The portable washrooms the Council of Canadians provided for Occupy Vancouver.
The City of Regina has directed the company we had leased a portable washroom from to remove that toilet from the Occupy Regina site in Victoria Park. Yesterday, the company complied with that order. The bylaw enforcement officer told the company that we did not have a permit for this toilet. Our earlier inquiries to the city had found that we would be refused a permit if we were to apply for one.
Background
On November 3, the Regina Leader Post reported, “(Occupy Regina) protester Stella Rogers said a challenge is finding a place to go to the bathroom at night because the surrounding buildings are closed. On (November 3), the Regina Chapter of the Council of Canadians donated portable toilets to the protesters for the next month.” That same day, CJME Radio reported, “The Council of Canadians donated a portable toilet to the protestors, stating that they are helping to affirm safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right.” And on November 5, CTV Regina reported, “The Council of Canadians has dropped off a Porta Potty for the group, who were previously using a make-shift toilet inside a tent.”
The human right to sanitation
In a media release issued in early-November, Council of Canadians Regina chapter activist Jim Elliott said, “The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to affirm ‘the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights’. And this is how we are providing that right to the occupiers in Regina. For the next month and perhaps longer, there will be that service on the site.”
On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. This past August, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, released her report on the state of these rights in the United States. Her report said, “All municipalities (should) provide access to safe drinking water and sanitation to homeless people, including through ensuring the opening and regular maintenance and upkeep of public restrooms, as well as availability of public water fountains, including during the night.”
Furthermore, in mid-September, the United Nations Examiner reported, “A United Nations leader accused California’s capital city of human rights violations. In a sweeping attack on perceived human rights violations in wealthier nations, de Albuquerque took aim at Sacramento. ‘I was especially shocked by what I saw in Sacramento, California, where the city decided to shut down or to restrict the opening hours of public restrooms,’ de Albuquerque said, ‘forcing homeless people to improvise other types of solutions to be able to exercise the right to sanitation.’ ‘Open defecation, open urination have been criminalized,’ de Albuquerque claimed. ‘So what happens is that someone can be criminalized just because he/she does not have a place to do his physiological needs.’”
Next steps
We are looking into our options this morning. It does seem clear, however, that the City of Regina has made no evident effort to ensure that the human right to sanitation, as explained by the UN Special Rapporteur, is met for the residents of Occupy Regina or more broadly across the city for the homeless. The City’s website lists a number of parks with “on-site” washrooms, but they are only open from 8 am to 9 pm, daily between mid-May and mid-September. Victoria Park, where Occupy Regina is taking place, does not have an on-site washroom.