Fresh Carnival to close early as safety risks at Regina city hall encampment rise

With the growing encampment outside of Regina city hall, questions and concerns around safety and security are coming to the forefront.

This week, Fresh Carnival, a restaurant directly beside city hall, announced they would be closing two hours early indefinitely due to “unsafe conditions.”

“Hey friends… we will be closing at 5pm indefinitely due to the unsafe conditions around our sweet restaurant after our building closes,” a Fresh Carnival Facebook post read. “We hope it will only be for a short time. We will keep you posted. Much love to everyone.”

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Fresh Carnival would not speak to Global News on camera, saying they don’t want to “escalate” the situation.

A Facebook comment from the restaurant, however, went on to explain more about the situation.

“We do our very best to help our community whenever we can,” the post read. “Due to lengthy ongoing issues that have recently escalated and lead to staff being injured, we are not willing to further risk the safety of the few of our employees that remain in the restaurant after 5pm.”

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There are currently 57 tents on the lawn of city hall, hosting more than 100 residents. The camp started roughly two weeks ago.

According to those at the camp, there have been reports of multiple physical altercations taking place in the area.

“(The camp) is getting bigger and there’s not much room and there’s multiple people per tent,” said Camp resident and organizer Kayla Mitton.

“With all the personalities and drug addictions and mental health, (people) are gonna clash and it’s gonna clash hard and soon.”

Those at Fresh Carnival said they are not certain the physical altercation that took place involved people from the camp, but the business wants to be proactive on safety.

Organizers and camp residents are also becoming concerned over safety and have been working to stop altercations as they arise.

“We’re doing our best to keep an eye out and keep everybody as safe as we can, but we’re not superhuman,” said community volunteer Avianna Hudym.

Mitton said she strongly believes a security presence needs to be put in place at the camp to prevent further altercations, as well as to act as a middle ground between organizers and police.

In terms of next steps, those at the camp say they will stay there as long as they can, but if forced to move, the legislative building might be the next stop.