Protocols put in to place by the City of Vancouver Legal Department have put wide-sweeping restrictions on the ability of the Pivot legal society to perform its mandate as an advocate for marginalized residents of the Downtown Eastside.
Pivot lawyers, including David Eby, are counsel to a number of claimants suing the City of Vancouver in relation to City and police actions in the Downtown Eastside. This is just one aspect of their advocacy role for residents of the Downtown Eastside.
By letter dater 13 October 2006 to David Eby, a Lawyer for Pivot Legal Society, the City of Vancouver Legal Department demanded that all requests from Pivot to communicate with any member of the Vancouver City Staff was to be made through Law Department lawyers, claiming that correspondence otherwise would be a violation of the Professional Conduct Handbook due to litigation against the City by Pivot’s clients. However, the Handbook does not appear to have any application to the activities the Legal Department seeks to restrict.
Since the letter, multiple staff members of the City of Vancouver have been directed not to speak to staff or lawyers from Pivot Legal Society. Representatives from the City, acting on advice from the Legal Department, have also asked that David Eby be removed as the IOCC representative on the VANOC sectoral table (a policy discussion forum aimed at alleviating the impact of the Olympics on low-income people in housing crisis).
LRWC ACTION
LRWC letter written 24 November 2006 by Gail Davidson.
LRWC letter written 29 November 2006 by Gail Davidson.
