Bedouin Show Stopped By The Man

10/24/08 1:11pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Monotonix's set in Toronto was not the only show that got shut down on Thursday night.

Bedouin Soundclash were to play a free show in Vancouver on Thursday night, but it was shut down before it started. More than 100 police showed up to can the gig, which was to be held at the 100 block of Vancouver's East Hastings Street, because they said the organizers didn't have a permit. The show was to be a benefit gig in support of safe injection site Insite.

Although CBC News reports there were no arrests or violence when police shut the gig down, there are presently unconfirmed rumours that Vancouver police threw piles of Insite's rented stage gear into the garbage.

Bedouin Soundclash singer Jay Malinowski also told CTV News that the police action was "one of the most violent responses to a free outdoor acoustic show to build awareness for a program that is under fire right now."

According to CTV News, the city was concerned about traffic safety because East Hastings Street is so busy. Vancouver city police Const. Jana McGuinness told CBC News that police offered the organizers the opportunity to move the show to a closed-off part of Columbia Street, but she said the organizers declined.

Organizers said police had no right to shut down the event.

"It's a demonstration," Mark Townsend, spokesperson for PHS Community Services Society, which operates Insite and was the event's organizer, told CBC News. "It's what we are allowed to do. We're allowed to put up tents, and it's all organized."