became heated during the protest, with Halifax Regional Police (HRP) officers resorting to forcing protesters back and using pepper spray.
The 24 protesters have been charged by police with a variety of offences, including obstruction, assaulting police and resisting arrest.
“There’s the fundamental obligation for the province and the city to demonstrate their commitment of accountability to the public for these detrimental actions and systemic targeting of unhoused people,” said Kate MacDonald, a housing advocate, on the steps of the provincial court on Wednesday.
“The hyper criminalization of homelessness … is unacceptable and an appalling misuse of provincial and municipal public funds,” she added.
MacDonald also had a petition ready to be delivered to Premier Tim Houston and HRP Chief Dan Kinsella as a request for “transparency regarding HRP’s preventable misconduct” and the “recommendation that community members facing criminal charges have their charges dropped.”
Halifax lawyer Asaf Rashid, who represents several of the Aug. 18 arrestees, said that the court proceedings for the people charged have been pushed back until Jan. 26, 2022.
The spokesperson for Halifax Mutual Aid, Campbell McClintock, said the crisis shelters were erected by community advocates who took the housing crisis into their own hands after years of government inaction.
Public outrage sparked Halifax Regional Council to fund emergency housing measures, such as temporary hotel stays. The municipality set a larger goal of erecting modular housing sites in Halifax and Dartmouth, but those plans have been pushed to the end of December.
Mayor Mike Savage said the city realized that the first modular units weren’t suitable.
“We’re not going to put people who were homeless into something unsuitable,” said Savage. “So we very quickly pivoted to say, let’s bring in new ones at a cost … And we were able to find this supplier, and we’re very hopeful to have the Dartmouth site set up very soon.”
The Halifax location has not been announced yet.
In a release, advocates are demanding that city council “acknowledge its role on the days leading up to Aug. 18 and for their inaction and neglect in the days following, as well as issue a public apology.”
In response to that, Savage said the city’s goal is to provide housing for people.
“We’ve been very flexible in the last number of months and trying to find solutions … lots of people have different points of view on this, and some people are more interested in making a point than making a difference. We in the city are making a difference,” he said.
Savage said that with the first modular units not working out, the city has used the Gray Arena site, at the corner of Monique Avenue and Farthington Place in Dartmouth, to house people, “which is not a small thing.”
“We’ve done what we can at the Gray Arena to support people. I know that it’s not enough for everybody. I think most people would look at what we’ve done and say, ‘You know what? The city has stepped up in a crisis to do what we can do,'” said Savage.
He said that the city also recently worked with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth, which wanted to provide shelters by making sure the shelters are safe and healthy.
CAO Jacques Dubé declined an interview request to discuss the ongoing public concerns.
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