Police and the fire department moved Thursday morning to remove an encampment that grew to dozens of tents on Saskatoon’s west side.
People living there expressed sadness, anger and fear about being woken up Thursday morning by police telling them to leave.
“Where do they expect people to go?” asked Genine Okanee, who had been living in the encampment for the last month.
Police and fire officials created a line of officers slowly advancing into the encampment. People scrambled to pack up and move their tents into the adjoining parking lot, where the encampment’s exit is situated.
Over the ensuing hours, the camp grew smaller, but tents were still up in the parking lot as of Thursday afternoon. Dump trucks also moved onto the property and fencing was being put up to close off the area.
Police moved into a west-side encampment Thursday morning. Fencing was put up shortly after and police continued to advance as people living there scrambled to pack up. (Albert Couillard/CBC)
“Its very disappointing and upsetting, not a good feeling,” Okanee said. “The discrimination needs to stop and they need to understand this is all they know, this is their home, what do they expect [them] to do?”
Okanee said she found housing a week ago through the help of community support members who do daily check-ins at the encampment. She came back to help her friends clean up, she said.
Deputy fire chief Yvonne Raymer told media at city hall the action happened Thursday because officials needed time to co-ordinate with police after an attempt last month to clear the encampment at 20th Street and Avenue K was thwarted by aggressive protesters.
Raymer said since midnight on Monday, fire department staff have responded to four fires associated with encampments in the city, including two near the site being cleared Thursday.
Raymer said the removal effort was supported by community-based and Indigenous organizations, as well as provincial government agencies.
Police Chief Cam McBride said in a city news release that the police force aimed to ensure “an orderly and peaceful transition” for people from the encampment. (CBC)
“Every agency involved in this has the same goal: to ensure people are safe and that they are living in a safe environment,” Raymer said. “The partner agencies acknowledge this action is an emotional and complex issue and are determined to approach it with respect and compassion.”
One of the recent fires destroyed a tent and spread to trees at Optimist Park, which is located south of the large encampment, Raymer said. Another fire six hours later also spread to brush and trees in the park.
Community outreach groups said the encampment the city moved in to clear was not dangerous and has been a safe space for the people living there.
“I know that the city says that there’s a person defecating or sexual acts; we have never seen that here and all of our workers come check up and down here, even outside of work hours,” said Kayla Ironstar, a supervisor with the Saskatoon Tribal Council’s youth safe space program.
“They’re just going [to] start an encampment somewhere else, so I don’t understand when this is an open area, it’s not bugging anybody and it’s in a core area where all of their needs can be met.”
The Saskatoon Fire Department and police officers move in to remove a homeless encampment at 20th Street and Avenue K South on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2026 in Saskatoon. (Liam O’Connor/CBC)
The encampment is located on two lots of city-owned land between 19th and 20th streets.
Raymer said people at the site had declined help from social service agencies. The population of the encampment was difficult to determine due to the presence of protesters, she added.
People in the encampment told CBC there’s been up to 75 tents in the area in recent days.
“Our community has heard a lot of talk in the news and social media that encampments or tent cities are a reasonable solution to the shelter and housing crisis Saskatoon faces,” Raymer said. “A few seconds of video on a digital platform often does not tell the full story.”
WATCH | Deputy fire chief says crews are clearing tent encampment after 4 fires in 2 days:
Saskatoon fire crews clear tent encampment after 4 fires in 2 days, says deputy chief
Saskatoon deputy fire chief Yvonne Raymer holds a news conference Thursday morning to explain why crews are clearing a homeless encampment on private property at 20th Street and Avenue K South.
On Wednesday, a Saskatoon judge denied an emergency application for an interim injunction that aimed to prevent the city from clearing out the site until a constitutional challenge is heard by the court.
Lawyers with Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City Inc. (CLASSIC), which filed the application on behalf of some encampment residents, met with reporters Thursday afternoon and pointed out the encampment enforcement operation happened two days before World Homeless Day and Thanksgiving weekend.
“We’re also disappointed by the city’s decision to act to remove the encampment today when there continued to be a legal action that questioned the legality of what it was that they had been intending to do and just did,” said Nicholas Blenkinsop, a supervising lawyer at CLASSIC.
“The services currently available are not enough to help the community. The camp would not exist if there was adequate housing.”
CLASSIC intends to pursue that constitutional challenge of the city’s bylaws used to clear the encampment and a hearing is scheduled for Oct. 27 in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench.
“Encampments often gather a lot of negative attention because they make the problem of homelessness completely visible and unavoidable to those in the community,” said Catriona Kaiser-Derrick, a supervising lawyer at CLASSIC.
“Scattering an encampment makes the issues perhaps less visible and pushes these people further to the margins of society. But it doesn’t resolve the pressing housing concerns.”
Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand said in a news release issued by the city that encampments are dangerous.
Police Chief Cam McBride was quoted in the same news release as saying the force aims to prevent violence and ensure an “orderly and peaceful transition” for people from the encampment.
“The partner agencies acknowledge this action is an emotional and complex issue and are determined to approach it with respect and compassion,” deputy fire chief Yvonne Raymer said. (CBC)
Community outreach teams said resources should have already been put in place to offer support if the city was planning on clearing the encampment.
“They say that there’s resources but obviously its not enough if they’re here in the first place,” said Carey Wahobin, a peacekeeper with the Saskatoon Tribal Council’s youth safe space program.
“They’re doing the best they can to survive another day. This is all they have, and then they have the audacity to say ‘Get out of here.'”
Police and others at the site of the encampment said David Fineday, an encampment organizer, and his son were arrested Thursday morning and charged with mischief. Police did not provide any further information to CBC about the date or nature of the alleged mischief.
CLASSIC confirmed that Fineday is a client and was arrested Thursday morning.
“We are also concerned about the treatment [of Fineday], who is a 70-year-old, legally blind Indigenous man,” Blenkinsop said.
By the afternoon, Fineday was still in custody and CLASSIC was waiting for more information about the circumstances of his arrest.