11 arrests made as police dismantle City Hall encampment

Six weeks after the first tent was pitched, the homeless encampment in front of Regina City Hall was dismantled Friday.

Nearly two hours after volunteers and residents of the camp held a rally, police officers started moving through the camp.

Some inhabitants packed up their belongings and left on their own, others got help from volunteers to collect their things before moving on, and others remained defiantly on the site.

During the police operation, officers took down tents, cut down tarpaulins and arrested some protesters. Just after 4 p.m., the final group of inhabitants was moved onto McIntyre Street.

More than 30 officers were on the scene. At a media conference Friday evening, Regina Police Service Deputy Chief Lorilee Davies said 11 people had been arrested.

She also said the majority of those arrested were charged with obstructing a police officer. In a news release sent out Friday before 6:30 p.m., the RPS said it was unclear if charges would be laid and it was anticipated that those in custody would be released later Friday.

“The finalization of those charges is still being determined. As you can imagine, we’re still booking people into detention right now,” Davies said at the 5:30 p.m. press conference.

Volunteer Mandla Mthembu was one of those taken away in handcuffs, though it wasn’t clear if he had been charged.

The camp had popped up in mid-June as a way to raise awareness about homelessness in the city. At its height, there were 83 tents on the grounds of City Hall.

In a statement after the decommissioning of the camp, city manager Niki Anderson said fencing was being installed around the green areas of the courtyard and along the east and west sides of City Hall. The fencing is to stay in place until repairs to the property are done.

Crews began to put up the metal fencing Friday as people were being moved by police.

The building, which was closed Thursday and Friday, is to reopen to the public Monday.

The decision to take down the camp was made Thursday by Fire Chief Layne Jackson, who cited The Fire Safety Act as the reason. Jackson said there had been three fires in a five-day span, including one early Thursday that prompted the fire chief to say there was “an imminent risk” to people’s safety.

Jackson said campers would be asked to leave immediately, but then gave the campers 24 hours to pack up their belongings and leave before authorities would start cleaning it up.

In her statement, Anderson commended Jackson for his decision.

“As the City’s Administrative leader, I also want to emphasize the legislated separation of powers that allowed Chief Jackson to act urgently in response to an imminent public safety risk,” she wrote. “Three fires at the encampment in less than a week established that camp residents faced imminent risk. Two more fires today provided more evidence that decommissioning the camp was absolutely necessary.”

Jackson made the announcement Thursday shortly after a special city council meeting had been cancelled due to a lack of quorum. Mayor Sandra Masters said she had spoken to six councillors who had said the meeting wasn’t necessary since the matter was under Jackson’s purview.

Coun. Dan LeBlanc subsequently said it was “substantively wrong” to shut down the camp when people had nowhere to go.

On Friday, Anderson wrote that she was “deeply concerned by the public comments of at least one elected official,” whom she said called the dismantling of the camp “an affront to the democratic process.”

“To be clear, today’s public safety action falls well within the provincially legislated authority of the City’s Fire Chief,” Anderson wrote. “Elected officials who claim they should have been consulted about today’s response are, in fact, placing the public at greater risk by inappropriately challenging public safety experts and eroding confidence in my Administration’s ability to protect the residents of the City of Regina.”

The City of Regina and the Saskatchewan government said throughout the camp’s existence that they were working with organizers to try to find places for the people to go. It’s unclear how many of the encampment’s inhabitants were housed.

The rally

At noon, a gathering was held in front of City Hall where volunteers and some of the camp’s inhabitants spoke out against the decision to dismantle the camp.

Fiery speeches echoed throughout the park’s speaker, often met with thunderous applause. One of the speakers was volunteer Kale MacLellan.

“We demand the mayor ask the province to declare a state of emergency and free up the funds (for housing),” she said.

Mthembu, who had been volunteering at the camp from the start spoke about the previous 24 hours.

“People that know me here at camp and know me in my personal life don’t know me as an overly angry person, but I can say that what’s happened in the last 24 hours here, I’ve been pretty livid,” he said. “This morning has been a real tough one to be here for and the conversations I’ve been having with people.”

Rally organizer Josh Campbell said one of the reasons for the rally was the cancellation of Thursday’s special council meeting. Many of the speakers at the rally had been signed up as delegates for that meeting.

“We see these actions that were taken by the mayor as completely undemocratic,” Campbell said. “Even if you disagree with this camp, you can’t agree with what happened (Thursday) in terms of that process.”

Delegates at the rally were given five minutes to speak.

“If they’re going to take democracy away from us inside, we’re going to take it outside,” Campbell said.

Alysia Johnson with Rally Around Homeless expressed her disappointment in how the day’s events unfolded.

“The most shocking thing to me is just the amount of police presence and the magnitude of fencing. How much money has gone into today? I’m really shocked and blown away by that, that they were able to bring this together inside of 24 hours,” she said.

Johnson said it was a frustrating sight to see.

“What could have been spent on housing would be a fraction of what was spent today,” she said.

As more police officers began to enter the plaza, some people began to pack up their items and leave. Some transported their materials in shopping carts.

“I feel this is wrong what has happened here today. It’s an atrocity for this to happen,” said Joseph Reynolds with End Poverty Regina and the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism.

“I know that the cops are doing their jobs (as well as the fire department), but I feel it could have been dealt in a much more different manner.”

Around 6 p.m., only one tent remained standing, but it wasn’t occupied by anyone.

The police operation

Just after 1 p.m., the police warned those at the camp that pepper spray would be used on people who refused to leave. That prompted some people to don masks to ward off the effects of the irritant.

Police could be seen walking on the rooftops of City Hall.

At about 1:50 p.m., officers started to move into the camp. They were met with shouts and taunts by some protesters — some of whom were arrested — but didn’t deploy their pepper spray.

Around 2:30 p.m., police moved to Smith Street on the east side of the City Hall courtyard. Over the next 90 minutes, they moved slowly across the property, checking tents, taking down tarps and tents, and herding people to the west.

Protesters tried to put up a barricade near McIntyre Street, but it didn’t stem the tide of the police.

During the police news conference, Davies was asked about the cost of Friday’s operation, but said that it was too early to tell. She said it will be “some time” before a dollar figure can be attached to it.

A drone was spotted hovering of City Hall and whizzing through the air over the course of the day. Davies confirmed it was operated by the RPS’s Explosive Disposal Unit.

She said it was deployed to “capture any evidence” of the event that would be required after the fact.