For as long as he’s been mayor of Toronto, John Tory has had a problem with homeless people – or at least, those who advocate on their behalf. It’s a lot like his problem with Toronto’s Black communities – or at least, some of those like Black Lives Matter who advocate on their behalf.
Last summer’s protests over the police custody death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet brought the latter into sharp focus. Ever since, there has been a lot of talk about the need to rethink how we do policing, including by the mayor. Last Tuesday’s heavy-handed removal of encampment residents from Trinity Bellwoods Park has dragged into the harsh light of day just how little things have changed on that front. If it’s not Black and Brown people being oppressed by police, it’s homeless people.
If there were ever an argument for why the city needs an alternative model of policing, their actions at Trinity Bellwoods are a prime example.
Frightening was one word used to describe it. Dozens of police were deployed, including on horseback, alongside private security to enforce a trespass order against 24 encampment residents. Some 60 structures were torn down.
But just as shameful has been the city’s – and mayor’s – attempts to justify the police operation.
Police “responding to a request from the city” were dispatched to “ensure the safety of encampment residents,” according to the official line, as outreach workers offered them space in hotel shelters. But how is the city prioritizing “the safety and care of encampment residents” by sending in armed police?
There was no vote by city council on the use of force to remove encampment residents. But there has been a good deal of fear stirred by area homeowners about the encampments being used for drugs, weapons and even human trafficking.
There was a vote by council to pass a “zero encampments” policy. That policy was supposedly developed to stress the need for more transitional and permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. That was the understanding of Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam when she voted for it.
She says in a statement that she was “personally assured” by city staff that there would not be a repeat of the forceful removal of residents we saw at Lamport Stadium some weeks before Trinity Bellwoods.
What gives? It seems city shelter staff may have been out of the loop.
Responding to public backlash, Mayor Tory announced a review by the Police Services Board, of which he is a member. We shouldn’t hold our breath. The mayor hasn’t been a particularly forceful questioner of police operational matters. He has, however, been adamant in his view that encampment residents should be removed from parks. He says they would be safer inside.
To that end, the city has dispatched staff to offer space in hotel shelters since shortly after the beginning of the pandemic. The city is reporting that some 14 of the residents at Trinity Bellwoods have accepted the city’s offer of a hotel shelter space. But for other encampment residents, that’s not an option for a variety of reasons, including health and safety. Permanent housing is the solution. On that front, some 1,200 new permanent and supportive housing units will be built over the next 12 months, in addition to the 244 that have been built since last fall. But it’s only a drop in the bucket.
And if anything, the kind of police presence we saw at Trinity Bellwoods is undermining, not helping, efforts to encourage homeless people off the street.
The National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada provided the city with a blueprint for how to do that. Only, the mayor has refused repeated attempts by councillors to recognize housing as a human right. That would change the rules of engagement when it comes to how to handle encampments, which starts with not making homeless people targets.
There was not a lot of thought given to that when police were dispatched to Trinity Bellwoods. But clearly there was a lot of thought given to the police operation itself.
Encampment residents were fenced in. Their supporters and protestors were kept outside the steel barrier. As more protestors and supporters arrived so did the police. The police wore body cameras. A drone was deployed to coordinate their efforts.
Three people were arrested and charged with what police describe as “serious offences,” including assaulting police and weapons dangerous. There have been no details released surrounding the circumstances. It was hard not to view the entire operation as a dry run to see how the force’s new body-worn cameras work.
There is far more common ground between city shelter staff and encampment residents than the city’s police response suggests. It’s best that the job of getting homeless people off the street be left to them. Otherwise, the city risks an escalation of violence as decisions about what to do with encampments at Alexandra Park and Moss Park loom large.
