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2-2015

The Right to the City Begins on the Street
Kathy Dunster
Kwantlen Polytechnic University

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The Right to the City Begins on the Street
Dr. Katherine Dunster
Urban Ecosystems Program, School of Horticulture
Faculty of Science and Horticulture
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
2 February 2015
Introduction
David Harvey defines the “right to the city” as a “right to change ourselves by changing the city”.1 Streets
can be, and should be, vibrant public open spaces for engaging all kinds of ever-changing human
interactions — whether a quiet conversation between a few, for street art, pickets, performances, or
protests. As a public space for democratic engagement, streets are again spontaneously (and rightly)
changing the city without planning, design, or permission.
Roads have historically been designed by transportation engineers and planners to perform the function of
efficiently moving people and things in vehicles through a landscape. The primary goal of such efficiency
is to aid and abet commerce and capitalism. Looking at London in the Victorian period2, the street though,
was not a road, but a place where people, commerce, recreation, and social interaction occurred, resulting
in a vibrant community that sometimes moved along the pavement, and oftentimes did not. Today, open
space is always planned — programming where, when, and how people should use their leisure time
when in the public realm. Boundaries between public and private space blur in the trade-off between the
want for new land and building development and the needs for public amenities. Politicians surrender;
social space disappears.
Streets are an open and common space being reclaimed by people of all ages, in all kinds of weather, at
all times of day and night for purposes never envisioned by planners and designers nor permitted by
politicians. Streets are being used in creative ways to individually and collectively express opinion about
issues relevant to life on this planet. Whether eluding control as an anarchistic act, or asserting control by
occupying the street, the street is again a common symbolic space3 that facilitates confrontation as Mouffe
argues, but more importantly, creativity. Declared or not, temporary autonomous zones4 and temporary
autonomous spaces are visibly holding space on the street, demonstrating many long-forgotten purposes
for the street. This paper is a visual exploration of recent front-line experiences on the street and in street
events that occurred primarily in Montreal, Vancouver, Paris, Berlin, and London, UK between 2011 and
2014.

David Harvey (2008) The Right to the City, New Left Review 53: 23‐40. p. 23
I use this time and place as an example because colonial expansion during the Victorian period brought
customs, practices, and contemporary engineering to the new cities developing in all corners of the
British Empire. For example, during the colonial period in BC the Royal Engineers were responsible for
laying out the street grid systems in Victoria and Colonial New Westminster.
3 Chantal Mouffe (2005) On the Political (New York, Routledge, p. 52)
4 As described by Hakim Bey in T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic
Terrorism (Automedia, 1991). I further refine TAZ to the Temporary Autonomous Space (TAS) which
acknowledges the space occupied by an individual for a creative use.
1
2

1

The Street is Not a Road
The word street (Figure 1) originated in the Late Latin5 as strāta via ‘a way paved or laid down in stones’,
which morphed into the Old English or Anglo-Saxon strǣt between 400 and 1100 CE to describe the
ways paved by the Roman, and eventually became the ‘street’ we are familiar with today. The word road
originates in the Anglo-Saxon6 and by the Middle English period it usually referred to a rural way as
contrasted with an urban street, which originated in the Latin strāta via. Historically then, a road's main
function is for transportation, while the street facilitates public interaction.

Figure 1. Evolution of the word ‘street’

Figure 2. Evolution of the word ‘road’
Historically, a street is defined and characterized by the degree and quality of street life it encourages. A
road however has always been designed to serve primarily as a through passage for vehicles or (less
frequently) pedestrians. Time, with the assistance of engineers, has blurred the distinction to the point
where the common right to the street has frequently arrived in a dead end of bureaucracy and policy that
favours the vehicle over the pedestrian. Jane Jacobs7 observed street life in New York City and observed
that “Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks – the pedestrian
parts of the streets – serve many purposes besides carrying pedestrians.”
As Figure 3 illustrates, the contemporary street is the paved or gravelled space between two rows of
buildings in a city and includes the sidewalks. It contains trees and light poles, parking meters, mail
boxes, cars, bikes, buses and bus stops, sleeping places, sitting places, mail boxes, telephones (or not),
eating places, walking places, and socializing places. And most of all the street “contains” people who
share space and places in the space. Buskers, artists, beggars, patrons of pavement cafés, people watchers,

Collins English Dictionary (2014) 12th edition. Glasgow, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. sometime between
200 and 600 BCE when the spoken language was being formalized into the written form
6 Albert Rose (1953) Public Roads of the Past, Washington, DC: American Association of Highway Officials.
7 Jane Jacobs (1961) The Life and Death of Great American Cities New York: RandomHouse. p. 29
5

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flâneurs and flâneuses8, and a diversity of other characters are habitual users of a street; the same people
would not typically be found on a road. Streets that are shared by all are therefore a form of urban
commons, but as the generic example in Figure 3 illustrates, who controls or manages the street is a
complicated business in whatever city you live in.

Figure 3. A typical and generic city street cross-section, showing how jurisdiction in different places can
account for every element, including humans.
Streets and their sidewalks are the main public places of a city; they are its most vital
organs. Think of the city and what comes to the mind? Its streets.
— Jane Jacobs (1961 p.29)
Much is written about the flâneur (see Figure 4) and his ramblings about town. The published works of
the 19th century flâneuse are more obscure; two examples being George Sand and Frances Trollope, and
Sand had to disguise herself as a man in order to wander freely throughout the streets of Paris and
publish her observations.

8

3

The Historical Street in a Few Images
Prior to the invention and mass use of vehicles to convey people and goods, the street was very much a
people place, alive with every sort of urban activity that required human interaction, or not, and as Figure
4 illustrates, at any time of the day in Victorian London.9 Not all was pleasant as urban populations
increased. In 1654 the chaos and conflict of horses and carriages became somewhat regulated,10 however
the street was very much alive with other animals, contributing to the sounds, smells, and sights of the
city for its half million inhabitants. Prior to the invention of the automobile, the necessity of horse and
cart to move goods, and the reliance on horse and carriage (hackneys) to move wealthier people resulted
in the accumulation of manure piles on the street and general chaos on the street, as stationary and
pedestrian activities encountered those in motion.

