Protest in support of encampment residents in Hamilton stops city staff from working

With winter coming soon and the teardowns of encampments continuing over the past week, the Hamilton Encampment Support Network (HESN) and other supporters of encampment residents upped the ante Friday to prevent city workers from dismantling the make-shift housing that has popped up in parks across the city. 

About 30 people gathered Friday outside a city public works facility near the Chedoke Golf Course, preventing vehicles from exiting the facility. 

By mid-afternoon, HESN said, workers left the facility and it closed for the day, and the network declared success in delaying evictions.

"We picked this location as a way to delay an encampment eviction, even if for a day," said HESN volunteer Eshan Merali. "We were told that evictions were going to be ramped up to the point of being completed by today."

In a statement from the city, it said "approximately 30 staff and about 10 vehicles were prevented from attending work sites" Friday, including some from parks and energy departments. 

Throughout the day, some protesters played games of chess, others shared food, played music or made speeches, as they stood in solidarity with encampment residents.

HESN volunteer Merima Menzildzic said part of frustration has been over whether shelter space is available. The city has said that there are spaces, she said, but "the reality on the ground is that people are being told there are no shelter spaces," she said, adding that a lot of spaces available are not accessible for some individuals or would separate families.

Protesters were also hoping to start a dialogue with city workers. "We want to let them know that they have the right to refuse this work," said Merali.

Menzildzic agreed. 

"This kind of position that they put workers in where [they] come in to remove belonging to evict people only to have the city not actually respond in a meaningful way is also work that workers can reflect on and take action to refuse to do."

Last month, five people who had lived in encampments were named in an application to Superior Court seeking an injunction to stop the City of Hamilton from tearing them down.

On Nov. 2, Justice Andrew Goodman ruled the city can enforce its bylaw against tents in public spaces, prompting disappointment from some encampment residents and from the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic. 

"There remains a segment of Hamilton's population, the most vulnerable, who have nowhere else to go," the clinic's statement read. 

Since then, a number of teardowns have been reported, included last weekend in Woodland Park and earlier this week at Jackie Washington Park. However, these evictions have not stopped new encampments from emerging again at the same parks, HESN says.