Residents want Vanier Park back for themselves, but the squatters won’t go

From the edge of a small forest near Vanier Park, Elvira Lount points to a pair of mallard ducks swimming in a pond that’s dotted with an upturned waiting room chair, a surfboard and a half-submerged propane tank.

It’s all debris from a nearby encampment.

“Right away it’s a biohazard because of the propane tanks,” said Lount, a filmmaker and member of Keep Kits Beach Wild who lives within walking distance of the park.

She also pointed to the two large tent structures covered with tarps and surrounded by bikes, bike parts and discarded clothing, other sodden debris and more propane tanks.

“There were six propane tanks outside,” she said. “Why would they need six propane tanks?”