It was a pretty simple idea. Spend Friday nights sleeping outside with the homeless to raise awareness about the need for affordable housing.
But U of T students Oriel Varga and Elan Ohayon got more than cold fingers and toes in the more than two years they’ve camped out in Allan Gardens. On their 62nd campout, they were dragged out of their sleeping bags and hauled into jail. Ohayon was slapped with the criminal charge of assault with intent to resist arrest. He was badly beaten in the scuffle and his video camera was tossed into a garbage can, the videotape stolen.
After more than a year of legal and political battles, the final charges against the activists were dropped on Tuesday when the Crown withdrew trespassing tickets issued against the pair on October 21, 2000. The tickets were the last in a set of twelve withdrawn by the Crown.
“We don’t know why the tickets were withdrawn, so that means they must not have had a case,” Ohayon joked shortly after the hearing.
The activists had hoped the charges laid against them would be an opportunity to challenge the expanded use of police harassment to squelch legitimate and peaceful protest. But as charge after charge was dropped, so was their opportunity to make a constitutional challenge.
Now that Parliament is moving to expand the powers of police with the controversial anti-terrorism bill, Ohayon and Varga say it is even more important to set a legal precedent preventing the unnecessary arrest of protestors.
So they are going to sue the government over the treatment they have received.
“As it is, the police are ticketing and harassing homeless people,” Varga said. “We need to ensure the rights of individuals, particularly those who are the most marginalized.”
There’s a good chance the activists will win, said lawyer Peter Rosenthal, who represents Ohayon, Varga and fellow claimant Alex Brown.
“The fact that all the charges laid by police officers in the whole history of the protests have been withdrawn supports our claim that compensation is owed to Elan and Oriel for the police harassment of them, which has no basis in law at all,” said Rosenthal.
But Varga said that in addition to the legal action, the activists will continue their protest.
“We continue to be in the park, stressing the fact that we need affordable public housing for the homeless,” she said.
“They need to be given basic support, not harassed by police.”
THE CASE IN BRIEF
In August of 1999, about sixty homeless people spent four days sleeping in Allan Gardens to protest homelessness. Their demonstration was broken up by an early-morning raid of about 90 police officers.
On April 7, 2001, Alex Brown, Oriel Varga, Elan Ohayon, and Chris Ramsaroop were each presented with an award by the Toronto Dollar Committee for sleeping at Allan Gardens nearly 90 Friday nights in a row in support of affordable housing to alleviate homelessness.
Ohayon spent three weeks in the Don Jail last fall protesting his bail conditions, which ordered him to stay away from Allan Gardens. The conditions were later dropped on appeal.
Defence lawyer Peter Rosenthal didn’t get to make a constitutional challenge supporting Ohayon’s right to protest in the park. After hearing testimony from officers who were on the scene, the judge decided that the U of T student didn’t have any intention of assaulting the officers and dismissed the charges.
