• Black Nova Scotia
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
    • COVID
  • Investigation
  • Journalism
  • Labour
  • Policing
  • Politics
    • City Hall
    • Elections
    • Province House
  • Profiles
  • Transit
  • Women
  • Morning File
  • Commentary
  • PRICED OUT
  • @Tim_Bousquet
  • Log In

Halifax Examiner

An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Commenting policy
  • Archives
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
    • Gift Subscriptions
  • Donate
  • Swag
  • Receipts
  • Manage your account: update card / change level / cancel
You are here: Home / Featured / Volunteer network says it won’t help dismantle People’s Park after CAO Dubé asks for group’s help to “peacefully” close park

Volunteer network says it won’t help dismantle People’s Park after CAO Dubé asks for group’s help to “peacefully” close park

March 17, 2022 By Ethan Lycan-Lang and Leslie Amminson 1 Comment

An encampment at a Halifax park, where unhoused people have lived in makeshift shelters since August, could soon be dismantled.

People have been living in tents in Meagher Park, on the corner of Chebucto Road and Dublin Street, all fall and winter. Known to volunteers, residents, and community members as “People’s Park,” the site became a refuge to those forcibly evicted from other public parks on August 18, 2021.

In an email to P.A.D.S. Community Network on Tuesday, Halifax’s top-ranking bureaucrat, CAO Jacques Dubé, told volunteers he was “optimistic that in the coming weeks [they would] participate in a process to peacefully close the park and move those in need of shelter to safe housing.”

The email Jacques Dubé sent to P.A.D.S. Tuesday.

P.A.D.S., a grassroots organization created following the park evictions, helped residents set up the park, but doesn’t run it.

Dubé’s email comes after multiple weekends where Halifax Regional Police (HRP) told residents and volunteers at the park to dismantle newly-built wooden structures, something the city has largely tolerated since the encampment was set up.

The Examiner requested an interview with Dubé, but a spokesperson for HRM said he was unavailable.

Since the August evictions, HRM has allowed camps in public parks, including People’s Park, which, at its peak, was home to about 30 homeless people living in tents. A handful remain at the site now, though tents, supplies, and debris still cover the ground.

In its response to Dubé’s email, P.A.D.S. said they would not assist with dismantling the park, and that they have “no say over the People’s Park and do not determine how those who reside there may react to HRM operations to close the park down.”

Instead, P.A.D.S. told Dubé they would do what they could to support unhoused people as they transition into permanent housing.

Call on HRM to reassess bylaw

Earlier this week, P.A.D.S. said, they sent emails to all HRM’s councillors, asking them to reassess the city bylaw that prohibits camping in public parks. Under that bylaw, camping is prohibited, “unless by permission.” P.A.D.S. is asking HRM to consider granting that permission to unhoused people.

“Until there is enough housing and ample and stable sheltering for all unhoused persons there will be a need for people to take up space in public places,” P.A.D.S. wrote in its email to Dubé. “There needs to be allowances made to permit unhoused persons to shelter in public spaces without risking criminalization.”

In an interview on March 4, P.A.D.S. volunteer Rachelle Sauvé told the Examiner the network was concerned about a repeat of the August 18 park evictions.

“We know that there’s going to be more people who need to tent come spring. They’re already sort of coming out of the woodwork as the weather gets nicer,” Sauvé said.  

“That’s not because people want to live in a place like this. It’s because they’re actually scared of being on their own without public eyes on what’s happening, because police and the HRM have been coming in. And we’re terrified that as soon as spring happens, that will come in greater force without there being places to actually send folks.”

Police tell volunteers to stop construction in park

It’s been a long winter at People’s Park; though the numbers fluctuate, there have consistently been at least five to 10 residents sleeping outside. Residents have been lighting fires in the park in an effort to keep warm, and volunteers have helped build tent platforms using wood they purchased with donated funds. There is one tent onsite reserved for supplies and food, but volunteers say that’s not enough. Storing everything from clothing to food in one place has been cramped and created unnecessary conflict, they said.

The inside of a tarp tent is crammed with boxes and food supplies

The food tent at People’s Park on March 4. Photo: Leslie Amminson

On February 25, volunteers tried to build a new structure, a makeshift pantry to store the park’s food supply.

“We were going to do basically a wooden frame,” said park volunteer Laura Patterson in an interview. “The police came and told us to stop. And then at night they came in and they tore it down.”

A cardboard sign outside People's Park says the space the sign occupies should be a food tent, but police won't allow it

A cardboard sign placed on the spot where volunteers and residents tried to construct a food tent on March 4. Photo: Leslie Amminson

The next weekend, still frustrated, the volunteers tried again. This time, they tried building a raised wooden platform for a tent to sit on, something Patterson said they’d done countless times. Again, HRP showed up at the park, and told them to dismantle the structure.

Patterson said HRP told the volunteers they would be ticketed or arrested if they didn’t stop building. The volunteers stopped again and took the platform apart. HRP left the materials in the park.

Constable John MacLeod, spokesperson for HRP, confirmed in an emailed statement that officers told volunteers the structure was illegal and that there was “potential for enforcement” if they didn’t take it down.

HRM response

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for HRM said those living in People’s Park would be offered “alternate accommodations” by the province. This would include placement in the modular units currently under construction in Halifax, which will accommodate 38 residents. The units were supposed to be ready before the winter, but after multiple delays are now expected to be completed early May.

Lindell Smith, councillor for Halifax Peninsula North where People’s Park is located, wrote in an email to the Examiner that it was always the city’s intention to move residents out of the park once the modular units were completed.

HRM has promised alternate accommodations before. Emails obtained by The Coast in November via Freedom of Information request revealed Dubé told councillors alternative shelters were in place for all those being evicted in August. Many of those evicted on August 18 ultimately set up camp in People’s Park.


Subscribe to the Halifax Examiner


We have many other subscription options available, or drop us a donation. Thanks!

Filed Under: Featured, PRICED OUT Tagged With: People's Park

Comments

  1. Jon Stone says

    March 18, 2022 at 3:42 pm

    We have all seen how Dubé “peacefully” closes these encampments. Police in riot gear and pepper spray.

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

Sign up for email notification

Sign up to receive email notification when we publish new Morning Files and Weekend Files. Note: signing up for this email is NOT the same as subscribing to the Halifax Examiner. To subscribe, click here.

Recent posts

  • Retired Judge Corrine Sparks receives honorary degree from Mount Saint Vincent University May 25, 2022
  • Victims’ families: ‘trauma informed’ inquiry has ‘further traumatized’ us May 25, 2022
  • Public importance of private woodlots May 25, 2022
  • Nova Scotia Crowns push ahead with 2023 jury trial for Randy Riley May 24, 2022
  • John Risley jumps on the “green” hydrogen subsidy bandwagon May 24, 2022

Commenting policy

All comments on the Halifax Examiner are subject to our commenting policy. You can view our commenting policy here.

Copyright © 2022