Halifax councillors say little on review into 2021 encampment evictions

A new review criticising how the Halifax municipality and police handled controversial homeless encampment evictions three years ago came before regional council Tuesday, but councillors had little to say.

The independent civilian review from a team of Toronto lawyers was commissioned by the Halifax board of police commissioners. It found that decisions by the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) and the municipality led to a  "day of chaos" for everyone involved.

On Aug. 18, 2021 a large group of protestors clashed with police in front of the old Memorial Library. Police and city staff were there to remove tents and wooden shelters from the site, but going to the library at all was a spur-of-the-moment decision and not in the operational plan for the day.

The review offered 37 recommendations for police and the city, including an apology. Neither have committed to that yet.

Chief administrative officer Cathie O'Toole, who was not in the role during the evictions, said during Tuesday's meeting that there's been "a lot of focus" around an apology.

"We can and we should do better, and we are doing better — and that was recognized in the report. And I do think actions speak louder than words," O'Toole said.

The city's approach to encampment closures now sees municipal staff take the lead, not police. They also give encampment residents a deadline with multiple weeks' notice, which is shared with street navigators and other shelter or housing service providers.

This fits with multiple recommendations made by the review, which also suggested that Halifax should continue to designate public spaces for encampments as the housing crisis continues. It also said the municipality should ensure its director of housing and homelessness has enough funding and staff to properly support those who are unhoused.

Short discussion

On Tuesday, council voted to have O'Toole prepare a report on the recommendations relating to Halifax.

There was a 12-minute discussion during which only three councillors and O'Toole spoke on the report.

Coun. Kathryn Morse said it highlighted many gaps, and asked about how to address the day's lasting impact on officers. The report said some described the event as their "worst day in policing."

Coun. Tony Mancini said the city has come a long way since 2021, and leads the country in how it deals with homelessness.

"There's a lot of good things that have happened since then," he said.

Becky Kent, councillor and police board chair, said the event that led to the review was "difficult" for the unhoused, the public, staff and police.

Kent said the board "stands firm in the support of the police services in HRM and sees this review as a valuable tool."

"Now [we] … are asking council to review this report and look deeply at the pieces that would be specific to the municipality and the hopefully we can see positive outcomes."

Mayor Mike Savage did not weigh in during the meeting and declined to speak with CBC about the report.

One politician who was there on Aug.18 and was interviewed for the review said the report's findings confirmed what he saw that day.

NDP MLA Gary Burrill called Savage to tell him things were getting dangerous, and suggested that police should stand down. Although they didn't discuss pulling out city staff, the report makes it clear that should have been an option.

"There were lots of off-ramps here and those opportunities weren't taken," Burrill said in an interview.

The review also recommends the municipality form a joint working group with the province that includes representatives from the unhoused community, police, the private sector and social service agencies.

The province's Community Affairs department said in a statement that its approach to homelessness has evolved in recent years, alongside its budget.

It is spending $120 million this year for various resources, including a tiny home community in Lower Sackville and temporary housing in Pallet villages around Nova Scotia.

Reviews details day of evictions

The review, which interviewed dozens of police, city staff, former CAO Jacques Dubé as well as municipal and provincial politicians, laid out what happened in the lead up to the 2021 evictions.

It said that while Halifax police should have taken multiple opportunities to de-escalate the situation and leave the site, Dubé also should have told city staff to leave. Instead, heavy equipment was brought through the crowd to remove one shelter and a staff member with a chainsaw destroyed another.

The report said that at some point former police chief Dan Kinsella called Coun. Lindell Smith, who was chair of the police board at the time, to update him on the situation. Smith asked whether HRP could withdraw because he didn't feel the operation was worth the potential cost — but Kinsella was "not enthusiastic about that idea," the report said.

Dubé updated councillors around 2 p.m. that day, and said the decision had been made to go to the library site because the clearing of other encampments that morning had gone well. 

The review said "some councillors" asked Dubé whether the HRM and police could walk away. While it's unclear exactly what his response was, the "tenor of the conversation was that to do so would be to let the protesters, and [Halifax Mutual Aid] in particular, win."

Halifax Mutual Aid was a group of anonymous residents who funded and constructed wooden shelters for people who were homeless.