Dozens of people turned out for a ‘sidewalk sit-in’ on Saturday morning in Penticton.

Protesters were voicing opposition to the city’s proposed bylaw to ban sitting or lying on certain sidewalks during the summer months.

“The people that this bylaw is targeting are not out here to be feared. They’re out here because they have no other choice. They need help. They need compassion,” sit-in participant Kona Sankey said.

“They’re targeting people that cannot afford to pay this fine. They’re targeting people that they think are a problem, and that they don’t want to see,” organizer Chelsea Terry said.

The City of Penticton said the proposed bylaw will help it deal with an increasing number of social issues downtown.

“The ‘no sitting’ bylaw and ‘no sleeping’ bylaw that is proposed to be in place, for a really relatively small area of the downtown, looks at providing bylaw [officers] with a tool to deal with some of the more serious situations,” Penticton’s development services manager Anthony Haddad said.

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