The human rights complaints were filed separately by five people with physical disabilities.
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed complaints alleging the Vancouver park board discriminated against some people when it closed vehicle access to Stanley Park during the pandemic.
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The complaints were filed separately by five people who had mobility issues and required vehicles to access the park.
Graeme Anderson, Robert Best, Rick McCormack, John Richards, and Alma Ross alleged discrimination on the basis of physical disability, while three also alleged discrimination because of age. Those were McCormack, who 76 at the time of the hearing, Richards, 85, and Ross, 87.
Tribunal member Kathleen Smith joined the five complaints into one hearing spread over 30 days from March 2022 to January 2023.
The complaints relate to traffic pattern changes at the park and Beach Avenue starting April 2020, including the full closure of both lanes of Park Drive to vehicles from April 8 to June 22, 2020, when the road was turned into a bike lane and the other reopened to vehicles.
The park board said it shut the park to vehicle access in order to limit non-local visitors to Stanley Park during COVID-19 and reduce congestion on the seawall.
Four of the complainants lived in Vancouver, and did not give evidence of an attempt to visit Stanley Park during this period, said Smith.
Only Richards, who testified he visited Stanley Park regularly with his spouse and was turned away when he tried, was able to establish a disability-related harm, Smith ruled.
“However, the adverse impacts were justified in all the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time. As a result, the adverse impact does not amount to discrimination,” she wrote in her decision issued earlier this month.
The complainants argued the park board had other goals, including a desire to test a car-free park and increasing bike ridership.
In his testimony, the then-park board general manager, Malcolm Bromley, acknowledged he saw the pandemic as an opportunity to try a car-free park, but said his priority was public health and safety and to reduce congestion in the park.
Smith agreed, saying that while there may have been discussions among park board staff about lessons to be gained from a car-free pilot, “I am not persuaded that this undermines the honest and good faith belief that decongesting the seawall was critical to public safety at the time.”
She noted the decision to close the road was made on March 31, a “chaotic, highly dynamic” time when knowledge about the novel coronavirus was evolving daily.
She said the park board also considered other options, such as putting up signs, closing the park, or giving people with accessible-parking permits access to the park, an option it ultimately decided was unworkable.
The tribunal dismissed all complaints about access to Stanley Park after June 22, when one lane was given back to vehicles.
It also dismissed complaints made against the City of Vancouver about access to Beach Avenue, which was reduced to a single lane of traffic eastbound between Park Lane and Hornby Street starting April 2020.
The complainants testified Stanley Park was less accessible, “unpleasant,” even “dangerous” with the new traffic pattern. Some reported difficulty with parking or getting stuck behind a horse-drawn carriage that meandered through sections of the park.
None of them were able to prove they experienced harms related to their disability or age, said Smith.
The single-lane bike lane on Park Drive was removed in September 2020, but was reinstalled again on May 2021. The move remained controversial and divisive with some groups arguing it reduced access to the park, while supporters said it improved safety for cyclists.
The bike lane stayed in place until a new motion was passed in December 2022 by a newly elected park board to restore pre-COVID road access to Stanley Park. The bike lane has since been removed.