MediKatie's first arrest

Vancouver is the 2nd most difficult city in the world to find rental accommodation. The scorching housing market led to me (and countless other Vancouverites) losing our homes through a common rental scam. Under the B.C. Tenancy Act, a landlord can evict a tenant to move in relatives. Many landlords, like mine, use this tactic to evict good tenants, then bring in new tenants at a higher price.

Living in a heat score

Suddenly homeless, I was living in a bus-turned-RV of a friend-at-the-time, which was parked outside the house of his relative. It was legally parked and had not received any tickets or notices to move. In the days leading up to the raid, RCMP vehicles were repeatedly seen parked behind or in front of the RV, officers walked around the RV many times, and more than once officers attempted to gain access. The RV had been involved in a recent protest called the “Marijuana March”, so it was what you would call a Heat Score. It had even been pulled over on the way home from that protest, with officers attempting to get inside by claiming the driver had been intoxicated, which was proved false with a roadside sobriety test. They really, really wanted to search that bus.

On May 9th I was resting alone in the RV while my husband and friend were shopping nearby. Suddenly, I was surrounded by RCMP cars and officers. They had no warrant, and no cause to search the vehicle, but they wanted to get me on a cannabis possession charge, and they were hoping I would let them in voluntarily, so they tried to lie and threaten their way on.

Although I told them the owner was only minutes from returning, and that I'm crippled, they broke in and dragged me out forcibly. I was hurt and traumatized in the arrest. Even after trashing the RV and searching extensively with police dogs, they weren't able to find anything to charge me (or anyone else) with, so they charged me with "obstructing" their warrant-less raid.

Homeless again

I was let off with a “Promise to Appear”, the bus was towed away, and my belongings were dumped in a heap on the side of the road in the rain. I went from being homeless to being a literal street person, bouncing around from 24/7 restaurants and hotel rooms. When money ran out we got desperate and took a room for rent in Maple Ridge with no tenancy agreement.

I did make my first appearance as promised, but since the paperwork hadn’t been laid, I was told that my second court date was nullified and I would be notified of a new date. I spent the summer battling PTSD, finding out from the Blusson Spine Clinic I was in remission from spinal cord cancer but may have metastases in my pelvis, and trying to find a proper place to live. My unofficial landlord became increasingly abusive and made it difficult to stay but also difficult to find a place to live; for example, withholding mail, demanding we leave but giving us bad references, stealing food, intentionally leaving the kitchen a health hazard, cutting off access to our services like hot water or laundry, etc. Against all odds, @drutter and I found a place for November, but were suddenly evicted in the night in October by a large aggressive man uttering threats and forcing me to pack under duress.

During this second period of living on the street and couchsurfing, I must have missed my new court date. Apparently there was a warrant out for me that I didn’t know about, and that’s why I got arrested at a protest in my previous video. I was let out of jail after 24 hours on a promise to appear to court on Wednesday, March 7th. At this court date I’ll finally get to defend myself from the bogus obstruction charge.