Municipal Regulation of Public Spaces: Effects on Section 7 Charter Rights

• Author: Kendra Milne
• Pages: 1-15

1 APPEAL  VOLUME 11  2006

MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF

PUBLIC SPACES:

EFFECTS ON SECTION 7 CHARTER RIGHTS*

Kendra Milne

Introduction

On October 26, 2005, the City of Victoria obtained an interlocutory

injunction to enforce one of its by -laws

1

and remove an assembly of

campers from Cridge Park. The group of campers consisted of

homeless municipal residents who could not or would not take refuge

in the local shelters. There were also municipal residents protesting

the lack of adequate services for the poor, and those that travelled

from outside the municipality to support the group. The homeless

campers were forced to leave the park because they were breaching a



This paper developed from a conversation with Professor Benjamin Berger,

University of Victoria, Faculty of Law, and from some of his suggested arguments

for the Cridge Park injunction hearing.

1

City of Victoria, By-law No. 91-19, Parks Bylaw (1991), s. 28. The section reads:

(a) No person may conduct himself in a disorderly or offensive manner, or

molest or injure any other person, or loiter or take up a temporary abode over

night on any portion of the park, or obstruct the free use and enjoyment of any

park by any other person, or violate any bylaw, rule, regulation or notice

concerning any park.

(b) Any person conducting himself as aforesaid may be removed from the

park and is deemed to be guilty of an infraction of this bylaw.