CRAB SQUATTERS DISPLACE KIDS' SUMMER PROGRAM

Fear of dirty needles and unsanitary conditions left by squatters has
prompted the Ray Cam Community Centre to pull its summer day camp for kids
out of Crab Park.

The squatters, who are protesting a lack of affordable housing and the
province's two-year cap on welfare, moved into the park in the last week
after leaving Victory Square at the request of military veterans and the
parks board.

Richard Page, a board member with Ray Cam, wouldn't name specific
incidents, but said the board decided the park is no longer a place to take
children. "We decided it had become a very harmful situation. Normally that
park is a very safe place to hold the program."

Coordinator Carol Brown, said the day camp, aimed at children aged six to
12, must meet the "careful parent standard."

"By holding the program there we were not able to meet those standards so a
decision was made to move."

The situation is unfortunate, she said, because inner-city children-some of
whom live in hotels-depend on the program to visit green space and play
safely outdoors. Some of the larger events, such as an organized play day,
would also have had to be cancelled because the squatters are camped on
areas the program would normally use for such activities. The kids are now
being carpooled to a park in Strathcona.

Don Larson, coordinator of Crab Water For Life Society which acts as a
steward for the park, said since the squatters moved into the park, he's
noticed fewer children from the summer program showing up each day.

"One day I dropped by and there were three kids and some guy standing near
them smoking a joint," he said. "The little girls didn't look too
comfortable." Larson hoped the situation could remain tolerable for
everyone when the parks board put up fencing between the small tent city
and playground last week, but has since changed his mind.

"I dropped down there a few times during the day to see how things were
going and it seemed OK," he said. "I thought maybe this can work, but then
I heard about a guy down there wielding an axe and how it took four people
to restrain him. I know that happened at night, but it still worries me."

Larson added that some of the squatters are using hard drugs frequently on
the site and he's heard-but hasn't witnessed-some of the men are using a
small water park to clean their drug paraphernalia and bathe.

"There's a potential for dirty needles to be left around," he said. "You
can't have kids down there in a situation like that."

The squatters first moved into Victory Square, home to a cenotaph honouring
Canada's war dead, July 2 to protest a lack of affordable housing in the
city. A couple of weeks later, about 20 of those campers moved to Crab Park
after local veterans complained the protesters were desecrating their
memorial. As well, work was supposed to begin several weeks ago to
refurbish the park and the parks board was worried that project wouldn't be
completed in time for this year's Remembrance Day celebrations.

The board gave the remaining squatters until last Tuesday at noon to move
on, but the protesters refused, saying they'd leave voluntarily Saturday.
The parks board decided it couldn't wait any longer and very early
Wednesday morning arrived at Victory Square with heavy equipment and
fencing material. On Saturday, the last few squatters packed up and moved,
some to Crab Park and others to Thornton Park, located at Main Street and
Terminal Avenue, where they are camped next to a memorial to the 14 women
murdered at Ecole Polytechnic in Montreal.

Thornton Park only officially reopened June 22 after an extensive $560,000
renovation, including new lighting, a pedestrian plaza adjacent to
SkyTrain, improved drainage and additional benches and picnic tables.

Parks chair Heather Deal agrees the situation is unfortunate and adds a
huge amount of city and parks board resources and staff, including health
and sanitation workers, is being used to control the situation.

Deal said the board has asked the squatters to leave, but so far they
haven't budged.

"Voluntary compliance is the least expensive route to go," Deal said. "It's
a smaller group and we're hoping they'll move on their own."

But Deal is hoping they won't move on to any other parks board facilities,
such as Thornton Park.

"I'd like the squatters to think very carefully about what they're doing
and what their goals are. Then I'd like them to think about who best can
help them make that change," she said. "I can tell you it's not the parks
board, and Victoria isn't listening to them from where they are now. What
they're doing is inconveniencing all of the people who live in that area
who have very little green space as it is. They need to think about those
moms and kids who need to use the park."