Police at the Kelowna rail trail encampment during its dismantling and cleanup on March 26, 2025.

(JESSE TOMAS / iNFOnews.ca)

A woman says she was eating her breakfast this morning while not yet dressed when officers cut her tent open on the Kelowna rail trail homeless encampment today.

The usual spring clean up of the city-run homeless encampment on Weddell Place began today, March 26, but authorities are using new tactics and police said there have been several arrests.

Bylaw services, Kelowna RCMP, Kelowna Fire Department and other government departments were at the encampment to dismantle people’s structures in order to clean and maintain the site.

The site was fenced off to the public and the media to prevent access, but people were allowed to stand on the road to observe from a short distance.

Authorities did not warn residents at the encampment about what time officers would be there, and some folks have made reports about officers treating residents aggressively.

The advocacy group Unhoused Solidarity Collective Okanagan shared a video with iNFOnews.ca of a woman being arrested.

Another encampment resident who was arrested is a woman who identified herself as Cassidy Anderson. She said she was charged with assault for throwing a bag of cereal after police cut open her tent without warning.

“At nine o'clock I was eating cereal and randomly a bunch of police officers just kind of bombarded my area... They took everything from me, sliced my tent open,” she said.

Anderson said officers didn’t explain what was happening.

“I didn't have a shirt on or anything,” she said. “They couldn't answer what was going on. So, I threw my cereal out the door, which was in a plastic Ziploc, and they charged me with assault and brought me downtown.”

She said officers claimed her dog was stolen and took him to the pound. She said the police took her phone, wallet and dismantled her security camera.

Anderson pointed to a barren spot in the encampment where she had been living for the past three months. She was told she’s not allowed to re-enter the camp.

She said police told her she will be provided with a new tent and she'll get her stuff back eventually.

“We don’t confirm any specific details until charges have been laid, including the identity of an arrested party,” Kelowna RCMP media liaison officer Cpl. Michael Gauthier said in an emailed statement.

“I can confirm that there have been several arrests either at or around the outdoor sheltering site, some related and some unrelated to the City of Kelowna initiative. Two arrests related to the City of Kelowna initiative include one female who was arrested for assaulting a bylaw officer and one male who was arrested for uttering threats.”

Tony Baxter, a member of the advocacy group Unhoused Solidarity Collective Okanagan, knows Anderson and said the maintenance operation was “state sanctioned violence.”

“It's completely dystopian stuff. They can say whatever they want because nobody actually has eyes on the ground there. But when you see what's happening, it's like the epitome of state-sanctioned violence,” Baxter said.

The City of Kelowna’s community safety director Kevin Mead spoke at a press conference at the Rotary Arts Centre (almost two kilometres from the rail trail encampment) while the camp’s dismantling and cleanup were underway.

Mead said that the clean up and maintenance work with extra security measures are required because of complaints that the encampment isn’t safe.

“We have heard from those staying at the site, and also from those who have refused to stay at the site from across the city, that they have not felt safe at times due to external criminal activity and other on-site dynamics, including violence between site users that take place when security or enforcement personnel are not present,” he said.

He said the authorities’ maintenance operation was being conducted in a way to ensure officials’ safety as well as, “to provide the outdoor sheltering community with a measure of dignity and respect during this time.”

“The work being undertaken by the team is extremely challenging and complex work. All parties represented have varying mandates, some of which are polar opposites of each other. But we are coming together and we are working in tandem, finding the overlap to work together to serve our city in the most balanced and reasonable way we can, given the legal and statutory resources available,” Mead told reporters.

Mead said he did not have any details about the arrests on the rail trail this morning.

He said there could be a stamp system implemented where residents are stamped in order to make sure only people who are allowed to be in the encampment are there. He did not provide any details about the new system including when it would be implemented or if it was an ongoing measure.

He objected to the use of the term resident to refer to people living in the encampment since they “don’t own or lease the land.”

Mead said the new protocols such as blocking access to the site is due to issues and “disruptions” that workers have encountered when dealing with people in the encampment.

“We are leveraging lessons learned, not only from here, but from across the province and country. We are exercising compassion and employing trauma-informed practices wherever possible. And although we are not perfect in what we do, I am extremely proud of the work being done by and for the sake of our city,” he said.

Mead said the operation is meant to clean up any garbage, keep the site within its boundaries and ensure the safety of those living in the encampment as well as the surrounding community.

When asked about whether someone’s dog was taken today Mead said he could not confirm details but there have been dangerous dog incidents at the rail trail encampment in the past.

He said officers are not taking advantage of any legal loopholes.

“The officers will exercise discretion always within the legal framework that they have and statutory authorities. We expect in order to re-encourage any exploiting of the grey area whatsoever in any of that. And we do that as a matter of professional pride, actually. And it's important to understand that everybody that's doing that down there is doing that down there in the interest of ensuring the safety, health, and security of the whole community,” he said.

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