Full Figure Media interviews Chrissy Brett, indigenous leader who is running the new tent city in Crab Park. Chrissy says that Canada has been ‘putting their heads in the sand’ with homeless and Indigenous rights issues. It’s easier to avoid complications when we aren’t facing it. But the reality is that there are far to many people who are homeless in BC and more now since COVID-19 hit the streets. This is unceded land and the government needs to start implementing urban indigenous space in their budgets.
Chrissy Brett and Veronica Butler have been finding for Crab Park for decades. They’ve been promised a healing center through an indigenous lens for people in the Downtown Eastside and the port has refused it.
Crab Park port parking lot is empty all year around, besides a few cop cars hanging out during the day or movie set parking lots. This is the perfect place to have camp where people in need can refuge. Where are these people going to find stability if we keep kicking them around and moving them from one location to the next. The government of Canada must implement more social program in their budgets for housing, mental health, addiction and trauma.