Homeless camp standoff gets serious after Vancouver issues an eviction notice by First Nations

In what has become a somewhat common refrain in Canada, a group of homeless people and advocates have taken up residents in a Vancouver park, demanding better treatment of Canada's social underclass and fending off official requests to pack up and ship out.

But this time around, the standoff has an extra nugget of firepower – a largely symbolic but politically charged claim that the city is the one squatting and facing eviction.

This is the allegation made by supporters of a Vancouver homeless enclave that has taken root in Oppenheimer Park, located in the city’s Downtown Eastside. The group faces eviction today, but is responding with its own eviction notice, released by aboriginal groups that have been identified as the proper title holders of the land in question.

"We, the indigenous people here today in Oppenheimer Park, do hereby assert our Aboriginal Title, as established in law by the Supreme Court of Canada in Tsilhqot’in v British Columbia," reads the notice released on Sunday.

"Our people have held title to this land since time immemorial, and we are exerting our right to exclusive authority, recognized as an inherent element of our title, over this land and this camp....

"Because we are the title holders to this land, we assert that you do not have jurisdiction over this place until such time as our title to it is lawfully resolved."

The standoff began over the weekend, when those living in a homeless camp were informed they would have 24 hours to disband and leave the public space.

There are reportedly about 30 homeless people living in the camp, many of whom are of aboriginal descent. The First Nations community has since called on supporters to join the campsite and bring extra supplies on Monday, when city officials were expected to remove the camp.

“I’m here because my people have been on this land for more than 10,000 years and we have been displaced for over 500 years,” Audrey Siegl, a Musqueam Nation member, told the Vancouver Sun. “I’m not going to stand by and watch and not use my voice while it (displacement) is happening to other people.

“We will stay here until people have homes. Nobody wants to be here. People want to have homes.”

Homelessness is becoming an increasingly sensitive topic in Canada and especially in Vancouver, where studies have found the homeless population continues to increase, and the unsheltered homeless population has soared over the past three years.

When Vancouver hosted the Olympics in 2010, homeless camps became an issue of concern, with advocates distributing free tents to homeless people and accusations being leveled that police were sweeping the population under the rug.

In 2011, Vancouver saw some of the country’s largest and most determined collection of demonstrators set up camps as part of the international Occupy Movement.

But those incidents lacked the, albeit largely symbolic, gravitas of the aboriginal land claims that now colour this homeless standoff.

There have been some recent developments in the debate over who owns what in British Columbia. The City of Vancouver formally acknowledged last month that it was founded on land that still belongs to three First Nations communities, and that the land was "never ceded through treaty, war or surrender."

“This is a foundational truth that we are on the traditional land of these three First Nations, that they did not cede these territories to anyone, and here we are in this ambiguous place where the city of Vancouver also has a legal title and right of the city as well through the Canadian constitution and provincial charter," Cou. Andrea Reimer told Yahoo Canada News in June.

Days later, The Supreme Court of Canada declared that the Tsilhqot'in Nation held an aboriginal title over a valley in central British Columbia. It was the first time the courts made such a ruling and is considered by some to be a "game changer" on the issue of aboriginal land claims.

So how does this all relate to a homeless camp in a Vancouver park?

The Musqueam and Haida Nations, which have asserted their claim on some of the land Vancouver was originally settled on, say that city officials have no jurisdiction to demand anyone leave the park. It’s their land, free land, and anyone who wants to live there may do so.

This could set up an unlikely standoff, if and when police and city officials decide to enforce their eviction notices. It's no longer a question of homeless squatters, but a century-old debate over land titles and accommodation.

And it is threatening to become a much bigger problem than some 30 people and a dozen tents.

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