Prince George residents are invited to learn about their mobility rights and address concerns when the northern chapter of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association hosts a community breakfast Saturday morning.
The chapter has been active since its launch this July.
"They've been really successful so far and had really good attendance at all of the meetings," said BCCLA executive director David Eby. "People are really enthusiastic and incredibly motivated."
That motivation has spurred this weekend's workshop, which Eby said is the first event in 20 years to be hosted by a volunteer chapter for the BCCLA.
Since the Northern B.C. chapter's launch, one of the issues that has come to a head is something called red zoning, which is where "police officers, without the approval of a judge tell people they can't come downtown," Eby explained.
"Our northern chapter has been meeting in Prince George for a few months and they've been talking with people about priorities in terms of civil liberties issues and what they've heard form a number of people about priorities in terms of civil liberties issues and what they've heard from a number of the service providers downtown is there's an issue around people's access to downtown, especially those on the fringes if they're marginalized in some way or homeless or they have mental health issues," Eby said.
The workshop, which will be used to inform citizens of their rights and collect information on this issue to determine whether it's a serious problem or a couple of misunderstandings in isolated cases will be held at the St. Vincent de Paul Society drop-in centre at 1220 2nd Avenue from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 10.