Figure 4. “Tom & Bob, taking a stroll down Drury Lane at five o’clock in the Morning”11

I use London during this time period for comparative purposes because mass migration to the British
colonies began during the Industrial Revolution (c1760‐1840) and continued into the Victorian period
(1837‐1901) had a significant influence on how Canadian cities and towns were shaped, both physically
and socially.
10 The number of hackneys on the London street had become so unmanageable by the mid‐17th Century
that Oliver Cromwell instructed the City to enact an ordinance to restrict the number of hackney‐men to
200, hackney‐coaches to 300, and horses to 600, allowing the small group to form a fellowship, which
eventually became the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers in 2004. After the Stage
Carriages Act of 1832 the hackney cab became the hansom‐cab for hire, which was gradually replaced by
the omnibus as a means of moving about the city. See http://www.british‐history.ac.uk/no‐series/acts‐
ordinances‐interregnum/pp922‐924
11 Two flâneurs in Victorian London. Pierce Egan (1821) Real Life in London, Volume 2. Illustrators: Heath,
Aiken, Dighton, and Rowlandson. London: Jones & Co., p.250. Accessed January 3, 2015
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20484/20484‐h/20484‐h.htm
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By 1800 the population of London had increased to around one million, which then grew quickly to 4.5
million in 1880, mainly in response to the need for factory workers.12 Much of life in these times has been
recorded as historical fact by researchers such as Henry Mayhew13, and in fiction by Charles Dickens.
Mayhew (1851) was a shrewd observer of Victorian London street life and was perhaps the first to note
the difficulty in undertaking any census-taking on a mobile street population:
“The number of costermongers, -- that is to say, of those street-sellers attending the London "green" and
"fish markets," -- appears to be, from the best data at my command, now 30,000 men, women, and
children. The census of 1841 gives only 2,045 "hawkers, hucksters, and pedlars," in the metropolis, and
no costermongers or street-sellers, or street-performers at all. This number is absurdly small, and its
absurdity is accounted for by the fact that not one in twenty of the costermongers, or of the people with
whom they lodged, troubled themselves to fill up the census returns -- the majority of them being unable
to read and write, and others distrustful of the purpose for which the returns were wanted.”14
The Victorian street was never quiet,15 occupied by a large population16 of organized and specialized
groups of costermongers or street sellers (Table 1), known to Mayhew as “street-folk”, selling everything
from fish, game, poultry, butter, cheese, and eggs, to fruit, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs, seeds, roots,
and "green stuff" (described as water cress, chickweed, groundsel, and turf). Street-folk sold eatables and
drinkables, which today we call “street food”, but in Victorian times eatables included a richness of food
that could be eaten on the street or taken away. Street-drinkables included a variety of hot and cold
beverages including drinking water, hot-wine but not ale or gin, for which there were “public ale-houses”
and “gin-palaces”.17
The word was on the street too: street sellers (Table 1A) provisioned the city with the printed word of
long-songs, ballads, and wall-songs (known then as “pinners-up," and today as wheat-paste posters).
There were sellers of play-bills, second editions of newspapers, back issues of serialized periodicals and
old books, almanacs, pocket books, memorandum books, note paper, sealing-wax, pens, pencils,
stenographic cards, valentines, engravings, manuscript music, images, and poetry cards. And then there
were the sellers of every imaginable type of manufactured article on the street — from pins and buttons to

Demographic data accessed January 3, 2015
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TOT_POP&u
_id=10097836&c_id=10001043&add=N
13 Henry Mayhew (1851) London labour and the London poor; a cyclopaedia of the condition and
earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work. Vol. 1. The London
Street‐Folk. London, UK: George Woodfall and Son. Accessed 5 December 2013
https://archive.org/details/cu31924092592751
14 Ibid. p. 4
15 Which became the Cockney “Cries of London” in and around the East End of London, performance art
at its loudest, with a purpose of attracting a purchaser for goods being sold on the street.
16 Which during Mayhew’s research period the number of costermongers or street‐folk had increased
from 30,000 to 45,000 men, women, and children by 1861.
17 Beer was safer than water. Water was rarely sold for drinking because the street accumulated manure
and was used as a slop bucket for human waste, kitchen waste, animal slaughtering, and a dump for
household cesspits, all of which eventually was washed into the gutters to end up as bacteria in the fresh
water supply. This resulted in major cholera epidemics (blamed on “bad air”), that killed thousands until
1854 when the source was traced to a contaminated water pump on Broad Street (near Carnaby Street) in
Soho. By 1858 a proper street sewer system was under construction. See for example,
http://www.umapper.com/maps/view/id/43438/
12

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linens and crockery, new and second-hand. The selling of live animals included dealers in dogs, squirrels,
birds, fish, and tortoises. Street-artisans (Table 1D) consisted of three groups, those making things right
on the street, those mending things right on the street, and those making things at home and selling them
on the street.
Mayhew also noted street-buyers (Table 1B), an occupation involved in the purchasing of everything
recyclable — from old clothes and umbrellas to bottles, glass and broken metal to fat and tallow that
could be turned into candles and soap. And there were the street-finders (Table 1C) — those deriving
income from picking up and selling the discards of others on the street — from bones and cigar ends to
nuggets of coal, and treasures hunted by mud-larkers from the sewers and tidal waters of the Thames,
which served (and still does) as an aquatic street.18 Street labourers (Table 1E) were employed to clean
the streets and scavenge what they could from the leavings of the street-finders. Labourers included the
sweeps – chimney, street crossing cleaners, and rubbish removers.
Many of these occupations have survived to contemporary times, some becoming formalized on the
payrolls of local government, as is the case of street cleaners and garbage removers. Waterers and
lamplighters became utility workers in public works departments. As cities became cleaner, other street
occupations shifted into private businesses, as is the case with pest control.
A) Street-sellers

B) Street-buyers

C) Street-finders
or Pickers

D) Streetartisans, or
Working Pedlars

E) Street
Labourers

Sellers of:

Purchasing all
manner of
recyclables

Those picking up
bones, dog-dung,
cigar ends, rags,
and other discards
for recycling and
up-cycling

Makers of things
on the street:
Metal workers
(toasting-forks,
pins, engravers;
textile-workers
and knitters;
Miscellaneous
makers (wooden
spoons, leather
brace and garters,
printers, and
glass-blowers.

Cleansers: such
as scavengers,
night-men,
flushermen,
chimney-sweeps,
dustmen,
crossingsweepers, "streetorderlies,"
destroyers of
vermin, labourers
to assist
sweepingmachines and
watering-carts.

Sewer-picking:
anything that fell
into latrines or
privies and ended
up in the open
sewers (often
conduits in the
course of a former
stream or creek)

Menders of
things on the
street: broken
china and glass,
clocks,
umbrellas, kettles,
chairs, grease
removers, hat

Lighters and
Waterers:
lamplighters and
turn-cocks to turn
on/off gas in street
lights, and
waterers to control
public wells and
pumps.

Fish, poultry,
game & cheese
Vegetables, fruit –
fresh & dry

Eatables:
fried fish, hot eels,
pickled whelks,
sheep's trotters,
ham sandwiches,
peas'-soup, hot
green peas, penny
pies, plum "duff,"
meat-puddings,

18

F) Streetperformers,
Artists, and
Showmen
Performers:
puppeteers,
clowns, acrobats,
jugglers,
conjurors, sword,
knife, and snake
swallowers, fireeaters, using
trained animals —
as dancing dogs,
performing with
monkeys, birds,
mice, cats, hares,
pigs, dancing
bears, and tame
camels.
Showmen: of
extraordinary
persons such as
human giants or
strong men; of
extraordinary
animals such as
alligators; of
scientific

A mud‐lark is someone that scavenges in the tidal mud of the Thames for any items of value.
6

cleaners, razor
and knife
grinders, glaziers,
travelling bell
hangers, knife
cleaners.

baked potatoes,
spice-cakes,
muffins and
crumpets, Chelsea
buns, sweetmeats,
brandy-balls,
cough drops, and
cat / dog food.

