Advocates frustrated as encampment off-limits 3 days after Kingston double homicide

Police maintained a cordon Sunday around the Kingston encampment where two people were killed and a third critically injured three days earlier, as local advocates called for the encampment's residents to be allowed to access their belongings.

Some residents of the encampment were sleeping on the ground outside the police barricade, community volunteer Michelle Schwarz told CBC.

Schwarz — the food coordinator with the Katarokwi Union of Tenants, which advocates for both renters and homeless people — said vulnerable encampment residents deserved better treatment from the city and police. 

"One woman approached us the day after at our pop-up meal and vigil in her bare feet, sobbing, saying that they wouldn't even give her time to retrieve anything from her tent, including her shoes, her ID, her purse, her money," Schwarz said, speaking on the phone from the scene. 

"There's murders that take place in other areas of the city, not just at the hub," Schwarz added, referring to the integrated care hub adjacent to the encampment. "And they don't evict the entire community and tell them, 'You can't return to your home.'"

John Done, a lawyer with the Kingston Community Law Clinic, which provides legal support to the encampment residents, said some of them were unable to retrieve their prescription drugs.

"One person said that he suffers from epilepsy and needs his Dilantin," Done said, referring to an anti-epileptic medicine. 

Police cite crime scene integrity

Kingston Police declined on Sunday to answer questions about when their scene investigation would be complete or when residents might be allowed to access their belongings, saying they had no updates.

But on Saturday the force issued a statement to deny "rumours" of a plan to "bulldoze" the encampment that day, saying the site was fenced off while they investigated the double homicide. The police presence in the area was to preserve crime scene integrity and collect evidence, the statement read. 

Jay English, a resident of the encampment, said there was no reason why everybody should be "kicked out" of the encampment. 

"The occurrence didn't happen where they're kicking everybody out," he told CBC on Friday. "It only happened in a certain spot. And in the meanwhile, we're all of us losing our home."

The Thursday killing of 38-year-old Taylor Wilkinson and 41-year-old John Hood and the injury of an unidentified woman has reignited a debate over the future of the encampment, with Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson saying it needed to be cleared.

Last November the Ontario Superior Court rejected the city's application to clear the encampment, ruling that a bylaw ban on overnight sheltering was unconstitutional.

A 47-year-old man, Andre Wareham, has been remanded into custody to face charges stemming from Thursday incident.

Harini Sivalingam, director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said there was a concern that the tragic incident could be exploited to violate the charter rights of the encampment residents.

"We just want to ensure that the rights of unhoused encampment residents are respected by the Kingston city officials, as well as urging the Kingston Police to make a commitment not to assist in any unlawful enforcement that would remove unhoused encampment residents," she said.