City looking at filing for injunction to end Occupy campWoman died in a tent on SaturdayKate Webb/Arti Prasad
Nov 06, 2011 19:54:17 PM
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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The City of Vancouver is looking at moving forward with a court injunction to end the three-week-old [url=http://www.occupyvancouver.com/]Occupy Vancouver encampment following the death of a young woman there over the weekend.
City Manager Penny Ballem says a near-fatal overdose on Thursday combined with Saturday's death shows the tent city is a threat to public health.
"We have deaths happen on a regular basis all over the city, but the conditions of an encampment are such that they increase significantly the risk around those kinds of things," she says.
Ballem says Thursday's medical emergency was caused by injection drug use. Health authorities have yet to say what killed a woman in her 20s who was found unresponsive in a tent on Saturday afternoon.
The city manager says there are various legal frameworks that can be used to try to get an injunction.
"You have the fire bylaw, the land use bylaw, the trespass act, the public health act, so we're looking at all the different issues that have arisen on site and what the best legal approach is," she says.
Ballem says the city supports the campers' right to protest but not the encampment itself, and is hopeful organizers will agree to remove the tents without a court order.
Occupiers are sticking their ground though, saying they have a right to stay.
Protestor Eric Hamilton-Smith says he's hoping a judge won't issue an injunction against their camp.
"I have faith in whoever the judge is going to be when they do file for that injunction, to be able to look at the situation objectively, realize that we have made significant improvements and eliminated all risks to human safety, and hopefully that will be enough and justice will prevail," he says.
On Sunday it looked like there were a few empty spaces where tents once stood at the Art Gallery. People at the movement's information tent say members of the fire department have asked protesters to move their tents so the site complies with safety guidelines.
As a result, several tents close to Georgia Street have been moved closer to the centre of the site, next to the gallery's water fountain.
Mayor Gregor Robertson has yet to set a concrete deadline for the camp's removal.
-With files from The Canadian Press |
發表於 2011-11-7 06:56
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