As a three-day injunction hearing on the Occupy Vancouver encampment begins Wednesday, a BC Civil Liberties Association lawyer says protesters shouldn't expect a favourable outcome.
Association executive director David Eby said city lawyers have hundreds of pages of affidavit evidence outlining various bylaw violations at the camp to back up their case that the tent city must be dismantled.
Lawyers for Occupy have a strong argument to make that the encampment is one of the safer options available for the city's homeless, Eby added, particularly following the closure of 160 shelter beds – but the days still appear numbered for the tent city in its current form.
"The best that they can likely hope for is something that will allow them to have a few tents during the day and maybe some tents at night for people who are homeless," Eby said.
"They're extremely unlikely to get a decision that allows all tents, all the time."
Eby said lawyers will also likely argue that the tents are political structures, and an integral part of the protest that should be protected as forms of free expression.
The hearing began at 10 a.m. at B.C. Supreme Court, following a week long adjournment Justice Anne MacKenzie ordered to give Occupy lawyers a chance to mount a defence.
The city has changed its tactics and is now arguing for the injunction on the ground that protesters are trespassing.
"There's no dispute people have erected structures ... on the property. They're sitting there right now," city lawyer Ben Parkin said.
"(There's) no issue on the basic facts there is a breach."
The city had been contending there are imminent safety concerns, including the drug overdose death of a 23-year-old Victoria woman in a tent.
Occupy Victoria protesters are also facing an injunction order, but the judge adjourned Tuesday's hearing for two days.
First arrest of Occupy protest
On Tuesday, a number of tents, tarps and wooden structures were peacefully removed from the Occupy camp by firefighters and city staff enforcing an interim injunction requiring campers to abide by fire restrictions.
Tuesday also marked the first arrest of the Occupy Vancouver protest.
Const. Lindsey Houghton said a protester sat down in the middle of Georgia Street at around 11:30 a.m. as traffic zoomed past.
"We asked him several times to leave, he said he wasn't going to. He asked to be arrested and so he was," Houghton said.
The man was arrested for breach of peace, which Houghton pointed out is not a criminal charge, and released a few hours later. No criminal charges have yet been laid in connection with the protest.
With files from The Canadian Press
