The Chilliwack
HOMETOWN PROUD
Progress Wednesday
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Special
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Sports
Hometown
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Derby
Meet the business that are proud to call Chilliwack home.
Journey to adventure with Argonautika.
Honey Badgers hunt for fresh meat.
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Canada Post suspends community mailbox program
■ R OSEDALE H ARVEST B RIGADE
Residents told to watch mail for letter explaining changes Jessica Peters The Progress The conversion to community mailboxes seemed to be in full swing on Monday downtown Chilliwack, with work crews digging up sod and preparing sites on several streets. But by the end of the day, the future of the community mailbox program was uncertain, as Canada Post announced an immediate temporary suspension to the five-year plan. This is year two, and Chilliwack was one of the first of about 90 communities across the country slated to lose door-to-door services. Now, Canada Post is telling residents affected by the change to watch for a letter in the coming weeks to explain what’s next. So far, there has been no solid explanation for the sudden halt, although a change in government seems to have played a role in the decision. The Liberal Party did promise to reverse the shift away from home delivery, and Canada Post mentions the government in their Monday press release. “We will work collaboratively with the Government of Canada to determine the best path forward given the ongoing challenges faced by the Canadian postal system,” it read. “Efforts are now underway to place the comprehensive program on hold in an orderly fashion. This involves roughly 460,000 addresses across the country which are Continued: STRAHL/ p5
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Children were invited to paint small panels of wood that will eventually be used to create a fun and colourful fence in Rosedale. The painting party was part of the first Rosedale Harvest Brigade on Saturday, which included a parade, vendors, hayrides and more. JESSICA PETERS/ PROGRESS
Court ruling shines spotlight on homelessness Overnight park camping should spur action: lawyer Jeff Nagel Black Press A leading municipal lawyer predicts cities and senior governments will be under increased pressure to house the homeless as a result of a new court ruling that they can’t be stopped from camping in parks overnight. Jonathan Baker says the B.C. Supreme Court decision that
Abbotsford can’t evict the homeless from a municipal park has broad implications for other communities, which may see more camps spring up in public spaces. By making homeless tents a potential ongoing legal fixture in local parks, he said, the court has sent a signal that the problem can’t simply be covered up or chased away. “You can’t govern by shoving a problem from neighbourhood to neighbourhood or from city to city,” Baker said. “You can’t do it with environmental pollution and you can’t do it with mental health.
That’s what this means.” He said the Abbotsford decision by Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson was “very balanced” in that it did not require permanent homeless camps to be established. Advocates there had demanded a designated tent city, with facilities including washrooms. It largely mirrors a 2008 B.C. Court of Appeal ruling on use of parks in Victoria. In both cases, courts have held that cities with insufficient shelter spaces for local homeless can’t enforce their bylaws that normally prohibit overnight camping in
parks, although tents must come down during the day so parks can be enjoyed by other citizens. In Victoria, that’s meant daily police patrols to rouse homeless campers each morning at 9 a.m. and cajole them to take down their tents until 7 p.m., when they can go back up again. “Both courts are saying that the problem of people camping in parks is really a major mental health and social problem and ultimately it has to be addressed by governments, one way or another,” Baker said. Continued: COURT/ p4