The District of Oak Bay issued a notice to homeless campers under the Trespass Act on Thursday, ordering them to leave Uplands Park.
About 20 people in 17 tents set up on a horseshoe-shaped gravel parking lot across from Cattle Point in the 75-acre park on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, Oak Bay police cut open some zip-tied tent zippers to inspect them for “safety” and to advise campers of bylaws prohibiting day camping and “interfering with the lawful use of that area of the park by others … rendering it inoperative to others,” said Deputy Police Chief Ray Bernoties.
Officers also served camp leader Chrissy Brett with a $1,882.65 bill for a “biohazard sweep of campsites” for items such as needles used to inject drugs after encampments last fall at Willow Beach Park, the Oak Bay cenotaph and municipal hall park.
Brett threatened to tally her own bill for providing shelter in the municipality, and said police across the capital region are using unnecessary or exaggerated force, biohazard sweeps and remediation in their dealings with the tent cities.
By Thursday evening, Oak Bay had issued a notice to cease encampment to the campers.
Mayor Nils Jensen said the encampment is a police matter and that they have the tools of municipal bylaws, provincial legislation and the federal criminal code at their disposal.
Jensen also underscored the right of the public to have access to the parking lot.
“I have every confidence in the police in dealing with the situation,” he said.
To satisfy Oak Bay’s bylaw, the campers lowered their tent poles to the ground during the day, but did not remove them.
Lawyer John Heaney, who represents some of the campers, said forcing the campers to leave the park at night would infringe on their charter rights.
He said B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled in 2015 that homeless people in Abbotsford were allowed to erect temporary shelters on parkland between 7 p.m. and 9 a.m. because of a lack of accessible shelter space in the city.
Hinkson found that a prohibition on camping breached the homeless people’s charter rights to life, liberty and the security of person.
On Thursday morning, music was playing, coffee was on and Oak Bay neighbours walking by looked on curiously.
Homeless camper Lynne Hibak, who has medical and mental-health challenges and said she’s exhausted from the moves, stood in her fur coat and cast her eyes out over Cattle Point, remarking on how gorgeous it was and how nice it was to see it.
The contrast of a homeless camp in one of the region’s most affluent neighbourhoods was not lost on passersby.
Neighbour Carl Gorham said he was sympathetic to the problem, but wants to see it dealt with. “There needs to be solutions and certainly housing is a big part of it,” he said. “I guess I feel you need to identify exactly what the problems are. They are not the same for all the people here. I recognize it’s not easy.”
Cindy Pye, who was walking her dog Thursday morning, called it “sad.”
Pye is not bothered by the campers being in her neighbourhood.
“We all live in the same community,” she said.
At the same time, she thinks the campers have asked for too much: “They have been offered places to go. I mean, I don’t know, do they want a hotel? Or all 20 of them to be in one spot in exactly the kind of sleeping arrangements they want? It just seems like they are asking for the moon when, somehow or another, they got themselves in this position.”
The 20 campers — down from the 115 who were at Regina Park in Saanich — have faced criticism for turning down offers of shelter beds and lodging. But the campers have said they don’t want to be split up and that staying in overnight shelters would leave them without shelter, services and facilities during the day.
Uplands Park is known for its natural Garry oak woodlands and related ecosystems, wildlife, boat launches and scenery. “The park has one of the greatest concentrations of rare plant species in all of Canada,” states the municipality of Oak Bay’s website.
Tents at the encampment are one metre apart to address fire regulations. There is a public washroom nearby, and Brett said campers are not interfering with the vegetation.
The campers were in Regina Park for five months before moving to Rudd Park and then Ravine Way in Saanich, Goldstream Provincial Park in Langford, and private property on West Saanich Road. They were last on provincial land off the Patricia Bay Highway near Saanich municipal hall.
The Goldstream park campground, which was closed Sept. 20 as the site was assessed and cleaned up, is set to reopen today.
Campers are asking all municipalities in the capital region to create a plan to address homelessness, citing Victoria as the only city actively working on solutions.
