This type of work should be done carefully to avoid personal conflicts and seizure of vulnerable personal belongings due to health concerns from working with potentially toxic materials.
What if an informal group of concerned locals decided to clean up the nearly empty homeless camp in Lower Patricia, known as the Moccasin Flats?
Over Christmas and New Years, a group of Chilliwack residents hauled debris (including electronics and travel trailers) from an abandoned camp between a busy road and a local river. As a Global News article revealed, the clean-up volunteers were deeply concerned about the desperate situation of those who had previously had to live there, but the environmental impact of the waste left in the river. I was also worried about damage.
This article contained a Chilliwack RCMP statement.
“If a group of volunteers has concerns, they should consult the individual or entity responsible for the particular property, either the landowner, the Indigenous community or the appropriate government agency,” it said. increase. “Collaborative approaches to addressing these types of situations have often been successful in similar cases in the past.”
But what if the person responsible is nowhere to be found?
And what if the entity responsible for that property can’t or won’t clean it up?
Looking locally, the current court injunction barring the City of Prince George and its employees from taking anything out of the Moccasin Flats could be used if those involved were picking up trash along Lower Patricia. also apply?
A group of volunteers cleaned the site last spring, and Prince George residents already gather each April to clean public property, so there’s a precedent for cleaning anytime and anywhere.
This type of work should be done carefully to avoid personal conflicts and seizure of vulnerable personal belongings due to health concerns from working with potentially toxic materials.
But if that criterion is met, what is stopping locals from acting?
Based on the Chilliwack RCMP statement, nothing is illegal. It also doesn’t seem to need to ask for permission.
Done safely and properly, residents seem to have the power to clean up unsightly waste piles on public property.
And maybe that’s when they did.
Editor-in-Chief Neil Godbout
