[Action-forum] Street Bazaar at the Mayors Office
Jane Scharf
If any of this post is unclear or if you want more information or if you
want to get involved in the Street Bazzar please contact Jane Scharf at
740-1146. Or contact me by email at dn...@ncf.ca.
I want to take this time to explain to you about what the street people I am
involved with want in terms of support to conduct street ventures.
This idea was given to me by several street punks in 2003 during the protest
under the bridge.
It is for a certificate program (definitely not a licence or permit) to be
issued by a person or organization that has the trust and confidence of the
street involved persons.
The street involved person does not have to attain one of these certificates
because distributing goods and offering services for donations is already
legal.
If the police, city, business community or the community at large tried to
interfere with their economic venture the individual or organization issuing
the certificate (for example the Ottawa District Labour Council is
interested in taking this on) will step in and confirm that the activity is
legal and hopefully provide other forms of practical and legal protection.
Conversely if there are legitimate issues that need to be resolved in terms
of how the street venture is operating ODLC can also facilitate a resolution
to this.
There is no need for bylaw change to permit this it would only take the city
and police to offer their voluntarily cooperate. Voluntary cooperation from
a system as discriminatory as ours is a long shot but it is achievable if
enough pressure by the community is forthcoming.
Currently all street ventures are suppressed by the use of the Safe Streets
Act. Specifically, people are ticketed arrested and detained for
panhandling, busking, distributing street papers, squeegee, arts, crafts and
any other enterprise they engage in.
What the street wants is the city and police out of their face.
However, the police and now the city are saying that all these activities do
contravene city bylaws which require a business licence for such activity.
The city claims that any of this activity becomes vending if the person
solicited gives any money in return. This assertion was made by the City's
Legal Department in the May 9 Task Force on the Homeless and the Safe
Streets Act meeting.
The city legal is recommending a bylaw change that would allow an exemption
from the requirement of having a licence providing that the person acquire a
certificate.
We are adamantly opposed to this interpretation of the city bylaws and we
adamantly oppose the proposed bylaw change.
Such a definition of vending is not consistent with the common use of the
word nor does it match any dictionary definitions. We challenged the city's
legal to explain how they made this interpretation and they refused to do
so.
We assert that that we have the right to offer goods and services for free
and to receive voluntary donations without getting a city licence for
vending or being required to acquire a certificate. We believe that such a
bylaw as they are proposing would be unreasonable and unconstitutional and
we would therefore defy it and argue the issue through protest and the
courts.
Because the city has made it clear at this last Task Force meeting that they
do not intend to respect our proposal we intend to take the streets back
without this ongoing dialogue that we offered them in our proposed
certificate program.
Specifically we are going to set up a Street Bazaar in front of the Mayors
office on Elgin St. as a protest beginning on July 1, 2005. This bazaar will
operate from 9 am until 9 pm daily. We will be setting up a variety of
economic ventures run by street involved persons.
We are looking to have arts, crafts and busking for donations everywhere and
all other types of street ventures conducted under the Terry Fox Bridge and
at the Square beside the Rideau Centre.
This is in addition to our current demands for the city and police to cease
and desist the persecution of peaceful panhandlers and protestors.
Jane Scharf, Homeless Action Strike-Panhandler's Union
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