Where? 2120 Cambie Street
When? Thursday July 19th, Protest at 12:30 PM, Public Meeting at 1 PM
What? Join the protest, and/or sign up to speak by emailing office@vancouverpoliceboard.ca (bcc: sanctuaryhealthvancouver@gmail.com so that we know you are coming)
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/483363188790350/
At a public meeting at 1pm Thursday, the Vancouver Police Department will ask its Police Board to pass fake “Access to Police Services without Fear” guidelines, which will only create a false sense of security.
We are asking community to tell the police that their guidelines are unacceptable by protesting outside their meeting and/or by signing up to speak directly to the board.
The Vancouver Police Department should not claim to provide ‘Access without Fear,’ if it continues to be complicit in the detention of children, the separation of families and the deportation of people to countries where they will face violence and persecution. If you collaborate with Canada Border Services Agency, you’re not providing ‘Access without Fear.'
The VPD’s proposed guidelines are exactly the opposite of Access without Fear principles. They list extremely general reasons why they may choose to call CBSA. Even when they cannot justify their call under these very general reasons, they refuse to limit their officers’ ability to contact CBSA.
We have shared multiple concerns rooted in the experiences of community members,
and the VPD cannot explain how their guidelines would offer any safety to these same
people. For example, we received a report from a Latinx refugee who was walking down
the street while wearing construction gear and was stopped by a VPD officer and asked
for his immigration papers. In another case, when the VPD was called to a job site to
investigate a case of missing tools, they proceeded to ask everybody on the worksite for
their immigration status.
Read the Sanctuary City audit of Access without Fear policies in the City of Vancouver here: http://www.sanctuarycityvan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Audit-Final.pdf
To read the guidelines, see page 20-21 here: https://vancouver.ca/police/policeboard/agenda/2018/0719/1807P03-Board-Report-Access-to-Police-Services-Without-Fear.pdf
