A day after Dr. Henry issues province-wide restrictions related to #COVID19, @vicpdcanada and the @CityOfVictoria forcibly dismantle the community care tent in Beacon Hill Park.

Because displacing + oppressing homeless people is the priority amidst a surging pandemic.

(THREAD)

For months, police and bylaw have systematically controlled the movements of people experiencing homelessness.

This happens in many ways:
Erecting fences
Drawing and re-drawing maps that change where people are able to shelter in place.
Impounding and destroying property

This is colonization in action. And it has dire consequences.

Every single time the city displaces, evicts, or forcibly removes people from their encampments they drive up risk.

Workers cannot find clients.

Primary care + overdose prevention services are impeded.

People die.

Not only is risk increased, but trust is eroded.

As a health care provider, every time someone is displaced, we lose people in the shuffle.

And all of these actions are in direct contradiction to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing.

https://www.make-the-shift.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/A-National-Protocol-for-Homeless-Encampments-in-Canada.pdf

Treating homelessness as a criminal justice and public safety issue is neither ethical or effective.

We are not all in this together.

Having a home is a basic human right. Period.

#bcpoli https://www.timescolonist.com/comment-having-a-home-is-a-basic-human-right-1.24202005