Vancouver Island lawyer Clive Ansley and Scott Bernstein, staff lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, will host a joint media conference Thursday at Maple Pool Campsite.
In a news release Wednesday, they said they will discuss the impact of the City of Courtenay's efforts to shut down Maple Pool on the lawyers' clients and the low-income people who are facing eviction.
Since at least the 1960s, Maple Pool has served as a low-income residence for some of Courtenay's poorest and most vulnerable residents, they say.
In August 2011, the City of Courtenay started a legal action against the owners of Maple Pool, seeking to shut down the campground. Approximately 54 residents inhabit Maple Pool, and most would likely become homeless if forced to leave Maple Pool, Ansley and Bernstein add.
Ansley, of Ansley and Company, is legal counsel for Maple Pool. Bernstein is a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society, a Vancouver-based not-for-profit society with a mandate to use the law to create social change.
Pivot will make an application to the court to intervene in this case, asking the court to consider whether evicting the tenants of Maple Pool is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.