Drinkables: tea
and coffee, gingerbeer, lemonade,
sherbet, nectar,
hot wine, fresh
cow and ass milk,
curds and whey,
water.

Makers of things
at home and sold
on the street

Mud-larking:
Salvaging
anything that fell
off boats in the
Thames or
washed into the
river mud from
sewers, streams
or creeks.

Stationery,
literature,
and works of art

StreetAdvertisers:
handbill-stickers
and deliverers,
billboard posters,
wall and pavement
stencillers.
Street-servants:
horse holders,
coach-hirers,
street-porters,
shoe-polishers,
fly-catchers.

Manufactured
articles of all and
every sort

instruments such
as the
microscope; of
measuring
machines; and of
miscellaneous
shows such as
peepshows,
mechanical
figures, waxworks, boxing, and
fortune-telling.
Artists: silhouette
cutters, blind
paper-cutters,
coloured chalk
pavement artists,
photographers.

Dancers: on foot,
tight rope, stilts.

Musicians: street
bands, guitar,
harp, bagpipes,
hurdy-gurdy,
dulcimer, musical
bells, cornet,
drums, whistlers.
Singers: glees,
balladeers,
religious music,
reciters,
serenaders, and
improvisers.
Proprietors of
Street Games:
swings, darts,
roundabouts, rifle
shooting, and
various types of
games.

Live animals
(mostly pets, but
not livestock)

Table 1. Occupations of Street-folk in the mid-18th Century (compiled and synthesized from Mayhew
1851)19
Henry Mayhew (1851) London labour and the London poor; a cyclopaedia of the condition and
earnings of those that will work, those that cannot work, and those that will not work. Vol. 1. The
London Street‐Folk. London, UK: George Woodfall and Son, p 3‐4. Accessed 5 December 2013
https://archive.org/details/cu31924092592751
19

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“Street vending is a global phenomenon. In cities, towns, and villages throughout the world, millions
of people earn their living wholly or partly by selling a wide range of goods on the streets, sidewalks,
and other public spaces” — International Labour Organization20
Street-sellers exist formally and informally, both as permitted weekly markets, dedicated (fixed markets
such as Granville Island in Vancouver), sidewalk sales, permanent markets, or pop-up sidewalk or roadside sales without a permit (Figure 4). Street buyers and pickers have manifested as bottle collectors,
dumpster divers, scavengers, up-cyclers, and recyclers of many materials.

Figure 5. Pop-up water seller on the steps of Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Paris
Outside the public and private markets, informal street food sales (eatables and drinkables) remains a part
of any vibrant modern street scene on the planet and the set-up for a hot chestnut seller of 1900 is not that
different from 2015 (Figure 6). In the Northern Hemisphere though, street food has become highly
regulated and licensed, typically resulting in higher costs to the producer and purchaser. Besides the
portable hot dog stand (Figure 7), the “food truck” concept of taking an indoor restaurant outside to serve
eatables and drinkables that meet health regulations is costly, which ensures that the street food of today
in Vancouver, for example, is highly contrived. Fortunately spontaneous street food sales (e.g. lemonade
or bake sales) are mostly ignored (Figure 8).
Today, Food Not Bombs operates as a collective of loosely affiliated groups in many cities, bringing free
vegan and vegetarian food to the street during community protests (Figure 9), events, and times of need

International Labor Organization (2002) Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture.
Geneva: ILO, p. 49 Accessed at: http://wiego.org/sites/wiego.org/files/publications/files/ILO‐Women‐
Men‐Informal‐2002.pdf
20

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such as natural disasters since 1980.21 Most recently the Love Activists direct action group in London,
UK have asserted their right to the street by setting up a street kitchen in Trafalgar Square to serve hot
eatables and drinkables to the homeless.22 This essentially, and for as long as it lasts, is a Temporary
Autonomous Zone (TAZ) on the street.

a)

b)
Figure 6. Selling hot chestnuts on the street: a) Toronto c1900 (City of Toronto Archives Fonds 1244,
Item 130) and b) Wakefield, Yorkshire
Keith McHenry (2012) Hungry for Peace: How you can help end poverty and war with Food Not Bombs.
Tucson: See Sharp Press. To connect with an affinity group see for example,the social media page for
Food Not Bombs Vancouver https://www.facebook.com/vancouverfnb?fref=ts
22 Love Activists initially occupied an empty bank building on 23 December 2014, for the purposes of
preparing a hot Christmas lunch for anyone. They were evicted on 24 December, and served a cold
Christmas lunch on the street while reorganizing a more substantial setup to serve hot food in Trafalgar
Square. See The Guardian online, accessed 26 December 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/26/love‐activists‐empty‐buildings‐direct‐action‐
homelessness The Trafalgar Square action continues as Homeless Kitchen London while Love Activists
have expanded to other cities and helped set up more street kitchens. See their main social networking
page for more information https://www.facebook.com/pages/Love‐Activists/1500718110212573?fref=ts
21

9

Figure 7. The ubiquitous hot dog stand, could be anywhere; this is downtown Vancouver

Figure 8. Competing lemonade stands on the same street, West End of Vancouver

10

Figure 9. Food Not Bombs, Occupy Vancouver (October 25, 2011)
Today in most cities, selling stuff on the street requires permits. Selling activities either become pop-up
and mobile enough to run if the by-law officer is approaching (Figure 10), or are moved to a side lane to
set up a TAS. Organize a few friends with stuff to sell and you create a TAZ flea market for a few hours
(Figure 11).

Figure 10. Stuff for sale on the street, Vancouver

11

Figure 11. Montreal back lane TAZ pop-up flea market

Givers of Stuff
Street corners and intersections are collectively used to advertise yard sales elsewhere (Figure 12).Using
the street to give away things is much easier because it can be done as an anonymous action (Figure 13)
or as a collective TAZ action as is the case with the Commercial Drive free street store in Vancouver
(Figure 14).

Figure 12. Street intersection used collectively to place yard sale signs

12

Figure 13. Free stuff on the street, Vancouver

Figure 14. Stuff at the Commercial Drive free street market, Vancouver

13

Literature on the Street
The use of the street to distribute literature (the printed word in all its forms) continues today, whether as
flyers on lamp posts, or as newspapers (Figure 15) and magazines sold from kiosks (Figure 16), or given
to commuters for free at the entrances to public transit during rush hours. Sometimes the newspaper box
finds a new form of expression (Figure 17).

Figure 15. Toronto Newspaper Seller, 1880 (City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 6981)

Figure 16. News stand and info kiosk in London
14

Figure 17. Altered newspaper box in Vancouver
Postering and wheat-pasting on doors, wall, trees, benches, and poles — all forms of street furniture —
gets messages onto the street quickly, and quietly (Figure 18a). Street furniture is also used to disseminate
the printed word, capturing the zeitgeist of social opinion through individual (Figure 18b), or the
collective expression of frustration about an injustice committed on the unceded ancestral village lands
and burial grounds of a First Nation (Figure 18c).

a)

b)

15

c)
Figure 18. a) Postering on a wall, Berlin b) Mail distribution box used as a blackboard, Vancouver and c)
Postering under the Arthur Laing bridge in Vancouver, a message from the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam
First Nation) during the occupation of a property development site in Marpole after discovery of ancestral
graves at c̓əsnaʔəm, 2012.
Street libraries are created through neighbourhood grassroots action with the common goal to freely share
reading material by lending, borrowing, exchanging, or simply giving away literature no longer needed,
or sharing a well-loved book with someone else. Street libraries can also connect neighbourhoods along a
bike route by providing a street-side meeting space, or a meet-up space. Most include a bulletin board
(Figure 19) and some in Vancouver are expanding to include community gardens in the boulevards
(Figure 20).

Figure 19. Street libraries in Vancouver

16

Figure 20. New community garden constructed next to street library on West 10th, Vancouver
Street Music and Performance
Besides street-folk occupied in buying, selling, making, picking, and labouring, the Victorian street was
also a vibrant place for performance as a way to make a living. Self-employed street-folk used their
talents, or employed others with talents to entertain both street-folk and others visiting the street (Table
1F, Figure 21). Mayhew interviews many and presents their stories in great detail in order to ascertain
what exactly their occupation required in skills, what it actually did, and what kind of wages were
earned.23 Many of the activities listed in Table 1F became formalized or regulated as circus acts, or circus
sideshows, however, vestiges of Victorian street art remain today, ensuring the rights to the street are
upheld by any citizen.

Henry Mayhew (1861) The London Street‐Folk comprising: Street sellers, street buyers, street finders,
street performers, street artizans, street labourers. Vol. 3. London, UK: Griffin, Bohn, and Company, p 43‐
Accessed 5 December 2013 https://archive.org/details/cu31924092592785

23

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Figure 21. Street performers on stilts, hurdy-gurdy man in the background (Mayhew 1861:150)
Busking for money occurs across many cultures and countries; sometimes legal, sometimes prohibited,
sometimes regulated. The street performance that Mayhew writes about in the London of 1861 was all
about busking for a living; today it is completely prohibited in the City of London, the square mile in
central London that was originally surrounded by a Roman wall, and where the British financial industry
is currently based.24 Busking is slowly being pushed out or discouraged in other Greater London boroughs
despite the time-honoured used of busking as a stepping stone to artistic success and fame.25 In cities
where busking and street performance are allowed with no rules (Figures 22 and 23), the street is alive
with harmless individual and collective creativity on an ever-changing street stage. The acceptance of
TAS reflects the collective creativity within a city and would eliminate perceived problems expressed in
other places:
“Maybe it is because busking is so free and unregulated that it has also been a source of anxiety for the
authorities. Fear of political opinion and activism, anti-social behaviour and crime, have always been
associated with the tradition”.26
While busking above ground on the street is under political scrutiny and limited to set spots and specific
rules (Figure 23), below ground on the London Underground for example, busking permits are provided
for performance of all musical genres in most stations, where the acoustics can be superb. And of course
The City of London is a corporation with different powers than other local governments in
metropolitan London http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Pages/default.aspx
25 See for example this article in The Guardian online, Accessed 15 May 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/local‐government‐network/2014/apr/23/support‐londons‐buskers
26 Ibid.
24

18

buskers that hop from train car to train car are declaring TAS and keep on moving to avoid getting caught,
and to find new listeners that might flip a coin. Mimes (Figure 24) assert their use of a TAS to ply their
silent trade.

Figure 22. Music from a hammered dulcimer on the street, Haarlem, Netherlands

Figure 23. Jazz musicians busking in Amsterdam, Netherlands
19

Figure 24. Street Busking rules on Granville Street, Vancouver

Figure 25. Mimes in Cologne, Germany

20

Visual Art and Artists
Street art is visual art created on the street for public consumption. Media can include posters, graffiti,
stickers, stencilling, and installations such as yard bombing. Visual artists use the street for both business
(Figure 26), as was the typical activity in Victorian London, and as a source of creative inspiration
(Figure 27). Chalk artists (screevers) of all ages use the street as a blackboard, to create ephemeral pieces
of art that last until the next rainfall (Figure 28), and to leave messages (Figure 29).

Figure 26. Street artist sketching in Paris

Figure 27. Street tree used as a TAS art installation in Barcelona

21

Figure 28. Chalk artists (screevers) in Vancouver

Figure 29. Chalk messages made by screevers in Vancouver
Art in Street Protests
Any peaceful gathering of people on the street creates many opportunities for individuals to express their
opinions to others. In the case of large and very large protest events artists are given the opportunity to
hold TAS and present their work to 100,000 or more participants which happened at the UK National
Demonstration for Gaza event organized by the Stop the War Coalition in London on August 9, 2014. At
the event, art work was presented in many forms — from studio artists setting up a temporary gallery on
the street (Figure 30) to friends of the political artist Carlos Latuff wearing his art on t-shirts (Figure 31).

22

Figure 30. TAS art gallery on Oxford Street, London Demonstration for Gaza, August 9, 2014

Figure 31. T-shirt showing the work of Carlos Latuff, London Demonstration for Gaza, August 9, 2014.27

27

For more information about the artist see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Latuff
23

Permitted or Not?
Today, street art and performance art is either regulated or unregulated through local government policies
and by-laws. In Vancouver for example, street art is defined as “busking or entertaining” and is regulated
through the city engineering department, who note “to busk on most Vancouver sidewalks, you need a
street entertainment permit” which costs around $120 a year.28 You must follow a set of conditions or
suffer consequences such as: be told to lower your volume or find a new location, get a warning or fine,
have your equipment confiscated, have your permit suspended or cancelled, or lose the privilege to
perform on City streets for six months. With the exception of two specific locations in the City though,
street entertainment is allowed anywhere, which does create opportunities for spontaneous activities
provided a permit is in the pocket, provided your spontaneity occurs between 10AM and 10PM, does not
last longer than 60 minutes at one location, and is not too noisy (Figure 24).

Cambridge, England has the more enlightened view that busking is a part of the culture of the
town (Figure 32), and has crafted a voluntary street performers' code of practice as a solution to
avoid noise complaints.
“Busking is a time-honoured tradition that dates back to medieval times, when wandering
minstrels and bards travelled from place to place and acted not only as entertainers but also as
news reporters and message bearers. Cambridge is a unique place for buskers, with many spots
in the city centre for them to stop and play, and visitors, residents and businesses enjoy the
variety of entertainment.”29
Annual festivals of buskers and street performers can be found in many cities around the globe, including
Cambridge and Vancouver, and are networked through the Busker Central Cooperative on the internet.30

Figure 32. Charlie Cavey, busker in a litter bin, Cambridge, England31

Details accessed 9 December 2014 http://vancouver.ca/doing‐business/busking‐and‐entertainment.aspx
See the Cambridge local government web site https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/buskers Accessed
January 2, 2015
30 A good reference is located at http://www.buskercentral.com/ Accessed January 2, 2015
31 See also, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article‐1209037/Can‐play‐Garbage‐Busker‐bin‐surprises‐
Cambridge‐shoppers‐rubbish‐medley.html Accessed January 2, 2015
28
29

