Urban Camping Wascana Park Style

Twin_Moose said:

And paid by the occupiers right? LOL

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Mowich said:

'An agreement was struck to allow 48 hours for the sacred fire to burn out and the teepee to be removed.'

Holy shit..........that must have been one helluva a huge campfire.

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REGINA - A Saskatchewan judge has ordered a group of protesters to remove their teepees from the lawn outside the provincial legislature.
Protesters started camping at the site at the end of February to bring attention to racial injustice and the disproportionate number of First Nations children in care. A few protesters were removed by police in June but the camp was set up again two days later and officers have held off ever since.
The province went to court seeking an order to evict the protesters, arguing the Justice for our Stolen Children Camp violated bylaws and made it hard to maintain the land across from the legislature.
Justice Ysanne Wilkinson agreed, saying society achieves more through order than disorder.
"The protesters' claim to a right to encamp around the clock, on a permanent or indefinite basis ... is not one that can be endorsed by this court," she wrote in a ruling released Friday.
"The protesters' occupation of the west lawn, in the shadow of the most influential building in the province, although claimed in pursuit of heartfelt grievances, serves in the end to diminish the rights of all others to access the space and to enjoy the same fundamental freedoms and values claimed by the occupiers."
She also dismissed an application by six protesters to have their arrests in June declared unlawful. None of the six were ever charged by police.
"Police are hereby authorized to arrest, or arrest and remove, any person" who is violating the order to vacate the camp, Wilkinson said.
Some of the protesters, occupying about 15 teepees on the site, spoke to reporters later Friday. They plan to stay over the weekend while consulting with lawyers.
Robyn Pitawanakwat told CJME radio in Regina that they believe they have permission from the province to stay awhile longer.
The camp is important, she added. "People know to come here to find us here. This is a beacon for them, of a different way of interacting with bureaucracy."
One of the group's lawyers, Dan LeBlanc, said the protesters have 30 days to decide whether or not to appeal to a higher court. He anticipated the camp would be dismantled before then, although there will likely be discussions about how it should be taken down.
"We hope there's some allowances from government to allow the camp to be dismantled in a culturally appropriate way," he said.
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations issued a release saying an appeal is likely and the organization will continue to support the protesters.
"It is a terrible day when the provincial government puts a bylaw before families standing up for their rights," said vice-chief Heather Bear, adding she's worried about police ejecting families with children at the camp.
Regina police Chief Evan Bray said in a release that he will be taking time to read the decision.
"As the Regina Police Service retains discretion as to the manner of enforcement of the Order, there is time to communicate with all parties with the goal of achieving a peaceful resolution," he said.
Central Services Minister Ken Cheveldayoff said in a statement that the government expects protesters to abide by the order within a reasonable time.
"We are fully supportive of peaceful protests but the act of overnight camping, burning combustibles and erecting structures in the park cannot be done without the proper permits and approvals, as confirmed by today's court order."

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The province is considering changes to its trespassing law that would make it illegal to enter any rural property without prior consent.
The review follows calls from farmers to crack down on rural crime and strengthen property rights in Saskatchewan.
Here's what the questionnaire asks: "Should Saskatchewan legislation provide that all access by members of the public to rural property requires the prior express permission of the rural land owner or occupier regardless of the activity and failure to secure that consent constitutes an offence?"

"I think the law should be the same for everyone, it shouldn't make any difference who you are.' - SARM president Ray Orb

It then asks how that permission would need to be sought or granted. The questionnaire opened on Aug. 10 but the Ministry of Justice said it will be advertised publicly within the next week.
The existing law in Saskatchewan, which came into effect in 2009, makes it an offence to enter a property if the owner objects. One way for the owner to object is to post 'Do Not Trespass' signs.
If caught and found guilty, a trespasser can be made to pay up to $2,000.

Reeve calls for stronger law

Arlynn Kurtz, the reeve of the RM of Fertile Belt in Stockholm, Sask., first called for the trespassing law to be bolstered at the bear pit session of the annual Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention in March.
The proposal was met with applause from the crowd.
Kurtz said Friday he was pleased to see the law is under review.
If the change proposed in the review was implemented, Kurtz said it would bring the legislation closer to what exists in Alberta.
That province makes it an offence to enter cultivated land without permission from the owner or occupier, or to stay there when they have been asked to leave.

'It's in the back of everybody's minds'

Kurtz's call for changes to the legislation came a month after Gerald Stanley was acquitted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Colten Boushie.
Boushie, an Indigenous man, was on Stanley's rural property near Biggar, Sask. at the time of his death in 2016.
"What we stated was that if you are coming into a person's yard, you can come down the driveway, you go to the house or to someone in the yard, you express why you're there, what you need and anything beyond that is, you're trespassing and it's a chargeable offence," said Kurtz.
He said biosecurity for crops is also a concern, with farmers saying clubroot brought in on an outside vehicle can be devastating to a farm.

