Canadian Excuses For Nasty Social Habits They Share With The UK/US?

Whatever happens, it’s just human nature to blame it on somebody else. So here we go.

Separated by an ocean, conjoined by the ghost of the British Empire, Canada is guilty of embracing nasty habits offered up by the United Kingdom.

The Grenfell Tower fire, for example, killed 72 social housing residents, in part due to persistent ill-will levelled against its tenants. Really? Perhaps you think the Grenfell disaster was simply down to a local council conspiring to save money by purchasing and installing dangerously inflammable building cladding.

Think again. The final report of the inquiry into the Grenfell Tower Fire¹ devotes an entire chapter linking the impact of social housing haters to the Grenfell deaths².

Fiona Fletcher-Smith heads one of England’s largest social housing landlords and she’s troubled by the persistent international problem of dissing social housing tenants. Why? The dissing has done much damage to social housing residents, including loss of life. Read more of Fletcher-Smith’s views in THE NEW STATESMAN³: We have to end the social housing stigma

What do social housing tenants themselves think of this state of affairs? Fletcher-Smith’s article reports on a survey and interviews with social housing residents. The report about the research is available for all readers. It is posted at G15: Taking the Stigma out of Social Housing: The Residents View

1. Try: Inquiry Of The Grenfell Tower Fire Wraps Up
2. And, we note that anti-social attitudes and behaviours aimed toward social housing residents is far from rare on the other side of the Atlantic, where the USA also provides bad attitudes towards social housing. Are Canadians any different?
3. The New Statesman allows a read of one article. Those who register are further allowed 2 free reads a month.