24

The Right to the Street
The right to assemble and associate is clearly articulated as a basic human right in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, is a fundamental freedom set down in the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, and is part of the social contract recognized in the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights.32 The right to assemble and associate freely and peacefully has to occur somewhere, and
the street is the logical gathering place – neutral common space.
As the images above indicate, the street is being used formally, informally, legally and illegally for
human interaction and expression. If humans need public places and common spaces for social
interaction, an outdoor location typically might be a park, plaza, square, or other open space dedicated for
recreation. The public realm and social activity is much more than programmed or un-programmed space
in parks. Long before the invention of parks, the street was the place where people met and socialized.
The right to the street (all of the street — Figure 3) for social interaction and creative purposes is
currently demonstrated through TAZ, TAS, and activity that takes back the street from the regulated or
permitted uses of vehicular traffic. It seems sensible that those professionals responsible for planning the
street should step away from creating obstacles (physical and legal barriers) that prevent its full use to
simply providing for the inevitable use of the street for everything but vehicular traffic, which is the case
in central Amsterdam (Figure 33). This of course requires a return to the original definition of street, a
complete reversal of contemporary thinking about the role of the street in urban life, particularly for
protests, parades, and demonstrations.

Figure 33. The Dam — four views of the central square in Amsterdam, home of the Dutch Royal Family
and a popular place for TAS, TAZ, busking, street-selling, music events and festivals.
See Article 20, 27, and 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2 of the Canadian
Charter of Rights & Freedoms, and Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights
(1966).
32

25

In Canada, this will require the revision of some key laws and any local by-laws that interfere and
prohibit the right to peacefully assemble for the purposes of individually and collectively expressing
opinions. Despite the universal right to assemble for any peaceful purpose, a march down the street in
Vancouver carrying a sign and banging on a saucepan or blowing a whistle (Figure 34) can be interpreted
as mischief under Section 430(1) of the Criminal Code of Canada when a participant wilfully:
(a) destroys or damages property;
(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;
(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property; or
(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of
property.33
In the City of Vancouver though, the Vancouver Police Department interprets 430(1) as: “Obstruction or
interference with the use of property includes but is not limited to the following behaviours: shouting,
screaming, or swearing at anyone that disrupts public peace or physically blocking any person from
freely entering, leaving, or staying at any public place”.34

Figure 34. Street protestor and whistle-blower at the National Energy Board Joint Review Panel Hearings
into the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline in Vancouver, January 15, 2013.

See http://laws‐lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C‐46/page‐204.html#h‐116 Accessed January 9, 2014
See http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david‐p‐ball/2012/06/vancouver‐police‐arrested‐seven‐more‐quebec‐
solidarity‐protester and see also http://www.straight.com/news/373996/pivot‐questions‐vancouver‐
police‐warning‐pidgin‐protesters and http://www.straight.com/news/372661/vancouver‐police‐warn‐
activists‐about‐crossing‐line‐between‐protest‐and‐crime Accessed December 18, 2013
33
34

26

Who defines “public peace” or “peaceful assembly” in a multi-cultural urban environment? Who defines
“noise”? Is the noise of a native drum less peaceful than the constant sound of traffic on the street? What
if that native drummer is drumming on a street in a city built on the unceded territory of a first nation?
Who should define public peace and peaceful assembly? The participants? Or, the onlookers? Current
practice says it’s the onlookers, whether police, politician, or a public outsider, that make the call. Are the
onlookers actually passive participants simply annoyed they are in a minority and not occupying a TAS or
TAZ for a particular moment in time on the street? Respecting the TAS of an onlooker during a protest is
equally important as an onlooker respecting the TAS of a protest participant. The respective human and
civil instinct of both onlooker and participant should be to step aside and avoid personal conflict that
detracts from the protest itself, instead of blocking the free passage of a passer-by (Figure 35).

Figure 35. Protest against immigrant deportations from Canada, blocking access to a federal government
building and the Vancouver Public Library, March 2013
Quebec 2012 and 2013
In 2012 CLASSE35 student strike actions in Québec (Figure 36) which became known as the “Maple
Spring” or “printemps érable”, and subsequent 2013 protests in Montreal against the unconstitutional
enactment of Bill-78 and By-law P-636 culminated in the fundamental human right to assemble in
peaceful protest on the street being threatened and denied.

Coalition large de l’Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (CLASSÉ) temporarily united
76,000 French and English‐speaking post‐secondary students from across Québec in an open‐ended strike
to protest tuition hikes under the Charest Liberal government, which was eventually defeated in a
general election. Several websites document events, all accessed January 4, 2014, see
http://www.stopthehike.ca/ http://cobp.resist.ca/en http://www.asse‐solidarite.qc.ca/ and
https://cjfe.org/resources/features/maple‐spring‐impact‐free‐expression‐quebec
36 In Québec, Bill‐78 is a law that restricts protest or picketing on or near university grounds. The law
further requires that organizers of a protest, consisting of 50 or more people in a public venue anywhere
in Québec, submit their proposed venue and/or route to the relevant police for approval. In the Ville de
Montréal, the P‐6 bylaw on the prevention of breaches of the peace, public order and safety was amended
to state: 1) it is prohibited for anyone to participate in a demonstration (assembly, parade or gathering)
with their face covered, such as by a scarf, hood or mask; and 2) it is mandatory to disclose the location
and itinerary of a demonstration to the police.
35

27

Faced with constant manifs (demonstrations), the province enacted Bill-78 to give the police
extraordinary and indiscriminate powers to shoot tear gas, flashbangs, water cannons, rubber bullets, or
use any type of force to break up demonstrations, beat up, arrest, and detain unarmed protestors,
journalists, and passive observers, and use “l’agent provocateur” to infiltrate student event to cause
unwanted trouble. The behaviour of the state and its employees was a crime against human rights and in
particular the right to peaceful public assembly to express opinions, whether in favour or against the
dogmas of the state. By-law P-6 was a draconian attempt by the City of Montréal to prohibit the wearing
of any hats or face coverings at any street event, even in winter of 2012 when many of the manifs were
held (Figure 38) By spring 2013, this had escalated to police intimidation at many other social or
environmental justice events (Figure 38). The events in Québec triggered solidarity demos across the
country (Figure 39).37

Figure 36. Images from two CLASSÉ manifs in Montréal, 2013

37

See footnote 34.
28

Figure 37. On the streets of Montréal in 2012 and 2013. Left: government festival poster advertising
“Celebrate our creativity” with a fleur-de-lis mask image, note graffiti with arrow pointing to the mask
saying “Forbidden by P-6”. Right: Police surveillance at anti-poverty street occupation in the St. Henri
neighbourhood, 2013

