Panelists: Anna Cooper of Pivot Legal, Chrissy Brett, Christopher Livingstone

Discussion and analysis of the provincial encampment guidelines with Anna Cooper of Pivot Legal, as well as panelists with lived experience of being in a tent city and being displaced. Attention will be given to advocacy and service providers can support these encampments, legal rights and considerations, and the stories of those whom these guidelines affect. 

Chrissy Brett is an Indigenous activist who has been involved in founding, organizing and running a number of tent cities throughout BC. She fights for the rights of Indigenous homeless peoples to occupy unceded lands. She also stands with homeless settler folks who are forced to live outside. In May 2019 she founded Camp Namegans, which has since become known as “Namegans Nation” – the first urban reserve in Canada. Originally from Nuxalk Nation, Chrissy founded Namegans Nation in recognition that many Indigenous peoples will never know their Nations due to the history of the 60s scoop and other forms of displacement. She was a key organizers at Oppenheimer Tent City and a founding member of Namegans 2.0 (CRAB Park) tent city. 

Christopher Livingstone is a Mental Health Outreach worker and founding member of the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society (WAHRS), a Director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, and a previous member of the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre. Christopher Livingstone is his colonial name. His traditional name is Ukurs Kots’a, that is his traditional hereditary Nisga’a’ name. His work has included doing harm reduction, cultural safety and other supports to  Indigenous Peoples living in tent cities, including at Oppenheimer park. He is also seasoned tent city resident, having lived at the Woodsquat in 2002, Victory Square in 2003, CRAB Park in 2003 and Anita Place in 2019.

Anna Cooper is a Staff lawyer at Pivot Legal Society where she focuses on Pivot’s Homeless People’s Rights campaign. She is a settler lawyer working within the colonial legal tradition to try and advance human rights. Much of her work has focused on the rights and needs of people living in tent cities.

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