FSIN not in favour of change

Bobby Cameron, the chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, said his organization has not been consulted about the review.
Although the province said it had notified the FSIN, he said he was not aware of it and feels the review is a political move on the part of the government.
"They aren't going to cater to First Nations people, they're going to cater to those people who are voting, which are the non-First Nation people."
He said some Saskatchewan First Nations are preparing to enact bylaws that would consider conservation officers to be trespassers on that land.

SARM welcomes review

Justice Minister Don Morgan declined to be interviewed but issued a statement saying the FSIN was notified.
The Ministry of Justice website said the trespassing legislation will not affect First Nations' hunting and fishing rights.
SARM president Ray Orb said SARM's push for tighter laws and steeper penalties is not related to the Gerald Stanley case because his membership had concerns about the existing legislation when it was passed in 2009.
"I think the law should be the same for everyone, it shouldn't make any difference who you are," he said.
"Unfortunately, some people may take that as, the perception that First Nations people are singled out but that's not the case at all.
"It's geared at everyone that travels out in rural Saskatchewan."
Orb welcomed the review, saying any new legislation should have tougher penalties for trespassers.
He said it should also include provisions that allow people to seek help in an emergency, and that it could help address issues with fires being lit on rural property.
Orb believes the change will be an additional deterrent to anyone who might consider illegal hunting or vandalism on rural land.

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MHz said:

What's a 'Regina'?

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Ron in Regina said:

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/forthwith

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/forthwith

Camp will remain over the weekend
Members of the Justice for our Stolen Children camp have kept
an open line with the government through their lawyer about the
and say their understanding is they can remain in the park over
the weekend.

As of Friday afternoon, the camp hadn’t finished reading through
the entire 56-page decision and was in the process of speaking
to their lawyers. Pitawanakwat said they still need to meet with
lawyers before deciding on an appeal.

I wonder if this is what Judge Wilkinson meant when ordering the
camp dismantled and vacated forthwith?

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As the last of the Queen City Marathon runners run by Wascana Park on a quiet Sunday afternoon, with cheers ringing in the distance, elders and camp supporters sat down in a circle to discuss the next steps and future of Justice for Our Stolen Children camp.
On Friday, a judge issued a decision that the remaining teepees at the protest camp must come down from the public park and that police were authorized to arrest and remove people contravening the order.
Camp supporters said they were still consulting with their lawyers about the decision and had made no decisions about what would happen next.
"Everybody was ready to stick out the winter. Everybody was ready to stay here as long as it takes to see some change," said Ronald Elliott, who has been a regular visitor at the camp for the past few months.
The camp has been up for 194 days, calling for justice and child welfare reform on behalf of Indigenous people, despite repeated calls from the Saskatchewan government that the protest must come down from the public park.
After Friday's ruling, Elliot said he didn't see the likelihood that the camp would remain as long as he believed it would, a fact that he said left him saddened.
"Everybody eventually accepted me. It just feels like home now," he said.
Elliott said he feels child welfare reform is particularly needed, even if the camp is removed.
"I've had brothers and sisters too that have had their kids taken away for periods of time. That's not fun," said Elliott. "It's not nice for the kids other. They get detached and estranged."

Cold nights only a small hardship

Darin Milo has been camping at the park since it first began in February.
"The nights are very cold — some of them," he said. "You keep pushing. You realize there's a lot of people that go through a lot of hardships. Sometimes that cold weather doesn't seem so bad compared to what other people go through."
One of the issues that came up over the course of court proceedings was that protesters had not applied for a permit.
Minister of Central Services Ken Cheveldayoff said the judge's decision confirmed "the act of overnight camping, burning combustibles and erecting structures in the park cannot be done without the proper permits and approvals."
However, Milo said that he questioned what kind of government would require people to apply and pay for a permit to only decide later whether or not they would allow the protest.
"That's fundamentally against a free society as a whole," he said.
Robyn Pitawanakwat, a camp spokesperson, said campers understood they had permission to remain at the site through the weekend. Nine teepees remain on the site on Sunday.
Pitawanakwat said that despite what happens to the site, people still need to have an "embassy" where they could come and share their stories, including those of loss and trauma.
"That need remains, whether or not we're allowed to be here," she said. "There is a need for families to have a place to come and to have people that will advocate for them."

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Twin_Moose said:

You know it will be dragged on as long as possible

'It just feels like home': Justice for Our Stolen Children camp supporters plan for future

Someone advocating for a job, office and staff, maybe move right in to the Parliament building

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