Figure 38. “Activism is not a Crime”, Montréal May 22, 2012

29

Figure 39. Vancouver demo in solidarity with Quebec students, 2013.
Reclaiming Streets for Play
As a social animal, the human desire and need to meet and gather for collective actions and activities is
strong. The street has always been a playground for individual and group play. In Canada group play
often takes the form of street hockey, and there are numerous examples of local government enacting bylaws to deny assembly on the street for play (Figure 40). When the surrounding boroughs and cities
amalgamated, the new City of Toronto consolidated all the by-laws into a new Municipal Code and
carried forward the original draconian wording of By-law 522-78 from the former city:
“No person shall play or take part in any game or sport upon a roadway and, where there are sidewalks,
no person upon roller skates, in-line skates or a skateboard, or riding in or by means of any coaster,
scooter, toy vehicle, toboggan, sleigh or similar device, shall go upon a roadway except for the purpose
of crossing the road, and, when so crossing, such person shall have the rights and be subject to the
obligations of a pedestrian.” Toronto Municipal Code, Article III, p 950-13 38
Contrast Toronto with the permissive attitude of Kingston, Ontario, who set out the collective code of
conduct for playing hockey on a local (neighbourhood) street with the intention of simply reducing risk of
accident rather than enabling swift passage of vehicles to the detriment of the pedestrian:
“Street hockey may be played on a Local Street during daylight hours when there is good visibility. Street
Hockey may never be played before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m” — City of Kingston, 2008 39

Toronto. Municipal Code Chapter 95, Traffic and Parking. August 28, 2014. Accessed December 19, 2014 at
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/municode/1184_950.pdf
39 City of Kingston (2008) Street Hockey Policy and Code of Conduct. Accessed December 19, 2014
http://archive.cityofkingston.ca/pdf/council/agenda/2008/A16_Rpt92.pdf
38

30

Figure 40. City of Toronto street sign prior to amalgamation and creation of the new metro Toronto.
Play can be formal or informal, individual or collective, organized or spontaneous. Claiming the street for
play is embedded in human history, and is not restricted to the activities of children. Of the many events
that happen in Vancouver around the Vancouver Art Gallery between Georgia and Robson streets, two of
the less structured street play events reveal how essential play and social contact is to human-kind and
how easy it is to reclaim the street peacefully. While Free Hugs is now a global movement, anyone can
spontaneously make up a cardboard sign and offer hugs to anyone in need of one, anywhere (Figure 40).40
Organizing International Pillow Fight Day consists of a group in Amsterdam simply setting the date and
time (for example 12 noon April 1) for their local event in The Dam Square (Figure 33). It is up to local
affinity groups everywhere else to form and make the call out via social media to everyone to show up
rain or shine, wait for the appointed moment in time, and when the signal is given pull pillows out from
hidden locations and have all-ages, all-abilities pillow fight for fun (Figure 41).
While reclaiming a street for play of any sort is as simple as dreaming up an activity and enacting it, in
some communities there is growing support from local government to help neighbourhoods shut down
streets for play.41 For example, in the London Borough of Hackney residents can apply for a Play Street
Order permitting a side street to be closed to traffic for up three hours per week or month.42 While this
may not seem like much (it is only about one half a percent of the time in a 30 day month), ground has
been gained and momentum towards longer closures and more closures is very much on the side of play.

See http://www.freehugscampaign.org/
See http://playingout.net/
42 See http://www.hackney.gov.uk/play‐streets.htm#.VMxlCi5O2VB
40
41

31

Figure 40. Free Hugs, Vancouver

Figure 41. Vancouver Pillow Fight Day 2013 with active and passive participants
Reclaiming the Street for Rest
Much has been written about the design of hostile street furniture and the use of urban design as a
deterrent to resting and relaxing on the street.43 While most local governments in the United Kingdom use
their police powers to enact Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO) to prohibit the assembly of (typically)
youth for what they consider rowdy behaviour (Figure 42), equally insidious efforts are initiated to stop
people from sleeping or resting on the street, or on street furniture. A side benefit to local government is

For overviews, see Rosenberger R (2014) How Cities Use Design to Drive Homeless People Away
Saying ʺyouʹre not welcome hereʺ—with spikes. The Atlantic Online June 19, 2014. Accessed June 29, 2014
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/how‐cities‐use‐design‐to‐drive‐homeless‐people‐
away/373067/ and also Swain F (2013) Secret city design tricks manipulate your behaviour. BBC Online
December 2, 2013. Accessed June 29, 2014 http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131202‐dirty‐tricks‐of‐city‐
design
43

32

that the same hostile architecture denying sleeping also creates creative street uses by urban sub-cultures
of skateboarders and parkour practitioners (Figure 43).44

Figure 42. Posted notice of an ASBO in the City of Westminster, London.

Figure 43. Parkour free running in Frankfurt, Germany45

44
45

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour
Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parkour_Frankfurt.jpg
33

Throughout human history people have slept on the street, whether because there was no other choice of
accommodation and they are homeless (Figure 44), because they needed to rest (Figure 45a), or just
because (Figure 45b). In 1824 the Vagrancy Act was enacted in Britain, prohibiting sleeping or begging
on the street; this act is still in effect today and under this law the individuals sleeping in Figure 44 a) and
b) and Figure 45 a) are criminals, whatever their reason is for sleeping in public space.
In 2008, a landmark case at the BC Supreme Court ruled that a by-law prohibiting camping in a city park
in the City of Victoria was unconstitutional and a violation of the right to life, liberty, and the security of
the person guaranteed by Section 7 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.46 The court ruled that a
municipality cannot ban an activity that is biologically necessary (sleeping with at least some modest
form of shelter from the elements) if the number of people who are homeless exceeds the number of
spaces in municipal homeless shelters. The City of Victoria appealed this decision and lost in 2009.47
In her 2008 decision, Justice Ross stated that “public properties are held for the benefit of the public,
which includes the homeless. The government cannot prohibit certain activities on public property based
on its ownership of that property if doing so involves a deprivation of the fundamental human right not to
be deprived of the ability to protect one’s own bodily integrity.”48 Following her reasoning, the ruling
should then extend to camping or sleeping on the street, which is also public property.

a)
Figure 44. Sleeping on the Street a) London, Trafalgar Square; b) London, Marble Arch

Victoria (City) v. Adams, BC Supreme Court. 2008 BCSC 1363. Accessed December 19, 2014 at
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Jdb‐txt/SC/08/13/2008BCSC1363.htm
47 Victoria (City) v. Adams BC Court of Appeal. 2009 BCCA 563. Accessed December 19, 2014 at
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb‐txt/CA/09/05/2009BCCA0563.htm
48 2008 BCSC 1363, paragraph 131
46

34

b)

a)

b)

Figure 45. Resting on the Street a) London, Spitalfields; b) Lie-in TAS in Vancouver
Where noise and rest collide, the typical complaint is “disturbing the peace” which then validates police
to issue a citation for violation of some sort of bylaw. But again, is the complaint instigated by an
observer outside the activity, or by a participant? As Figure 46 clearly illustrates, one child can be sound
asleep 5 metres away from another child using a bullhorn to loudly lead a pro-Gaza demonstration. Both
are participants occupying TAS and their rights to the street are recognized and respected.

Figure 46. Sleeping in the middle of a pro-Gaza demonstration, London and rallying the crowd 5 metres
away.

