Anti-Black racism caused eviction from Okanagan campsite, says biracial family, witnesses

A group of three Black and biracial families from the Lower Mainland say they were kicked out of Wright's Beach Camp in Penticton, B.C, due to racism. 

Andrea Klaver says her group of 12, like everyone else at the privately run campsite, was playing music, laughing and having fun in late August and early September.

She says on their first nights there, her group played music from a laptop with speakers, and other guests at the camp enjoyed listening to it with them around a propane fire.

When the managers of Wright's Beach Camp asked the group to turn the music down, she said they did, and eventually turned it off completely. Over the next few days, the families kept the music off and their voices low, Klaver says.  

"Then [five days later] at 11 p.m., one of the employees came to our campsite and said 'I am not here because of the music, I am here because you are talking too loud,'" Klaver told the CBC.

She said she explained to the Wright's Beach employee that one of their neighbours was partying and being very loud and asked why they were not getting a warning.

That neighbour, Steve Wikkerink, who is white and was also was camping with a party of 12, corroborated her account saying that night his group had a guest over who was being boisterous and noisy. 

The next morning at 8:30 a.m., the caretaker came by and asked Klaver's group to leave, saying they were banned for life, because of the noise.

Klaver says the caretaker said if they did not leave immediately, he would tow their camper to the middle of the highway. 

She said countless campers approached her, saying they were shocked, given how loud other campers were.

Witnesses say group was the subject of discrimination

Monica Thiessen, who has camped at Wright's since 1998, took to Facebook to voice her concerns about the incident.  

"I am so unbelievably disappointed and shocked that in 2020 myself, and my family had to witness racism in full force," she said about the Black families being evicted.

Thiessen said she and other white campers had noticed that Klaver's group was the only family to be singled out even though several other campers were also playing music, laughing and speaking loudly.

Wikkerink also noticed the group was being unfairly treated.

"We were literally doing the exact same actions and not getting any warnings, so why are we able to be quite loud and not be singled out whatsoever," he said.

Wikkerink says he brought his concerns to a campsite employee, asking if there was a mix up, since his group was being loud, not Klaver's group. But he was told the campsite managers had made up their minds.

The Wright's Beach Camp owners told the CBC in a statement that the Black and biracial group of families were provided five noise warnings before they were evicted.

The campsite also pointed to five noise warnings given to other visitors at the campground over several days. Another party, it says, was also asked to leave.

Their statement read in part: "If our policies are ignored then customers may be asked to leave. Throughout this season we asked a number of customers to leave due to violations of our noise policy."

Racism common in the outdoors, says enthusiast  

Phillip Dwight Morgan is an outdoor enthusiast and a journalist of Jamaican heritage who is also an avid camper and former climbing instructor, He cycled across Canada in 2012. 

"This is a very common experience and speaks to the ways that Black folks are often excluded from nature and made to feel unwelcome," Morgan said of the Black campers being evicted.

He said as a climber in various parts of North America he has often been met with stigma or suspicion.

"I think there is a sense of entitlement that white Canadians have to the environment and to wilderness and a huge part of it is racism and the inclusion."

He says a large part of that is the lack of representation in outdoor companies advertising for example.

He says while there are small shifts toward representation of Black people in the outdoors, there is a long way to go to address instances of gatekeeping where Black people are harassed and surveilled while camping or doing recreational activities outdoors.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.