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CRAB Park Warriors: Fighting FIFA and Advocating for Human Rights
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BCCLA
By Latoya Farrell, Staff Counsel, and CRAB (Ayx) Park Community Warriors
The Cost of the Spectacle
As FIFA fans swarm 16 cities in Mexico, the United States, and Canada including Vancouver, the CRAB Park Warriors continue their fight for human rights in the Downtown Eastside (“DTES”). From the massive influx of people to increased presence of law enforcement, the impact of FIFA’s presence in Vancouver is indisputable.
Don’t get me wrong; I believe in the power of sports to excite, unify, inspire, and transcend, but let’s not underestimate the power of the spectacle to disrupt, deflect, and distract. When it comes to the World Cup, FIFA controls the spectacle.
As of May 29, 2026, the estimated gross cost for the tournament was between $685 million and $729 million. After projected revenues (including Federal tax dollars), the estimated net cost to BC taxpayers was between $90 million and $114 million dollars. Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of money for seven football matches; money that could have been better spent assisting marginalized communities with access to food, affordable housing, and necessary social services.
“What do I think about FIFA coming to town? What a waste of money. Where is the money going? It’s going to secure a 2km radius around a stadium for a month. The stadium is not even being used the entire time, but they are securing the area the whole time with police and fencing. They could be doing so much more with the space between games. It’s just such a waste of money.” – David
While there is a lot of attention given to the financial cost of being a host city, what often goes unspoken is the social cost. Most Vancouverites will experience the mild inconveniences of blocked streets and loud cheers, but they won’t feel the weight of living in FIFA’s 2km “beautification” zone.
No one knows that burden better than the vulnerable and marginalized people on the DTES — the community the Warriors are fighting to defend. They experience it in the form of increased surveillance (200 new surveillance cameras with footage to be shared with FIFA and private security contractors), intensified enforcement (and estimated 242 million spent on security), and more displacement (new bylaw crackdowns on sheltering, vending, and busking.)
All of this is done to sanitize the city and protect FIFA’s brand, leaving many believe hosting FIFA simply isn’t worth it.
A Weak Human Rights Plan
It’s no secret that FIFA has an abysmal human rights record. While FIFA has developed a Human Rights Framework that host cities must comply with, it has failed to use its power, resources, and influence to uphold those human rights. Consequently, vulnerable communities in host cities like Vancouver continue to be sacrificed for the glory of the game. But human rights are not a game.
“FIFA has become so big that it has to govern itself, but cities don’t have to fall in line. The City of Vancouver didn’t put up any fight to protect its people. The City could have said: “You know what? We have our people here and they come first.” But nobody wants to challenge FIFA. All the City sees is dollar signs in their eyes.” – David
On February 19, 2026, Vancouver’s FIFA Host City Committee (the “Committee”) released its Draft Human Rights Action Plan. In response, an informal coalition made up of the BCCLA, PIVOT Legal, BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, and collectives in the DTES and Chinatown communities sounded the alarm on the massive human rights implications related to World Cup operations. The Coalition offered to meet with the Committee to share perspectives, concerns, and potential solutions before the draft plan was released. But the Committee did not engage, choosing hollow assurances over concrete commitments.
Former residents of CRAB Park tent city and Ayx Community Bus (the “CRAB Park Warriors”) also released a statement highlighting their concerns about ramped up police operations causing fears of increased surveillance, enforcement, and involuntary treatment in the community. Community members warned of increased street-level enforcement like tent removals, ticketing, and street sweeps, resulting in further displacement. When we push people further into hidden and unsafe spaces, we often see an increase in overdoses because they are forced to use alone.
“The city is rolling out the red carpet in every other way, except for the most vulnerable in their city.” – Kay
FIFA’s human rights framework centers on three principal areas: inclusion and safeguarding, workers’ rights, and access to remedy. While the initial draft plan recognized the risk of FIFA-related human rights harms, particularly in the DTES, it did not provide solutions for mitigating those risks. Instead, the Committee merely relied on Vancouver’s existing rules, policies, and processes to feign compliance with FIFA’s framework. That was simply not enough.
