Marginalized people in Vancouver’s downtown core are “fans” of the Downtown Ambassadors program, according to a video produced by its proponents.

The video was presented earlier this summer during an ongoing human rights tribunal. Footage was made public today by Pivot Legal Society.

The group – along with the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users – said in closing arguments Wednesday that Ambassadors funded by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (BIA) unlawfully removed thousands of homeless from public spaces over the past five years.

Steve Jones, security consultant for the Downtown BIA, and two other ambassadors spoke with an estimated 10 people on Vancouver’s streets late last May. “In the interviews today, what we’ve essentially heard is the Ambassadors are well-liked by the people who are street-involved,” Jones said in the video. “Basically, they’re fans of Downtown Ambassadors.”

The downtown Vancouver BIA has consistently argued that its program is meant to help disadvantaged people find free food and shelter.

A human rights complaint filed in 2008 suggests otherwise. Pivot and VANDU have argued throughout hearings this summer that Ambassadors discriminated against homeless people, many of whom are aboriginal.

The tribunal is expected to make a decision sometime next year.

“Now we wait and see,” Doug King, a Pivot staff lawyer, told the Tyee. “If we get victory, we expect that to be a direct instruction to Ambassadors that they can’t be treating people the way they have been.”

Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee.