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BCCLA files lawsuit against City of Vancouver’s ban on daytime shelters
VANCOUVER — The BC Civil Liberties Association says it has filed a lawsuit against the City of Vancouver to challenge the municipality’s daytime ban on outdoor sheltering, calling it “cruel, dehumanizing and deadly.”
It says in a news release that the lawsuit was filed alongside three individual plaintiffs and claims the ban violates sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The association says it is challenging three city bylaws that “make it illegal for unhoused people to shelter outdoors during daytime hours” saying such a ban puts people’s health and safety at risk.
It says the city engages in daily sweeps to enforce the ban, destroying encampments and seizing their tents and other personal items, which it claims violates the Charter section that protects people against cruel treatment by the state.