Vancouver man says he was forcibly displaced from tent near St. Paul’s Hospital

A man who says he was forcibly removed from his tent in front of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver says he wants to take action against the city workers and police officers involved.

Michael Ackland says he’s been living unhoused in the neighbourhood for nearly 20 years.

But now, his most recent spot is blocked off by a fence.

Fencing around a space near St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouve. Michael Ackland says he was forcibly displaced after he had set up his tent in the area. (Kier Junos, CityNews Image)

“They were grabbing things from outside my tent that were my personal belongings,” he told CityNews in describing the moments he was being displaced.

“I woke up to four bicycle police, two sergeants, and three city trucks with two workers in each of them. All of them had my tent surrounded.”

Ackland says no one gave him a reason as to why he was being forced to leave the area.

“They just simply stated, ‘You have 15 minutes to pack your stuff and get out of here, or we’re taking all your stuff and throwing it in the trucks,'” he recalled.

Michael Ackland says he was forcibly removed from his tent in front of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver. (Kier Junos, CityNews Image)

CityNews reached out to both the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Police Department for comment about Ackland’s removal. However, both deferred questions around this to the other party.

In a statement, the city says it didn’t put up the blue fencing, adding, “As the city was not aware fencing was going up, there was no targeted outreach efforts prior.”

“Right now, the city is working very, very hard to make unhoused people disappear. Not necessarily by putting them into housing but just by making public spaces as hostile as possible, through police harassment and through harassment by city workers as well,” said Ryan Sudds, an organizer with the Stop the Sweeps organization.

While he’s since moved his belongings and tent across the street, Ackland’s situation is one of the latest examples of forced displacement of unhoused people in Vancouver.

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While multiple constitutional challenges around Canada have led to rulings that allow people living in tents to stay, the BC Human Rights commissioner says there’s still a long way to go to protect those in Ackland’s situation.

“Some of the court decisions, some of the legal claims that have occurred, have made some progress. For example, people being able to shelter in a park overnight. But they still haven’t addressed the bigger picture of human rights issues for those who are living on our streets,” Kasari Govender explained.

People living in Vancouver’s CRAB Park won a court case against the Vancouver Park Board last year, making the park the only legal place in the city to live in a tent.

Related video: CRAB Park residents celebrate two years of legal encampment

Govender says neither the Charter of Rights and Freedoms nor the Human Rights Code has protections against discrimination because of poverty, leading to forced displacements from public sidewalks.

“I think one of the ways forward is to continue to bring challenges like we’ve seen, constitutional challenges, human rights challenges to these issues,” she added.

Meanwhile, it’s being offered the right kind of housing — not a human rights case — that’s on Ackland’s mind. He says he’s now connected with an outreach worker.

“He asked me what help he could assist me with, but he didn’t tell me what my options were,” Ackland said.

CityNews has reached out to the Vancouver Police Department for more information.