N.s. Protesters Who Clashed With Police During Shelter Removal Want Charges Dropped
About 90 people gathered Tuesday outside a Halifax courthouse to demand that charges be dropped against 24 protesters who were arrested during an August demonstration over the removal of homeless shelters.
Defence lawyer Asaf Rashid, who represents 17 protesters, said Tuesday at the peaceful gathering that the Crown should drop the charges on the basis that it is not in the public interest to proceed.
“The people who showed up were brave because what they saw was an abuse of the right to housing,” the lawyer said. “Individuals staying in those encampments had no place to go.”
The Aug. 18 demonstration outside the former Halifax public library grew tense after police arrested a man who had been sitting on the roof of one of the small wooden shelters erected by an advocacy group for the homeless.
After the protest spilled from a lawn into nearby streets, officers sprayed people with chemical irritants, and police later donned riot gear to keep demonstrators away from the shelter when contractors arrived to cut it into pieces.
