No appeal for family evicted under safer communities law
Last Updated: Monday, May 25, 2009 | 10:58 AM AT
CBC News
A Cape Breton family evicted from their home under safer communities legislation will not be allowed to appeal.
George Clarke, his wife and their three adult sons were evicted from their house in Sydney Mines last week under Nova Scotia's Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. The house is boarded up for 90 days.
A judge issued the order after reviewing affidavits from neighbours and police swearing that the family was selling drugs and disrupting the neighbourhood.
No one in the family is facing drug-related charges. Clarke admits that drug users were at his home on MacNamara Street, but he said that's because his three sons are addicts and he refused to kick them out.
Clarke questions the validity of the eviction notice, but he didn't fight the case. He said he received the legal documents, but there was a lot of "legal jargon" he couldn't understand.
"I'm not a well-educated man. And Legal Aid will not cover civil cases, and the other lawyers, you needed $1,000 down or $1,500 down," he said.
But even if anyone in Clarke's family could afford a lawyer, they're not eligible to appeal, said Roger Merrick, director of investigations under the safer communities legislation.
"In this particular case it was asserted and is believed that everybody in the residence, everybody named in the application, were involved one way or another in the activity," said Merrick.
Under Sec. 25 of the act, he noted, if a judge finds that someone knew illegal activity was taking place but didn't call police, they are complicit and therefore cannot appeal.
The two-year-old act is intended to shut down properties known for gambling, bootlegging, prostitution or drug dealing. Because it's designed to protect neighbourhoods, it doesn't require the same burden of proof as a criminal case. All that has to be shown is whether the activity disturbs the neighbourhood.
Merrick said his team has received more than 400 complaints in 173 cases. Only four, including the Clarke case, went to the court stage. He said most people in the cases voluntarily left their apartments or homes.
Clarke has been living in his car with three pit bulls since his eviction last Tuesday. He said two family members have a place to stay, while two sons are in a detoxification program. They are all allowed to move back into their house in three months.
Some provinces, such as Manitoba and Saskatchewan, have similar safer communities legislation.
In Newfoundland and Labrador, women's groups have argued that women and children who live in the same residence often suffer the consequences and end up on the street. British Columbia decided against its own act, largely due to input from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
