Some 10 activists staged a sit-in protest on Tuesday at Anne Kang’s campaign office, and refused to leave until they met with NDP leader John Horgan.
The group, all members from Alliance Against Displacement, held the sit-in the same day the writ dropped in hopes of drawing attention to the issues of demovictions in Burnaby.
The event was also staged ahead of the B.C. NDP’s housing platform to be released Thursday.
Organizer Zoe Luba said they targeted Kang’s office because she is both a city councillor, belonging to the Burnaby Citizen’s Association, and running for the B.C. NDP in the Burnaby-Deer Lake riding, which has seen a lot of demovictions.
“We’re not leaving,” Luba said. “They’ll try to do whatever they can try to do to make us leave. There’s quite a few of us and we’re pretty comfy here, and we’re happy to wait.”
The Burnaby RCMP arrived shortly after 1 p.m.and ordered the protesters to leave or risk facing arrest. They left one hour later.
“We held the space. We stayed occupying it demanding the meeting with Horgan,” she said. “We did leave upon threat of being arrested.”
Last month the group staged a similar protest in Mayor Derek Corrigan’s office for around two hours before a councillor and city manager spoke with them.
