'the officers started pushing us'
A video from he April 5 East Hastings decampment shows an officer punching a disabled senior who was pinned to the ground by three people

The rain comes down like rapids on Easter Sunday, as another atmospheric river presses on Vancouver.
Those of us with insides to stay in mostly do, it seems—trains are scarcely packed, and sidewalks are, in many areas of the city, left out to wash. But one area remains well-used.
My jacket, sweater and shirt are soaked through by the time I’ve walked through the Downtown Eastside, from Chinatown-Stadium station to Oppenheimer Park, where I meet Gurdeep Singh.
As I walk, police move in packs, loading themselves in and out of vans to take shifts watching over the city’s continued decampment of the unhoused members of the community. It’s Day 5 of displacement, and several people on the sidewalk echo the same sentiment in conversations with me: why do this during a rain warning?
Singh and I almost pass each other on a park trail before we’re connected. His face is hidden by multiple hoods guarding him from the rain and by his posture. It’s hard to tell how tall he is; a fractured back means he supports himself with his cart and his cane. In our conversation, his forward pitch increases gradually before he gets a better grip on his cane and corrects himself.
It’s Day 5, but we’re here to talk about Day 1 and his arrest by Vancouver Police Department officers.
A video of his arrest, provided by a DTES social worker, is doubly troubling after meeting Singh.
He speaks and moves slowly, putting thought into each word, and doesn’t do much standing without some kind of support. On Day 5, the support is a cane planted firmly on the ground.
On Day 1, it was a metal pole he was using as a staff.
By Singh’s account, he showed up to East Hastings Street unaware of the planned displacement. Singh doesn’t live in a tent anymore—though he has in the past. Lately, he’s been staying in shelters.
Day 1 was a commotion, and Singh says he walked right into it that afternoon. A line separated police to the west and protesters to the east. Behind the police line, city crews cleaned the streets after tents and belongings were taken and thrown into the backs of box trucks and into garbage trucks.
According to Singh, he tried asking police what was happening and if he could get through but was denied. According to police, the senior was among a crowd that “encroached on City of Vancouver workers last week on East Hastings Street.”
“Our officers repeatedly asked the protesters to move back, and used an amplifier to make sure everyone in the group heard the request. This man had several opportunities to leave, but he chose to say,” VPD spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison said in an emailed statement.
Even as he got down there, Singh claims he wasn’t hearing from people what was happening.
“It was a spectacle more than anything else,” he says.
“I asked them [police] what was going on, and they said the general public was not allowed to go through; there’s work happening. … I asked them to give me passage. They refused.”
All the while, police were advancing the line eastward, pushing protesters back—including Singh, who said he continued to stand in place, still unsure what was happening or why.
“As we weren’t moving, the officers started pushing us,” Singh says. “Forcefully pushed backwards.”
At that point, Singh says, police took his staff from him. And this is about when the video starts.
The video begins with Singh on the ground. Behind him, police push the line forwards, against the protesters. In front and on either side of him, three officers are pulling at him, including one pulling on his staff.
Singh remains seated as the officers continue pulling at him, and a voice comes from somewhere offscreen: “They’re assaulting a senior citizen!”
“They’re just waiting to use police violence,” the voice continues, as Singh is brought to his feet and forced onto his stomach.
As they do, one officer rests with a knee on Singh’s back. And as one of Singh’s hands is held behind his back and as they pull the other hand behind him, another officer throws a punch at his head.
“When people within the protest group started tossing cans of beer, throwing food and coffee, and deploying fire extinguishers at police and city workers, our officers formed a line to stop the protesters from moving forward,” Addison wrote in his emailed statement.
“The man in this video was at the front of the protest group and was holding a large piece of metal. Due to the tenor of violence in his behaviour, he was pulled out of the crowd, handcuffed, and held in custody until there was no longer a risk that his behaviour would contribute to the violence and disorder that was jeopardizing people’s safety.”
Addison did not respond when asked to elaborate on what he meant by “tenor of violence” and to comment specifically on the punch.
Among those who saw Singh’s arrest was Tyler Nielsen, an outreach worker and member of Kilala Lelum’s social navigation team.
In a written statement, the social navigation team condemned the police actions that day and specifically called out the arrest of Singh as unnecessarily violent.
“Without any de-escalation or communication VPD officers violently grabbed a man in the crowd who was holding a tent pole. These three officers proceeded to drag the man from the crowd, tackling him to the ground, the three officers proceeded to struggle with the man over the tent pole,” reads the statement.
“It is unclear why these three officers felt the only response was to engage in a physical confrontation, but it is completely unacceptable that this man was struck repeatedly over the course of this interaction and then knelt on by an officer. VPD officers have shown a track record of unnecessary physical violence when carrying out their duties, and the lack of accountability from the VPD continues to let these situations fester.”
According to Kilala Lelum’s social navigation team, Singh’s arrest was part of a continuum of violence inflicted by police on unhoused people that day.
“In this action the VPD used paramilitary tactics, violence and intimidation to physically remove people and their belongings from East Hastings. Many of the people targeted by this violence had their food, clothing, shelter and other survival gear thrown into waiting garbage trucks, while those who were luckier managed to save some of their belongings in garbage bins labelled as ‘personal belongings,’” the group said.
Singh, himself, says this was his first experience like this with police.
And he says he doesn’t know why police were part of the operation in the first place, if the point was about cleaning up the streets. He says a cleanup could work with the local community rather than against it.
And he said a cleanup should focus on discarding actual garbage rather than people’s belongings and tents.
“Whatever they are, if you want to call them tents, I call them shelter. It’s a home. It’s where a person’s trying to make them[self] feel secure, however they can,” Singh said. “Sometimes it’s not the best scenario. But most times, at least they have a place to go and a place to sleep.”