A small rally was held outside of the courthouse early Monday morning in opposition to the city’s request for a court order to evict those living in the encampment at Belle Park. The rally was held at 9 a.m. on July 10, prior to the start of court proceedings.
The organizers of the rally were with Mutual Aid Katarakwi-Kingston (MAKK), a local project initiated by AKA Autonomous Social Centre. MAKK sent out a message last week calling on residents in Kingston to come together to stop the evictions at the Integrated Care Hub and Belle Park area.
“Evicting encampment residents will only increase the risk of more people losing their lives to drug poisoning," they stated in their message. "To evict people who are unhoused living in Belle Park is unjust and unethical. We must ask ourselves: what kind of community do we want to be? One where everyone is treated like human beings, with respect, no matter who they are? Or a city that takes actions that criminalize some of its most vulnerable residents?”
Around 25 to 35 people were present throughout the rally, sporting signs and listening to speeches delivered by organizers.
While the city has claimed to have enough space and resources available for folks who have or will be leaving the encampment for a smooth transition, MAKK and others who oppose the eviction claim the city does not have enough shelter space, and this course of action will move people away from life-saving resources like the Integrated Care Hub.
Kingston Police arrived at the rally just before 10 a.m., as organizers began to pack up, asking that protestors move off of court property.
“By the time they came, we were done. So I don't think that was necessary. And we weren't gonna do anything else," Laura Chaignin with MAKK stated. "We just had our little speeches and we were kind of just socializing at that point. The microphone was off and people had already left. A few people had already left. But yeah, there was, I think a total of four police cars. And, you know, it was just at that point maybe 10 of us or something. And they were quite pushy about, you know, scattering us…”
“...I wish the people who work at the court would have come out and talked to us. I think that would have been better because we would have been able to tell them, we're done in five minutes or something like that. And we were packing up honestly at that point. It's really sad that it had to happen like that,” Chaignin added.
Listen to the full story below, featuring audio from the rally and an interview with Laura Chaignin with MAKK: