Resistance Growing to Deteriorating Living and Social Conditions 
Homeless encampment in
Strathcona Park.
People
facing civil death and their allies in BC demand real solutions
to the crisis of poverty, not police attacks and empty rhetoric
 Unemployment and
poverty have become even more acute during the current pandemic and
economic crisis. Visible signs of poverty have grown in cities
throughout BC. People unable to pay rent are living in RVs, vans, cars,
tents or without any shelter.
The state through its
governments, police and courts is increasingly using state-sanctioned
powers to criminalize poverty and attack those facing civil death who
shelter in public spaces. Rather than uphold its social responsibility
toward members of society, the state is attacking the people who have
fallen into poverty for whatever reason. Last year hundreds of homeless
people in downtown Vancouver gathered together to build a tent city in
Oppenheimer Park. They have become a target of police powers, are
continually being forced to move their encampment, and have suffered
multiple arrests. From Oppenheimer to Crab Park
After the pandemic struck, instead of upholding its social
responsibilities towards the people and finding solutions to poverty
and homelessness, the province used its police powers under the Emergency
Program Act and the ongoing provincial state of emergency to
clear Oppenheimer Park of all tents and their inhabitants in early May.
Many of those displaced moved to deserted federal land near Crab Park
on the city's waterfront. The federal government immediately sought and
received a court injunction to remove the campers. Police moved against
them in early June arresting and charging 45 campers with violating the
injunction, while others left the area before the police attacked.
In a further vindictive move, the Vancouver Fraser Port
Authority sought a court order to force the BC Prosecution Service, on
behalf of the Attorney-General, to review the charges and determine
whether those arrested should be prosecuted for criminal contempt of
court instead of the court making a finding of the lesser offence of
civil contempt of court.  Chief Justice
Christopher Hinkson, who imposed the injunction in the first place, on
September 14 sided with the federal port authority and ordered that 11
of the charges be sent to the BC Attorney-General for review and
possible criminal prosecution, while the rest face civil contempt
charges. Hinkson said he wants people to grasp "the need for orders of
this court to be enforced in order to uphold its dignity and the rule
of law."
In his ruling, Hinkson quoted a decision
written by Beverley McLachlin when she was Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Canada: "The rule of law is at the heart of our society;
without it there can be neither peace nor order nor good government.
The rule of law is directly dependent on the ability of the courts to
enforce their process and maintain their dignity and respect."
Hinkson said, "It is not for me to say whether or not a
criminal prosecution of the defendants is a wise or unwise use of
public resources, but I anticipate that the attorney general will weigh
that matter against the importance of the rule of law in our democratic
society." In an article in the Province
entitled "BC's top trial judge fed up with protesters ignoring court
orders," Ian Mulgrew wrote regarding the ruling, "Hinkson appeared to
be reacting to a year of protest, with disruptions from the
Wet'suwet'en blockades to the Trans Mountain Pipeline
demonstrations.... Those who would endorse Indigenous blockades, tent
cities and other civil disobedience had better take note -- BC's top
trial judge is not amused." Responding to Hinkson's
order, lawyers for the homeless campers and their allies denounced the
decision saying it "could mean significantly increased punishment."
Surrey lawyer Amandeep Singh said, "Here are the most disadvantaged
people in society, in the middle of a pandemic, trying to make homes on
what was essentially an empty parking lot. Why are they being punished?"
Back in 2018, the BC Prosecution Service agreed with the same
court's call for criminal prosecution of those who defied a Trans
Mountain Pipeline injunction against demonstrating in opposition to the
pipeline's construction. The court found four demonstrators guilty of
criminal contempt and sentenced them to 14 days in jail, giving them a
criminal record. The judge at the time warned that members of the
public "who may be tempted to pick and choose the court orders that
they will obey, either in this situation, or in others, must be
deterred from flouting orders of the court." Whose
Economy? Our Economy!
Whose Society? Our Society! Who
Decides? We Decide! The attacks on the homeless
and their allies and their criminalization through court injunctions
and the rule of law raise basic questions of the role of the state and
its relation to the people. The justices speak of the rule of law and
democratic order as abstractions without consideration of the concrete
conditions. They do not connect their rulings and musings with the
social conditions of the people and in this case with those facing
civil death.  Poverty and
unemployment are constant features in Canada. They form part of the
social conditions that people have to confront, not in the abstract,
but in reality. Many Canadians, both before and during economic crises,
face an absence of a means of subsistence. They cannot simply fashion
means of subsistence out of thin air. Means of subsistence are products
of the socialized economy, which is controlled by the global oligarchs.
If the economy cannot meet the needs of the people for means of
subsistence, what are the people to do? Some fall into drug and alcohol
abuse to ease the stress and pain of not having a means of subsistence;
a few may indulge in criminal activity to find some way of living,
while others soldier on as best they can, and some organize and unite
with fellow Canadians to fight for the rights of all and a new
direction for the economy.
The rule of law and
democratic order as abstractions are of no use to those without a means
of subsistence but become in fact a means of suppression which is used
against them and others such as workers on strike who face injunctions
making their picket lines in defence of their claims ineffective, or
against those who feel strongly about an issue such as climate change,
the Trans Mountain Pipeline and Indigenous rights. The
justices may present the rule of law and democratic order as
abstractions that must be obeyed but in fact, as constituted today,
they are not abstractions but concrete methods to deny the people their
right to decide on matters that affect their lives, and to deprive them
of their rights, including the basic right to be.  The abstract
words of the ruling elite calling for the people's obedience to the
rule of law and democratic order mask very real attacks on the rights
of all. The rule of law and democratic order as abstractions in the
mouths of the elite do not and cannot manufacture a means of
subsistence or a home but they do reflect real police powers to attack
the people. The abstractions do not solve problems between employees
and employers or other issues of human rights but the rule of law and
democratic order as presently constituted do interfere in a real way on
behalf of the rich and powerful in opposition to the people.
When
the justices fling abstractions combined with real attacks on people
facing real difficulties, or on those defending Indigenous rights, or
on activists dealing with issues such as pipelines or homelessness, or
on striking workers, then those who hold positions of power reveal
themselves as apologists for a state that refuses to uphold its social
responsibilities towards the people. This state has as its economic
foundation a basic aim to pay the rich and has no intentions of finding
solutions to the myriad problems the economy, people and society face.
The rule of law and democratic order presented as abstractions
by the rich and their political and legal representatives are real
attacks on the people and are an impediment to resolving problems, a
block to forcing the state to assume its social responsibilities and
for the people to find and implement a new direction for the economy
that stops paying the rich and puts an end to poverty and unemployment.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 36 - September 26, 2020
Article Link:
Resistance Growing to Deteriorating Living and Social Conditions
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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