35

Contested Street Space: Burnaby Mountain, November 2014
The occupation of Burnaby Mountain from September to December 2014 for the purposes of protesting
the drilling of wells associated with the Kinder Morgan (KM) proposed TransMountain pipeline
expansion project through un-ceded First Nations traditional territory (Figure 47). If built, the new
pipeline will run close to 1000 kilometres - from the Tar Sands in northern Alberta to Westridge Marine
Terminal in Burnaby where it will be loaded onto tankers headed for Asia. Contested space was central to
many from the very beginning of the timeline of critical events leading to the protests, occupation, and
arrests in 2014 constructed by Gray (2014).49 Centennial Way, the street, became the central location for
contesting space and as pipeline work and protest events unfolded on Burnaby Mountain.

Figure 47. “The Pipeline Shall Not Pass” – painted on the street to mark the symbolic location of
contested space.
While many participants arrived at the protests to support their community affinity groups or
environmental NGOs, it is important to understand that the space was contested for several independent
reasons that ultimately intertwined into a highly effective collective protest (Table 2). Social media
played an important role in getting out messages from events on The Mountain, where the physical
location was in a wireless dead zone, and for bringing people together to inform, educate, and motivate to
attend events on The Mountain. Various environmental NGOs that brought in their expertise and
logistical support to help coordinate events on The Mountain included Rising Tide – Vancouver, Coast
Salish Territories; Pipe Up for the Pipeline, Pipe Up Network, Beyond Boarders, No One is Illegal, Food
Not Bombs, Tanker Free BC, ForestEthics, and Sea Shepherd Society.

Gray C (2014) Timeline: Burnaby Mountain pipeline protests, November 26, 2014. Published online at
http://rabble.ca/news/2014/11/timeline‐burnaby‐mountain‐pipeline‐protests‐0 Accessed December 10,
2014
49

36

Contestor
First Nations

BROKE (Burnaby Mountain
Residents opposed to Kinder
Morgan expansion)50
Caretakers of The Mountain
City of Burnaby

Stop Kinder Morgan on
Burnaby Mountain
Stop Enbridge Stop Kinder
Morgan

Reason
Unceded overlapping traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm
(Musqueam Nation), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish Nation) and TsleilWaututh Nation. Other First Nations along the pipeline route also
participated.
Environmental concern about tar sands (dilbit) and the shipment and
storage of tar sands, particularly through Burnaby.
Protecting the environment and its people
Municipal property designated as a conservation area (highest level of
protected area in the parks systems. The City of Burnaby opposes the
pipeline project and has denied KM a permit for the work. In response,
KM submitted a request to the National Energy Board (NEB) to
confirm their rights to access City of Burnaby public lands. The NEB
ruled that federal legislation gives KM the power to enter and conduct
surveys and tests on any Crown or private land that lies on their
intended pipeline routes. Burnaby appealed, but the appeal was
dismissed. Burnaby applied for an injunction against KM, it too was
dismissed.
An affinity group formed through social media (Facebook, Twitter) in
order to provide information about the proposed project, and has about
5,000 members that can be mobilized to action.
Another affinity group of around 2,000 members that organizes
through social media (Facebook, Twitter) around the broader issues of
fighting Big Oil and opposing any pipeline projects.

Table 2. Key players contesting space on Burnaby Mountain.
Because of its street access, Centennial Way and the location of BH2 became the site of the largest
protests, Caretakers Camp, food kitchen, sacred fire, totem carving area. I describe here the main events
following the interlocutory injunction granted to KM to proceed with work supported by the RCMP.
The location of the drilling on Burnaby Mountain is known as the Burnaby Mountain Conservation Area
(BMCA) and managed by Burnaby Parks for its ecological values, including headwaters for several
salmon streams. On August 19, 2014 the National Energy Board (NEB) ruled that TransMountain (TM)51
was allowed to access the City of Burnaby (Burnaby) lands without the city’s consent, subject to TM
contractors being in compliance with local by-laws. TM proceeded to block Burnaby’s access to BMCA.
The first tree cutting contractors hired by TM were advised that they were in violation of bylaws and if
they proceeded to cut on Burnaby Mountain they would likely be banned from working anywhere in the
City of Burnaby (private and public lands). This contractor immediately withdrew services to TM.
On August 25th, new contractors for TM cut down thirteen alder trees and cleared many more seedlings,
saplings, and shrubs in the forest at proposed borehole number 1 (BH1), and started work at proposed
borehole number 2 (BH2) on the street edge of Centennial Way. Burnaby issued TM with Orders to Cease
See www.burnabypipelinewatch.ca Accessed December 10, 2014
While Kinder Morgan and TransMountain are often used interchangeably, Kinder Morgan is the
American corporation that acquired TransMountain Pipeline; TransMountain is the local operator of this
pipeline project.

50
51

37

By-law Violations. A caretaker’s camp (Figure 48) was immediately established close to the suspected
location of another proposed borehole (BH2), while additional tents were set up at BH1 and in other parts
of the park. The Caretakers, as they became known, came together to form a frontline for direct action to
prevent the drilling from happening:
“Who are we? That depends. "We" may include you, the person reading this. "We" are anyone and
everyone who loves the earth and people more than greed, colonialism, genocide, and big oil. We call
each other caretakers, as we protect and care for the land and its people - which could end up destroyed
and pillaged.”52

Figure 48. Caretakers Camp at BH2.
TM applied to the NEB for an access order to BMCA on September 3, along with orders to direct and
forbid Burnaby from enforcing their own bylaws. On October 9 NEB deliberated on the matter of
constitutional jurisdiction (whether NEB could overrule local government by-laws), and declared through
Ruling Number 40 on October 23 that Burnaby's bylaws were "inoperative or inapplicable" and that the
NEB had the constitutional right (interjurisdictional immunity) to overrule local government by-laws.53
TM immediately gave notice to Burnaby of their intention to resume work on October 29, and on that
date TM contractors began geotechnical work at three locations, Barnet Marine Park, BH1 and BH2 in the
BMCA Borehole 1 on Burnaby Mountain by preparing the sites for the installation of drilling rigs.
Protesters blocked TM work at BH1 and access to BH Borehole 2. The camp at BH2 grew and on
November 5, a sacred fire was lit by Sut-Lut, a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh elder, and more protestors began to arrive
to witness TM activity on The Mountain.
TM was granted an injunction by the BC Supreme Court on November 14, giving them the limited and
temporary right (until December 1), to enforce the NEB authorization to complete their investigations on
The Mountain using geo-coordinates (GPS) to establish the work area and injunction zone. Once the
injunction was granted, it was only a matter of time as to when it would be enforced. A call went out to
Quote from Stop Kinder Morgan — Caretakers of the Mountain Facebook Page,
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop‐Kinder‐Morgan‐Caretakers‐Of‐The‐
Mountain/1508198892753283?sk=timeline Accessed November 10, 2014
53 Transcripts of this ruling are accessed at https://docs.neb‐one.gc.ca/ll‐
eng/llisapi.dll?func=ll&objId=2541380&objAction=browse&viewType=1
52

38

the community at large through various social media to protest the injunction, and in defiance assemble at
BH2 on November 17 for a day of drumming, singing, networking, and listening to many First Nations
leaders (Figure 49).

