Nanaimo tent city evacuated after bomb scare
Posted October 13, 2018 7:26 am.
Last Updated January 20, 2019 8:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NANAIMO — A large portion of Nanaimo’s tent city was evacuated last night after a resident reported finding what appeared to be material for a homemade bomb.
Nanaimo RCMP Constable Gary O’Brien says the package was placed against the chain-link fence opposite Port Place Shopping Centre.
He says as a precautionary measure, police evacuated a good portion of the tent city and called in the explosive disposal unit.
A large area around the scene was barricaded off and residents evacuated from the camp were escorted to the conference centre.
Advocacy groups ask for leniency
Earlier on Friday, dozens of individuals along with advocacy and health groups have signed on to an open letter to Nanaimo council asking that it extend a deadline to close a homeless camp.
The letter by the B.C. Poverty Reduction coalition urges council to honour its commitment in Nanaimo’s action plan to end homelessness that it agreed to earlier this year.
“Today, we urge Nanaimo City Council to honour this commitment by extending the current closing date of October 12th for the tent city situated at 1 Port Drive to align with the Ministry of Housing’s provision of temporary workforce modular housing,” reads the statement.
“Municipal councils cannot address these pressing social issues alone and yet they face them daily as they show up at the local level within our communities.”
The letter says that extending the Friday deadline will align with the Ministry of Housing’s plan to bring in 170 temporary modular housing units from Fort St. John within the next week.
Last Wednesday, Nanaimo’s city government opted against the province’s offer to provide security until the people living at the encampment could moved to new housing. The city chose instead to keep the mandatory clearing of the tent city.
— with files from The Canadian Press
