Just as an aside, when I learned that the City of Calgary was re-opening negotiations with the Occupyer's I was notably upset and fired off an angry letter to my Alderman, practicing my democratic right to protest directly to the government. My Ward 14 Alderman Peter DeMong was very quick to get me a response from Bill Bruce the GM of Bylaw Services so that I would understand why the City did what it did.
So I wanted to give Kudo's to my elected official, Bill Bruce and Lois for being responsive to a constituant
The response is below.
Quote:
Dear Mr. Crunch (name changed to protect the weak)
:
The following has been provided by Bill Bruce, General Manager of Animal and Bylaw Services. I hope this provides you with the information you wanted.
The City issued the offer to negotiate on providing up to four venues and some help from a city staff facilitator in order to provide a public forum for the Occupy Calgary to engage Calgarians on what they were protesting. This was to be in exchange for the immediate removal of their things from the park. They declined the offer and presented a ridiculous list of demands, none of which could be considered reasonable.
The City offer would have focused on using facilities we already own and were not already booked for other uses – unused capacity - and the facilitator is a salaried position that we would utilized for a few hours. The cost to the taxpayer was negligible and a very small fraction of what seeking an injunction was going to cost.
As it turned out their rejection of the very good offer by the City to resolve the issue was a critical in our successfully obtaining the court injunction that has removed the Occupy Calgary people from the park. The purpose of issuing the second letter was to make it very clear to the judge, while he was deciding the case, that the City had been very fair and sincere in our wish to resolve this peacefully. Again, this served us well in getting the injunction we needed and that offer expired on delivery of the Court decision.
From the beginning, Bylaw Services and Calgary Police have written court appearance tickets on a daily basis and have arrested and removed people from the park who had warrants for their arrest.
On November 21, 2011 Bylaw Officers entered the park and removed 32 tents and structures and charged an additional 10 people who were in the park with being in the Park after closing and erecting a tent in the park (20 more tickets) Those tickets will be prosecuted by the City in court early next year.
At this point, the City has no intentions of negotiating with the group and respond to any of their action that violate our laws with further enforcement and court action.
I hope this information is helpful.
Cheers!
Lois Walsh
Executive Assistant for:
PETER DEMONG
ALDERMAN, WARD 14
Ph: 403-268-1653
Fax: 403-268-3823
eaward14@calgary.ca
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