Halifax staff suggest city and police should apologize for 2021 encampment evictions
Errors were made that put people in 'precarious positions that caused harm,' says staff response
Halifax and its city police force say "errors" were made during the controversial homeless encampment evictions in the city's downtown more than three years ago.
An independent civilian review from a team of Toronto lawyers into the Aug.18, 2021 event at the old Memorial Library found that decisions by the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) and the municipality led to a "day of chaos" for everyone involved.
A large group of protestors clashed with police in front of the library when city staff arrived to remove tents and wooden shelters from the site. The review found that HRP's decision to go to the library was spur-of-the-moment, and not in the operational plan for the day.
The review made 37 recommendations for HRP, the police board and the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), including an apology and various policing policy changes.
On Monday, HRM staff brought responses to these recommendations to Halifax's board of police commissioners. City staff, HRP, and board representatives all provided input.
"This was not a good day for a whole lot of people … we have city workers, we have citizens, we have people that were there living rough, we have police officers," Bill Moore, executive director of community safety, said after the board meeting.
"The staff report basically is suggesting that we would provide an apology at that point for those that may have been traumatized."
On the apology recommendation, the staff report said HRM and HRP recognize the response to the 2021 clearing of encampments "involved errors in the decision-making process that contributed to people being placed in precarious positions that caused harm."
Coun. Tony Mancini said the municipality in 2021 did not have the same expertise it does now in supporting people who are homeless.
But he said many other parties made errors that day, including civilians at the scene, the provincial government, and former provincial NDP leader and MLA Gary Burrill who "made a huge mistake" when he stood alongside protestors.
"If any apology is gonna be given, let's make sure we round everybody up to line up for that," Mancini said during the meeting.
The municipality has already made changes to the way it responds to unhoused people, including taking a civilian-led approach to closing homeless encampments.
Since August 2021, Halifax police has enhanced its framework around the deployment of its Public Safety Unit — the main unit responding to the evictions — and its response to demonstrations.
"The overarching objective is to ensure a clear, robust, and consistent approach that affirms HRP's commitment to upholding public safety and protecting the public's rights to freedom of assembly and expression," the report said.
The PSU operational plans now include formal withdrawal plans. The civilian review said in August 2021 Halifax police did not appear to seriously consider leaving the site to de-escalate the situation, which "was an error."
New or updated Halifax Regional Police policies related to the recommendations are also underway, said the staff report, including use of force, sensory irritants, interacting with people who are homeless, and the display of officers' name tags and numbers.
"This isn't just a hollow response to recommendations … we're actually doing it and doing it on the ground now," Moore said.
A policy is also being drafted to define when an event is considered to have reached a critical point, and how information can be shared with the police board in a timely way.
Mancini said he was glad to see that because the board should be involved in these kinds of events, including conversations before an operation.
"There was no involvement, from my understanding," Mancini said about the 2021 situation.
The independent review did find that former HRP Chief Dan Kinsella never communicated with the police board about the Aug. 18 operation before it began, which it called a missed opportunity that "prevented the board from fulfilling its oversight responsibilities."
Moore said there is more work to be done around when and how an apology could be made.
Regional council will discuss that, and other suggested responses to the recommendations, at a future meeting.
Moore will become Halifax's first public safety commissioner next Monday, with emergency services like police and fire reporting to him, as well as community safety. He said the role will look at how HRM can better integrate these services, including possible shared training facilities, and "do the best we can with the resources that we have."
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