Halifax police, municipality don't commit to apology on 2021 encampment evictions
CBC
Halifax Regional Police will review a report that criticizes police decisions and actions during the controversial homeless encampment evictions three years ago, but neither they nor the city have apologized for the event.
An independent review of the incident that unfolded on Aug. 18, 2021, at the Halifax Memorial Library encampment came before Halifax's board of police commissioners on Wednesday.
It said decisions by regional police and the municipality led to a "day of chaos" for all involved, and offered 37 recommendations for HRP, the police board and the city.
"Aug. 18 was a challenging day for everyone, one that we don't want to see repeated, and I think one that we've taken significant steps in evolving our response," Chief Don MacLean, who is new in his role, told the board.
The report said Halifax police made a spur-of-the-moment decision to clear shelters from the old Memorial Library site on Spring Garden Road after clearing three other homeless encampment sites earlier in the morning.
The operational plan for the day didn't account for the library site, so there were no details about where police should stage as municipal workers brought in heavy machinery to move wooden shelters, or "no-go" triggers that could have seen police and city staff withdraw if a protest began.
The events can be tied directly to the lack of planning, and the "inability or unwillingness" of commanding officers to re-evaluate the decision to clear the encampment, the report said.
"As a result of these decisions, unhoused persons, civilian observers, protesters, HRP officers and HRM employees all suffered significant trauma," it said.
A large group of protesters clashed with police, who used pepper spray and made multiple arrests.
The report said some officers brought up concerns about forging ahead, but they weren't listened to — and a commanding officer on site didn't pass them up the chain to senior officers back at headquarters.
The option for HRP to reconsider the operation and withdraw "does not appear to have been seriously considered and was never implemented. That was an error," the report said.
"There will be varying degrees of opinions on the report and the response and [whether] different decisions may have had different outcomes," MacLean told reporters.
"I really don't want to look at this report through the rear-view mirror. I'm going to look to this report through the front-view mirror in terms of determining what it is that we can do … to allow us to do things better."
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