| An around-the-clock peace vigil at Olympic Plaza will be allowed to continue after an agreement with city bureaucrats staved off the forceful removal of activists by bylaw enforcement officers.
Some activists say the issue has renewed concerns about the people’s right to protest in the city, but the head of the city’s bylaw enforcement says the city did not intend to use a contentious bylaw that bans public demonstrations in city parks and is already planning to remove it.
Amanda Foote, one of the organizers of the Olympic Plaza peace vigil, says she’s pleased with the deal and credits city hall with fostering a good relationship with organizers. But she remains worried about Calgarians’ rights to dissent being compromised.
"The city is willing to give us a special permit, but it doesn’t do anything for anyone else," Foote says.
Before the deal, the city threatened to shut down the vigil by enforcing the city’s parks bylaw, which prohibits overnight camping. That brought back memories of the city’s crackdown on dissent during last June’s G8 summit, when it invoked a decades-old section of the bylaw that outlaws demonstrations in public parks in order to shut down a planned protest.
The bylaw was going to be challenged in court – noted human rights lawyer Alan Borovoy of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, supported by the Alberta Federation of Labour, filed a court motion seeking an injunction against that bylaw on the grounds that it was unconstitutional – but the city agreed to a deal only minutes prior to arguments being made in court.
Mayor Dave Bronconnier, who backed that bylaw during the G8, told Fast Foward on April 7 that he didn’t know city administrators were trying to shut down the Olympic Plaza protest.
"You’ll have to talk to the bylaw people," he said. "I think it’s a good idea, though."
However, Bill Bruce, the head of bylaw enforcement with the city, says talks with the activists resulted in an agreement that will allow them to stay. He says concerns about the vigil stemmed from prohibitions on camping in public parks and damage to public property, not the contentious ban on public demonstrations – something he agreed is likely unconstitutional.
Bruce explains that the bylaw is 27 years old and the section on protests was in before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was implemented.
"We felt it didn’t respect the charter... and, in fact, that section is being written out of the bylaw."
Bruce credits the activists with coming to a compromise that will see their around-the-clock vigil continue, provided it doesn’t escalate.
"It shows that almost anything can be resolved peacefully," he says.
Bruce’s comments were unintentionally fitting – Foote says she’s pleased the peace vigil will continue because the controversy over their presence has distracted people from their message of peace.
"Our message has definitely been hijacked," Foote says. "We want to get back to our message." |
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