City of Victoria bylaw would put lives of marginalized people at risk

Last Updated (Saturday, 27 June 2009 04:31) Written by TASC Saturday, 27 June 2009 02:53

Victoria, Coast Salish Territories, June 10, 2009 - The City of Victoria has continued it's attempts to thwart a Supreme Court decision that reaffirms the rights of homeless to erect overnight shelters. The decision in question is that of Judge Ross, which specified that the Victoria bylaws that prevent people who are forced to sleep outside from erecting their own shelters constitutes a deprivation of the rights to life, liberty and security protected under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Right and Freedoms. Today in court the lawyer for the city argued "there are no constitutional rights for the homeless to erect tents inside city parks". Tomorrow the court will here from the lawyers representing the rights of the homless.

Olympic Police Harassing Activists: Joint Intelligence Group visit 14

Last Updated (Saturday, 27 June 2009 04:21) Written by ORN Tuesday, 09 June 2009 00:00

More than a dozen anti-Olympic activists and critics were contacted by intelligence officers from the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (VISU) for the 2010 Olympic Games, from June 3 – 5, 2009.  The Olympic Resistance Network and other groups are again asking VISU to stop harassing individual members and are preparing a legal letter to VISU to cease such intimidating visitations.

Read more: Olympic Police Harassing Activists: Joint Intelligence Group visit 14

Activists Flame The Torch

Last Updated (Wednesday, 31 December 1969 15:59) Written by Administrator Saturday, 23 May 2009 00:00

The Olympic Torch Welcoming Committee greeted the Royal Bank-sponsored Olympic Torch practice run in Victoria May 21st at 9:30 am, at the main

RBC branch at Fort and Douglas Street. Members of the ad-hoc group will welcome the Torch with mocking cheers, kazoos, maraccas, rousing songs, speeches, signs, and their own Anti-Olympic Torch.

This Torch practice run is a corporate advertising event for RBC. The official Torch Relay begins October 30 at Mile Zero and travels across Canada until the 2010 Games begin in February. Rumour has it the Olympic Committee is planning the relay route to include Bear Mountain Resort, a controversial development on an 8,000-year-old native site in Langford.

Today, the Committee welcomes the Torch on behalf of:

- The homeless, who could be housed for a fraction of what the Torch Relay is costing taxpayers;

- First Nations people, whose land rights are still violated daily;

- Social justice activists, who are facing harassment and surveillance;

- The missing and murdered women of BC, who apparently don't rate the investigation they deserve;

- Our children and grandchildren, who will still be paying for this extravagance years from now;

- And everyone who values free speech and a free society - they are in for a rude shock.

We would also like to recognize Royal Bank for its contribution to the Alberta tar sands. It has underwritten millions of dollars worth of water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and toxic waste. On behalf of hundreds of dead, oiled ducks, we would like to award RBC the title of Canada's Most Toxic Bank. And give it the Torch.

The Olympic Torch Welcoming Committee is not intending to break any laws, but we do have the BC Civil Liberties Association on speed dial just in case. Thank you!

White-People Artifacts May Delay Skirt Mtn Development

Last Updated (Saturday, 27 June 2009 04:28) Written by VIC FAN Wednesday, 29 April 2009 00:00

Victoria - It seems the proposed South Skirt Mountain development is on hold (for a week or more, maybe) as contractors map and survey the steep bluffs on the western edge of the hill for the wreckage of a 1967 plane crash.

WTF Langford? got the tip from alert observers who spotted the consultants skulking through the bush near the gravel pit north of Amy Road. Today, Ross Crockford confirmed that the area is listed as a provincial heritage site.

Last year, Crockford, a contributor to Victoria Boulevard magazine and other fine local journals, visited the crash site and interviewed the families of the two men who were lost. The report and photos are posted on his blog, Unknown Victoria.

The plane was a water bomber piloted by Alex Davidson and Paddy Moore, the Flying Fireman. They were answering an emergency call about a fire near Goldstream Park on a hot day in July when the plane went down.

"The plane crash site is technically considered a protected area for heritage protection," Crockford said. He explained that every plane crash and shipwreck site gets a provincial designation that sets a two-kilometer-wide buffer zone around the site as a protected area.

What next? If the developers don't get a waiver that allows them to develop within two kilometers of the site, it has been suggested that they should create a memorial park and leave the crash site undisturbed.

And the 8,000-year-old grave sites on the mountain should get the same respect. Amen.

Photos:

http://wtflangford.blogspot.com

Background: The proposed South Skirt Mountain development, like its neighbour Bear Mountain Resort before it, would destroy native sites (some 8000 years old) and rare garry oak and arbutus ecosystems. Langford Council is promoting the development, and has taken the highly questionable step of applying for a federal infrastructure grant to build roads to service the resort and the planned condo development adjacent to Goldstream Provincial Park.

The development bylaw passed third reading earlier this year after two contentious public hearings. Langford City Council could adopt the bylaw at its regular council meeting on Monday, May 4 or Monday, May 18. Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network, a local non-profit environmental group, has put council on notice that it will petition BC Supreme Court to quash the bylaw on the grounds of due process violations.

More info: http://forestaction.ca