VANCOUVER — James Oickle, who has been living in a red tent on a Downtown Eastside sidewalk for the last two weeks, will no longer have to pay a $250 by-law ticket issued to him by a Vancouver police officer for camping on city property.
“It’s unreal,” he said, laughing. “I didn’t know it would be that simple. I thought I’d have to fight the fine in court.”
Oickle received the ticket on April 22, even though a 2008 Supreme Court decision and police policy allows the homeless to set up temporary shelters on city property.
“The ticket was issued by a newly graduated officer who had not yet been briefed about the Vancouver Police Department’s policy of deferring enforcement and management of people camping or tenting in City parks or on sidewalks to the City of Vancouver,” said Vancouver Police spokesperson, Const. Lindsey Houghton in a press release on Tuesday.
Oickle, 54, moved into the tent after being evicted from his single-occupancy room for allowing his 21-year-old stepdaughter, Dominique Henry, to live with him for more than a month while she visited from Gatineau, Que.
He said not needing to pay the ticket is a “cool feeling,” but he is more relieved that he can carry on living in his tent undisturbed.
“I never meant to be some kind of martyr for homeless people,” he said. “I just wanted to write my book, and be hidden away, with no one taking pictures of me.
“But when Pivot [Legal Society] gave me a tent to live in, and Wendy from Carnegie [Community Action Committee] offered me her services, I thought I might as well be an activist with these guys, too.”
Owing to this incident, Houghton said that all new police members will receive refreshers on all current VPD policies. Knowing that he will no longer be disturbed by the police, Oickle will continue to camp out in his tent until he can find an affordable place for him and his daughter to stay.
John Richardson, a lawyer from Pivot, is not convinced that practice will follow policy from now on.
“I’m glad that the decision was made so rapidly to reverse the ticket, but issues still remain,” he said. Since Oickle was told to pack up his tent by more than one police officer, Richardson said, “there’s a custom of telling homeless people to move along, so education is still necessary for city staff. We need to make sure that homeless people are not going to be subject to inappropriate pressures to make themselves invisible.”
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