Figure 48. November 17 gathering of individuals, First Nations, and grassroots organizations to rally on
the street against the pipeline drilling in defiance of the court injunction.
From November 17 to 20, the street was held by many people day and night, and the camp area and
sacred fire blocked TM workers from working in the vicinity of BH2. Expectations at the camp were that
TM would arrive on one of those days with a surveyor to delineate the GPS coordinates of the injunction
area with flagging tape so all parties would know where the line was and protestors could organize events
accordingly and the injunction order could be enforced. The RCMP sent in two liaison officers to check
the camp each morning.
On November 20, at 8 AM54 the two RCMP liaison officers assured those in the camp that the injunction
would not be enforced that day and there would be no arrests until the area was marked as called for in
the injunction order, and they then left The Mountain (Figure 49).

At this point I was in the Caretakers Camp collecting recyclables and garbage. From 8AM onwards my
role turned to witnessing and recording events with a camera.
54

39

Figure 49. 8 AM on November 20, carver holding down the street with a totem.
At 9:18 a convoy of black unmarked vehicles approached the camp and the RCMP immediately moved in
and arbitrarily declared the camp site the location of BH2 while an officer read out the injunction order
(Figure 50). He was repeatedly asked where the GPS coordinates he was reading aloud were physically
located on the ground, so people could move away, or stay inside, as they desired.

Figure 50. 9:18 AM on November 20: the RCMP enforcement convoy arrives at BH2.
A very peaceful morning chatting around the sacred fire quickly turned into an angry crowd as police
used force to immediately single out and arrest an aboriginal man. His arrest was followed over the next
hour by more arrests of young and old protestors who happened to be standing in the Caretakers Camp
when the RCMP arrived. They held the street by locking arms and sitting down on the street (Figure 51).
None of these first arrests occurred in a marked off area as defined in the injunction order delineated
injunction area, which did not occur until 9:37 AM when the yellow tape was, as it eventually transpired,
arbitrarily rolled out to conveniently place the Caretakers Camp directly inside the injunction zone
(Figure 52) and push witnesses and supporters away. Up until 9:45 or so, witnesses were free to wander
around the street as arrests happened.
40

Figure 51. First batch of arrestees locked arms in a circle and hold the street.

Figure 52. The RCMP establish the “injunction zone” at 9:37 AM cutting off road access.
41

Figure 53. Early arrests after the police line is established.
The arbitrary establishment of the yellow police tape on November 20 effectively cut off through traffic
on Centennial Way, which was not in the TM plans submitted to the NEB for approval. The lines were
moved further north and eventually all road access on Centennial Way was cut off at the bottom,
requiring supporters to hike 500 metres uphill carrying food, firewood, and supplies for the Caretakers
who had moved camp across the street to a field. After lengthy negotiation with the RCMP, who initially
did not believe a sacred fire is part of Coast Salish traditions, the sacred fire was moved north, and SutLut was designated as the elder allowed to stay behind the yellow line and designate others to come
behind the line to assist with round-the-clock fire tending. The totem stayed in its original location behind
the yellow line, and carvers continued to work on it throughout the week. TM began drilling in heavy rain
on November 21, and protests continued throughout that night and over the next few days, with arrests
happening every hour.
When vehicular access up Centennial Way was blocked, a new tradition of inviting the public to walk up
the mountain together at 10:30 each morning in violation of the injunction order and to express contempt
of the court that sided with KM and TM over the wishes of the community to protect The Mountain. By
November 22 the word was out and many witnesses, some new to activism, began to walk up the
mountain that weekend to hold the line, see the drilling, and the behaviour of the RCMP as close to 20
arrests were made (Figure 54). Some witnessed for the first time blatant police racism as people of colour
were treated more harshly than white settlers, and decolonization and white privilege were major topics of
conversation on the front line.

Figure 54. Holding the line on November 22.
42

More First Nations supporters arrived to hold the line and help tend the sacred fire (Figure 55), while
other Caretakers coordinated the shuttling of firewood up The Mountain.

Figure 55. First Nations supporters from Alberta hold the north line with drumming directed at the
RCMP.
A contingent arrived from Victoria on the Social Coast bus and the protests escalated into tense moments
of police intimidation and protestors being grabbed and dragged over the line by the RCMP. Numerous
cases of the RCMP physical harming protestors being arrested were witnessed by observers. A rally was
hosted by the NGO Beyond Boarding at the south end of the police line while witnesses at the north end
followed a water hose illegally laid through the forest from BH2 to BH1 outside the injunction zone, and
had it removed. Some speakers at the rally and several children crossed the line in a united message of
solidarity. Mirrors were held up to reflect the police line back at them (Figure 56). Night vigils were held
to hold the street as the TM drilling continued at BH2 around-the-clock.
By November 24 it became clear the TM was behind schedule and had barely begun work at BH1. TM
announced it would be applying to the court on November 27 for permission to expand the injunction
order deadline for work completion from December 1 to December 12, but also to move the GPS
coordinates described in the original injunction order. The lawyer for the RCMP also announced that
police would begin laying criminal charges against people who violated the TM injunction more than
once.55

Those who violate the injunction two or more times may be charged with ʺDisobeying an order of
courtʺ under section 127 of the Criminal Code. This is a criminal offence that can be prosecuted on an
indictable (more serious) or summary (less serious) basis.
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Figure 56. People holding the south line during the Beyond Boarding rally by holding up a mirror
reflecting the faces of the RCMP back at them, November 22.
In the BC Supreme on November 27, TM was refused an extension to continue their work on Burnaby
Mountain under the court-granted injunction. During proceedings, the TM lawyers admitted that the geocoordinates described in the initial injunction order were inaccurate and based on desktop analysis that
was not verified in the field. The coordinates placed the location of BH2 approximately 30 metres south
(down Centennial Way), which effectively meant that the drilling was happening in the wrong place. All
arrests to that point had thus occurred outside the court-ordered injunction zone, in a zone arbitrarily
delineated by the RCMP to favour TM and harass protestors. Over 125 persons arrested between
November 21 and November 27 had their charges dropped, including several that had been arrested twice,
jailed, and were in contempt of court until the error was admitted in court.
Once the judgement was made to not grant a work extension, TM wrapped up its drilling at BH2 and
retreated to BH1; the RCMP began to pull out and by November 30, the day of a huge celebration on The
Mountain, were completely gone. At that point, all efforts between the various affinity groups, NGOs and
First Nations to maintain the right to the street, hold the line, and sustain 24 hour tending of the sacred
fire were completely vindicated. The additional finding of the court that the drilling had occurred in the
wrong place, resulting in arrests for the wrong reason, and the dropping of charges is an important, if
temporary victory, in what has been described as an issue that is “going to be a war, and it’s going to be
one that carries on for a number of years.”56
The experiences on Burnaby Mountain are a good place to end this paper as the fight for The Mountain
was a fight for the right to the street, which resulted in transformative changes for many individuals who
continue to collectively assemble on other streets with the intent of changing the city and its attitudes
towards the environment, First Nations, and activism.

Quoted in The Province.com by Derek Corrigan, Mayor of Burnaby on November 21, 2014
http://www.theprovince.com/news/This+going+says+Burnaby+mayor+pipeline+protesters+arrested+with
+video/10400012/story.html
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