Sports fans know that you play like you practice. The reality is, the City of Vancouver struggles with human rights violations on the best of days, let alone during a mega event like the World Cup. So, simply relying on its current bylaws, policies, and procedures as evidence of how it will uphold human rights during the tournament is disingenuous and woefully inadequate. For the Warriors and the DTES, it felt like Expo 86 and the 2010 Olympics all over again.
While the flaws in the Draft Action Plan were numerous, one major shortfall was the complete lack of a reporting system for human rights violations or an appropriate mechanism for remedying them. FIFA is responsible for violations within the stadium and Fan Festival area at the PNE grounds. However, for violations that happen outside these designated areas, the Draft Action Plan directs people to rely on established services like 3-1-1.
3-1-1 is a service which is notoriously inaccessible and was never intended to handle the potential volume that comes with a massive world event. The CRAB Park Warriors and DTES community know all too well about the 3-1-1 black hole—complaints go in, but solutions never come out. Time and again, victims of decampments and street sweeps have filed complaints only to have their files closed without investigation. 3-1-1 is not equipped for reporting human rights violations, and it is not an effective way of administering any real remedy.
In response to the community’s concerns, Councillor Fry and Councillor Maloney introduced Motion 5 – Strengthening Vancouver’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Human Rights Action Plan with Measurable Standards, Reporting, and Monitoring. The motion acknowledged the community‘s criticisms of the Draft Action Plan—it “relies on existing laws and policies rather than introducing new, specific, measurable, funded protections and mitigations,” “does not sufficiently prevent displacement of people experiencing homelessness and housing precarity,” and it “lacks clear metrics, targets, timelines, and independent monitoring mechanisms.”
An effective plan requires SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals. Otherwise, what you have is a plan with a lot of show and no go. It was a simple ask—fix the deficiencies by including specific protections for unhoused and precariously housed residents. The motion asked for a “no displacement commitment,” expansion of low barrier day and night spaces, and real time tracking reporting weekly data on shelter availability, displacement incidents, and service access barriers.
The motion requested that City staff establish a clear complaint and reporting mechanism through 3-1-1. It also requested that staff establish a “rapid review team” to address urgent cases involving safety, discrimination, harmful enforcement practices or displacements. The rapid team would track human rights conditions before, during, and after the tournament, issue public-facing rapid response briefings, and report to Council with independent verification of human rights data. Sounds reasonable, right?
Instead, Deputy City Manager, Sandra Singh, shifted the City’s responsibility onto the Province, fundamentally undermining the spirit and purpose of the Committee’s Draft Action Plan. FIFA’s Human Rights Framework pillar, inclusion and safeguarding, required the City to address potential barriers to inclusion like the “potential impacts on livelihoods, economic or housing displacement, housing insecurity, and short-term rental impacts,” resulting from hosting the World Cup.
As a host city, Vancouver took on the task of protecting human rights for the members of the public, including its most vulnerable residents. It asked for this and now, it was trying to skirt the very responsibility that came with hosting a global sporting event.
When given the opportunity to rise to the occasion, the City did not meet its duty. Motion 5 was not passed with Mayor Ken Sim and five Councillors (Meizner, Dominato, Montague, Klassen, Zhou) voting in opposition. Councillors Bligh, Fry, Orr, and Maloney were the only votes in support.
A Compassionate Motion Denied
On April 22, 2026, Vancouver City Councillor Sean Orr introduced Motion 6 – No Penalties for Vehicle Sheltering During FIFA. Initiated and partly written by the CRAB Park Warriors, the motion built on a year of grassroots advocacy on behalf of people sheltering in RVs, including letters and recommendations written by former tent city residents and Indigenous RV dwellers. The Warriors were once again using their collective power to push for systemic change through concrete actions.
The motion recognized that Vancouver is in a “housing crisis, with residents forced to shelter in vehicles as a last resort form of housing, and people who are unhoused in British Columbia have a life expectancy estimated between 40 and 49 years.” Yes, you read that right!
The motion also recognized that “Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by homelessness, and enforcement on unceded territory risks perpetuating colonial harm and undermining commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
“I’m an Indigenous vet. I was in the military for 6 and half years and I’m diabetic. I was originally living in a trailer under the Lion’s Gate, but the RCMP towed it away and lost my trailer with everything in it. So, I moved into a tent in CRAB Park. I was able to save up for an RV, but I had nowhere to park it. I was getting ticketed every day. It was hundreds of dollars a day.” – Wayne (and Chewy)[i]
The day before the motion, BCCLA sent a letter in support and urging City Council to adopt a temporary moratorium on bylaw enforcement against individuals sheltering in vehicles and RVs during the FIFA period. We also urged City Council to take meaningful steps toward long-term, humane policy reform, including developing RV parking sites, small-scale housing solutions, and expanding access to basic amenities like washrooms, water, and sanitation services around the city.
CRAB Park Warriors and Ayx Community Bus, represented by Ryan, Kay, and Fiona, spoke in favour of the motion at the city council meeting (11:18:27). I’ve spoken at a City Council meeting, and it can be nerve-wracking to say the least. It takes a lot of time, preparation, effort, and commitment to appear before City Council and speak on behalf of your community. It’s even more challenging when you know you are fighting against a City Council majority riddled with political apathy—but the Warriors continue to show up.
Beautifully written and eloquently delivered, Kay bravely spoke on behalf of the group. Here is an excerpt:
“I’m here because this issue is something that affects our group personally and is already happening… I personally know of at least 5 former residents who have been displaced or threatened with displacement from an RV or vehicle where they are finding some safe or temporary shelter… All of them are Indigenous, many are women, and one is a veteran. And in our group, everyone has lived experience with homelessness, housing instability, and displacement.
For some people, vehicles and RVs are the last form of shelter, and current bylaw framework, regulations, and enforcement make it nearly impossible to shelter in a vehicle at night in Vancouver. People are constantly forced to move with nowhere to go and are faced with targeting ticketing that spirals exponentially and ends up with towing, eviction, and loss of belongings.
Indigenous people experience homelessness at disproportionate rates due to ongoing effects of colonization, residential schools, the 60s scoop, the perpetuation of children in care, and they are constantly faced with discrimination. Courts have recognized this reality and acknowledged that governments must act with fairness, especially where vulnerable and marginalized communities are involved.”
Supporting their argument with evidence, the Warriors highlighted examples of when City Council used their discretion to ease bylaw enforcement in the past, including the City’s engineering department limiting RV impoundments during the winter, bylaw enforcement considering whether someone is actively working on finding housing to avoid issuing tickets, and the temporary easing of ticketing and enforcement during the pandemic.
Kay continued:
“With the influx of people coming in from all over the world, there is a real fear in the community of being swept away and being pushed out of sight. What we are asking for today is reasonable. An opportunity for Vancouver to show the world how it can balance the needs of everyone, housed and unhoused.
She was right; the motion was more than reasonable. It merely asked city staff to investigate options for a temporary reprieve from enforcement related to people sheltering in vehicles that balanced safety and harm reduction. It asked city staff to identify potential locations for temporary safe parking. It asked city staff to enhance access to basic services for people sheltering in vehicles. Finally, it asked city staff to explore long-term options for safe parking programs and the feasibility of an RV park or small-scale housing solution. In other words, to simply research the possibilities.
This was an opportunity for City Council to do a small thing to uphold human rights; a chance to show a real commitment to protect vulnerable communities from the FIFA-related human rights impacts. The motion was consistent with FIFA’s Human Rights Framework. But yet again, City Council failed to do the right thing. Six City Councillors (Zhou, Kiby-Yung, Dominato, Bligh, Montague, and Klassen) voted against the motion. Councillor Orr and Councillor Maloney were the only ones who voted in favour. Not only was it a missed opportunity, but it sent a clear message to the community — compassion was not on the agenda.
It was beyond disappointing, but the CRAB Park Warriors, advocates, activists, and civil society organizations were not going to give up.
A March on Congress
On April 30, while people in expensive suits met behind closed doors discussing tournament logistics and global geopolitics, demonstrators including the CRAB Park Warriors gathered outside the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver to raise their voices in protest.
DTES and Vancouver community Elder Marge opened the day with a ceremonial blessing. Housing rights advocate, Fiona, and former CRAB Park tent city residents Kirs and Athena also spoke at the rally. Their demands were simple: no street sweeps, no decampments, no law enforcement crackdowns on street vendors and people who rely on public spaces for survival!
They were advocating for their friends, their neighbours, their communities, and themselves. They called for more permanent and portable public washrooms in the 2km radius around the stadium. In November 2025, the Warriors and Ayx Community Bus launched, “Dignity on the go”, giving mini tours of local washrooms so people could grade them on a “Restroom Report Card,” in the hopes of calling attention to the lack of access to clean operational washrooms on the DTES.
Protesters outside the Vancouver Convention Center also championed setting up a tiny-home village near CRAB Park for the unhoused and precariously housed, reserving any housing built for World Cup for unhoused and precariously house people to use after the tournament, and improving public education about the toxic drug crisis in Vancouver.
Conclusion
On May 25th, the Committee released its final version of its Human Rights Action Plan. With little substantive changes, it fell short of meaningfully addressing the significant human rights gaps identified.
“The City’s plan is 80 pages long. It fails to discuss the impact of street sweeps. The City expanded its powers to remove any infrastructure or anything it deems a structure. They haven’t added anything about harm reduction, the toxic drug crisis, or overnight sheltering. They are spending millions on infrastructure for FIFA but allocating peanuts of the budget for outreach support on the DTES.” – Fiona
The last World Cup match in Vancouver is being held on July 7th. With the tournament wrapping up on July 19th, the full scale of its impact on the unhoused and precariously housed community is yet to be seen. Without systematic tracking, data collection, and reporting mechanisms, we might never know the true footprint of hosting the games.
But long after the FIFA dust settles, the CRAB Park Warriors will continue to advocate for human rights and provide care for their community. Whether they are holding weekly advocacy meetings, marching, speaking to media, introducing motions, writing letters or petitions, or providing services on the DTES like the Ayx Community Bus, the Warriors never give up!
Stay tuned for the next installment of CRAB Park Warriors: Defending Decriminalization and Safe Supply.
[i] You can read Wayne’s interview with Global News about FIFA-related enforcement measures displacing the unhoused here.
CRAB Park Warriors: Fighting FIFA and Advocating for Human Rights
By Latoya Farrell, Staff Counsel, and CRAB (Ayx) Park Community Warriors
The Cost of the Spectacle
As FIFA fans swarm 16 cities in Mexico, the United States, and Canada including Vancouver, the CRAB Park Warriors continue their fight for human rights in the Downtown Eastside (“DTES”). From the massive influx of people to increased presence of law enforcement, the impact of FIFA’s presence in Vancouver is indisputable.
Don’t get me wrong; I believe in the power of sports to excite, unify, inspire, and transcend, but let’s not underestimate the power of the spectacle to disrupt, deflect, and distract. When it comes to the World Cup, FIFA controls the spectacle.
As of May 29, 2026, the estimated gross cost for the tournament was between $685 million and $729 million. After projected revenues (including Federal tax dollars), the estimated net cost to BC taxpayers was between $90 million and $114 million dollars. Any way you cut it, that’s a lot of money for seven football matches; money that could have been better spent assisting marginalized communities with access to food, affordable housing, and necessary social services.
While there is a lot of attention given to the financial cost of being a host city, what often goes unspoken is the social cost. Most Vancouverites will experience the mild inconveniences of blocked streets and loud cheers, but they won’t feel the weight of living in FIFA’s 2km “beautification” zone.
No one knows that burden better than the vulnerable and marginalized people on the DTES — the community the Warriors are fighting to defend. They experience it in the form of increased surveillance (200 new surveillance cameras with footage to be shared with FIFA and private security contractors), intensified enforcement (and estimated 242 million spent on security), and more displacement (new bylaw crackdowns on sheltering, vending, and busking.)
All of this is done to sanitize the city and protect FIFA’s brand, leaving many believe hosting FIFA simply isn’t worth it.
A Weak Human Rights Plan
It’s no secret that FIFA has an abysmal human rights record. While FIFA has developed a Human Rights Framework that host cities must comply with, it has failed to use its power, resources, and influence to uphold those human rights. Consequently, vulnerable communities in host cities like Vancouver continue to be sacrificed for the glory of the game. But human rights are not a game.
On February 19, 2026, Vancouver’s FIFA Host City Committee (the “Committee”) released its Draft Human Rights Action Plan. In response, an informal coalition made up of the BCCLA, PIVOT Legal, BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, and collectives in the DTES and Chinatown communities sounded the alarm on the massive human rights implications related to World Cup operations. The Coalition offered to meet with the Committee to share perspectives, concerns, and potential solutions before the draft plan was released. But the Committee did not engage, choosing hollow assurances over concrete commitments.
Former residents of CRAB Park tent city and Ayx Community Bus (the “CRAB Park Warriors”) also released a statement highlighting their concerns about ramped up police operations causing fears of increased surveillance, enforcement, and involuntary treatment in the community. Community members warned of increased street-level enforcement like tent removals, ticketing, and street sweeps, resulting in further displacement. When we push people further into hidden and unsafe spaces, we often see an increase in overdoses because they are forced to use alone.
FIFA’s human rights framework centers on three principal areas: inclusion and safeguarding, workers’ rights, and access to remedy. While the initial draft plan recognized the risk of FIFA-related human rights harms, particularly in the DTES, it did not provide solutions for mitigating those risks. Instead, the Committee merely relied on Vancouver’s existing rules, policies, and processes to feign compliance with FIFA’s framework. That was simply not enough.
Sports fans know that you play like you practice. The reality is, the City of Vancouver struggles with human rights violations on the best of days, let alone during a mega event like the World Cup. So, simply relying on its current bylaws, policies, and procedures as evidence of how it will uphold human rights during the tournament is disingenuous and woefully inadequate. For the Warriors and the DTES, it felt like Expo 86 and the 2010 Olympics all over again.
While the flaws in the Draft Action Plan were numerous, one major shortfall was the complete lack of a reporting system for human rights violations or an appropriate mechanism for remedying them. FIFA is responsible for violations within the stadium and Fan Festival area at the PNE grounds. However, for violations that happen outside these designated areas, the Draft Action Plan directs people to rely on established services like 3-1-1.
3-1-1 is a service which is notoriously inaccessible and was never intended to handle the potential volume that comes with a massive world event. The CRAB Park Warriors and DTES community know all too well about the 3-1-1 black hole—complaints go in, but solutions never come out. Time and again, victims of decampments and street sweeps have filed complaints only to have their files closed without investigation. 3-1-1 is not equipped for reporting human rights violations, and it is not an effective way of administering any real remedy.
In response to the community’s concerns, Councillor Fry and Councillor Maloney introduced Motion 5 – Strengthening Vancouver’s FIFA World Cup 2026 Human Rights Action Plan with Measurable Standards, Reporting, and Monitoring. The motion acknowledged the community‘s criticisms of the Draft Action Plan—it “relies on existing laws and policies rather than introducing new, specific, measurable, funded protections and mitigations,” “does not sufficiently prevent displacement of people experiencing homelessness and housing precarity,” and it “lacks clear metrics, targets, timelines, and independent monitoring mechanisms.”
An effective plan requires SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals. Otherwise, what you have is a plan with a lot of show and no go. It was a simple ask—fix the deficiencies by including specific protections for unhoused and precariously housed residents. The motion asked for a “no displacement commitment,” expansion of low barrier day and night spaces, and real time tracking reporting weekly data on shelter availability, displacement incidents, and service access barriers.
The motion requested that City staff establish a clear complaint and reporting mechanism through 3-1-1. It also requested that staff establish a “rapid review team” to address urgent cases involving safety, discrimination, harmful enforcement practices or displacements. The rapid team would track human rights conditions before, during, and after the tournament, issue public-facing rapid response briefings, and report to Council with independent verification of human rights data. Sounds reasonable, right?
Instead, Deputy City Manager, Sandra Singh, shifted the City’s responsibility onto the Province, fundamentally undermining the spirit and purpose of the Committee’s Draft Action Plan. FIFA’s Human Rights Framework pillar, inclusion and safeguarding, required the City to address potential barriers to inclusion like the “potential impacts on livelihoods, economic or housing displacement, housing insecurity, and short-term rental impacts,” resulting from hosting the World Cup.
As a host city, Vancouver took on the task of protecting human rights for the members of the public, including its most vulnerable residents. It asked for this and now, it was trying to skirt the very responsibility that came with hosting a global sporting event.
When given the opportunity to rise to the occasion, the City did not meet its duty. Motion 5 was not passed with Mayor Ken Sim and five Councillors (Meizner, Dominato, Montague, Klassen, Zhou) voting in opposition. Councillors Bligh, Fry, Orr, and Maloney were the only votes in support.
A Compassionate Motion Denied
On April 22, 2026, Vancouver City Councillor Sean Orr introduced Motion 6 – No Penalties for Vehicle Sheltering During FIFA. Initiated and partly written by the CRAB Park Warriors, the motion built on a year of grassroots advocacy on behalf of people sheltering in RVs, including letters and recommendations written by former tent city residents and Indigenous RV dwellers. The Warriors were once again using their collective power to push for systemic change through concrete actions.
The motion recognized that Vancouver is in a “housing crisis, with residents forced to shelter in vehicles as a last resort form of housing, and people who are unhoused in British Columbia have a life expectancy estimated between 40 and 49 years.” Yes, you read that right!
The motion also recognized that “Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by homelessness, and enforcement on unceded territory risks perpetuating colonial harm and undermining commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
The day before the motion, BCCLA sent a letter in support and urging City Council to adopt a temporary moratorium on bylaw enforcement against individuals sheltering in vehicles and RVs during the FIFA period. We also urged City Council to take meaningful steps toward long-term, humane policy reform, including developing RV parking sites, small-scale housing solutions, and expanding access to basic amenities like washrooms, water, and sanitation services around the city.
CRAB Park Warriors and Ayx Community Bus, represented by Ryan, Kay, and Fiona, spoke in favour of the motion at the city council meeting (11:18:27). I’ve spoken at a City Council meeting, and it can be nerve-wracking to say the least. It takes a lot of time, preparation, effort, and commitment to appear before City Council and speak on behalf of your community. It’s even more challenging when you know you are fighting against a City Council majority riddled with political apathy—but the Warriors continue to show up.
Beautifully written and eloquently delivered, Kay bravely spoke on behalf of the group. Here is an excerpt:
“I’m here because this issue is something that affects our group personally and is already happening… I personally know of at least 5 former residents who have been displaced or threatened with displacement from an RV or vehicle where they are finding some safe or temporary shelter… All of them are Indigenous, many are women, and one is a veteran. And in our group, everyone has lived experience with homelessness, housing instability, and displacement.
For some people, vehicles and RVs are the last form of shelter, and current bylaw framework, regulations, and enforcement make it nearly impossible to shelter in a vehicle at night in Vancouver. People are constantly forced to move with nowhere to go and are faced with targeting ticketing that spirals exponentially and ends up with towing, eviction, and loss of belongings.
Indigenous people experience homelessness at disproportionate rates due to ongoing effects of colonization, residential schools, the 60s scoop, the perpetuation of children in care, and they are constantly faced with discrimination. Courts have recognized this reality and acknowledged that governments must act with fairness, especially where vulnerable and marginalized communities are involved.”
Supporting their argument with evidence, the Warriors highlighted examples of when City Council used their discretion to ease bylaw enforcement in the past, including the City’s engineering department limiting RV impoundments during the winter, bylaw enforcement considering whether someone is actively working on finding housing to avoid issuing tickets, and the temporary easing of ticketing and enforcement during the pandemic.
Kay continued:
“With the influx of people coming in from all over the world, there is a real fear in the community of being swept away and being pushed out of sight. What we are asking for today is reasonable. An opportunity for Vancouver to show the world how it can balance the needs of everyone, housed and unhoused.
She was right; the motion was more than reasonable. It merely asked city staff to investigate options for a temporary reprieve from enforcement related to people sheltering in vehicles that balanced safety and harm reduction. It asked city staff to identify potential locations for temporary safe parking. It asked city staff to enhance access to basic services for people sheltering in vehicles. Finally, it asked city staff to explore long-term options for safe parking programs and the feasibility of an RV park or small-scale housing solution. In other words, to simply research the possibilities.
This was an opportunity for City Council to do a small thing to uphold human rights; a chance to show a real commitment to protect vulnerable communities from the FIFA-related human rights impacts. The motion was consistent with FIFA’s Human Rights Framework. But yet again, City Council failed to do the right thing. Six City Councillors (Zhou, Kiby-Yung, Dominato, Bligh, Montague, and Klassen) voted against the motion. Councillor Orr and Councillor Maloney were the only ones who voted in favour. Not only was it a missed opportunity, but it sent a clear message to the community — compassion was not on the agenda.
It was beyond disappointing, but the CRAB Park Warriors, advocates, activists, and civil society organizations were not going to give up.
A March on Congress
On April 30, while people in expensive suits met behind closed doors discussing tournament logistics and global geopolitics, demonstrators including the CRAB Park Warriors gathered outside the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver to raise their voices in protest.
DTES and Vancouver community Elder Marge opened the day with a ceremonial blessing. Housing rights advocate, Fiona, and former CRAB Park tent city residents Kirs and Athena also spoke at the rally. Their demands were simple: no street sweeps, no decampments, no law enforcement crackdowns on street vendors and people who rely on public spaces for survival!
They were advocating for their friends, their neighbours, their communities, and themselves. They called for more permanent and portable public washrooms in the 2km radius around the stadium. In November 2025, the Warriors and Ayx Community Bus launched, “Dignity on the go”, giving mini tours of local washrooms so people could grade them on a “Restroom Report Card,” in the hopes of calling attention to the lack of access to clean operational washrooms on the DTES.
Protesters outside the Vancouver Convention Center also championed setting up a tiny-home village near CRAB Park for the unhoused and precariously housed, reserving any housing built for World Cup for unhoused and precariously house people to use after the tournament, and improving public education about the toxic drug crisis in Vancouver.
Conclusion
On May 25th, the Committee released its final version of its Human Rights Action Plan. With little substantive changes, it fell short of meaningfully addressing the significant human rights gaps identified.
The last World Cup match in Vancouver is being held on July 7th. With the tournament wrapping up on July 19th, the full scale of its impact on the unhoused and precariously housed community is yet to be seen. Without systematic tracking, data collection, and reporting mechanisms, we might never know the true footprint of hosting the games.
But long after the FIFA dust settles, the CRAB Park Warriors will continue to advocate for human rights and provide care for their community. Whether they are holding weekly advocacy meetings, marching, speaking to media, introducing motions, writing letters or petitions, or providing services on the DTES like the Ayx Community Bus, the Warriors never give up!
Stay tuned for the next installment of CRAB Park Warriors: Defending Decriminalization and Safe Supply.
[i] You can read Wayne’s interview with Global News about FIFA-related enforcement measures displacing the unhoused here.
CIVIL LIBERTIES CAN’T PROTECT THEMSELVES