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CBC — Tents torn down at central Edmonton encampment as court battle continues

Original source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/homeless-encampment-removals-court-edmonton-1.7079510 Retrieved: 2026-07-04 By: Wallis Snowdon, Natasha Riebe, CBC News. Posted Jan 10, 2024.

  • Jan 10, 2024: police dismantled "the last of eight encampments the city had deemed too high-risk to remain standing." City workers in white hazmat suits loaded tents into a truck. Temperature that afternoon: –24 C.
  • Arlen Plashka (Saddle Lake First Nation), forced from the camp: "I feel violated... What's happening here, it's a human rights violation... I am a human being. These are our homes." He didn't feel safe in a shelter and didn't know where he'd sleep.
  • "one man and two women were arrested Wednesday as officers dismantled a homeless encampment, including a reporter who had been covering the issue."

Injunction / court procedure

  • "The injunction, granted Dec. 18, was set to expire Thursday but Court of King's Bench Justice Jonathan Martin extended the interim injunction until next Tuesday" because parties had lengthy arguments.
  • Interim injunction "places conditions on how and when the camps can be cleared."
  • City lawyers (Megan Kyriacou) argued the coalition "isn't qualified to speak for homeless people, as they don't have a formal role in the community and have no record of providing services to the unhoused population."
  • Coalition lawyer Chris Wiebe: "People living in encampments in Edmonton, for various reasons, are unable to bring this legal action on their own. They require a public interest litigant."

Protest

  • ~30 protesters rallied outside Edmonton police headquarters, "Stop the sweeps." Organized by Judith Gale, founder of Bear Claw Beaver Hills House, an Indigenous-serving agency.
  • Gale: police "villainize them and say they are the problem. No, society is the problem that leaves our most vulnerable on the street with mental health [issues] to fend for themselves."
  • Related headline noted: "Man found dead in tent as seventh Edmonton encampment is dismantled."