As we all-too-superior Canadians know, Americans do a lot of whining and caterwauling about their rights. But, bottom line, none of that hot air is carved in stone (or so Canadians think) unless it is written in the U.S. Constitution.
Unfortunately for the homeless, the house-proud drafters of the U.S. Constitution neglected to consider that a right to adequate shelter was an imperative for all its citizens. It just isn’t in the Constitution.
Canada, by contrast is a recent, smug signatory of the United Nations Human Right To Adequate Housing. That should be game, set, and match to Canada. But it isn’t. Far from it.
For example, how does Canada’s embrace of the universal right to adequate housing allow the City Toronto to close some 40% of its sorely needed shelter capacity?
Back in early 2020, Toronto was forced to increase its shelter capacity thanks to the pandemic. By the spring 2021, the city considered its enhanced shelter capacity as evidence that homeless tent encampments were longer necessary or tolerated. It cracked down on them (with violence in some cases.)
Getting on for a year has passed. The ‘everybody in’ shelter requirement is fading. Canada might seem to be bound by some standards thanks to our link to the UN, but exactly how? Maybe moving shelter beds closer and closer together (one idea, anyway) as, step by step, 40 percent of shelter capacity is closed? As contracts for extra shelter expire, only vague, questionable plans stand in the way of bouncing the homeless back onto the streets and into tent camps.
By contrast in California, the region with the worst epidemic of homelessness in North America, the law currently does not allow shelters to be arbitrarily closed, spilling the homeless into the streets. It does not even permit the razing of tent encampments unless the authorities responsible arrange alternate accommodations.
At the moment, game set and match would seem to favour California, which has at least an actual legal commitment to the people who are homeless. Meanwhile Canada so far seems to have grabbed itself a big bag of human rights hot air to stuff inside a self-congratulatory Human Rights Museum.
Read more at The CBC:1 City staff urge Toronto to close up to 5 temporary homeless shelters this year
Footnotes
- Update: Toronto City Council cleared the way to close up to five temporary homeless shelters on April 6, 2022: COVID-19 Shelter Transition and Relocation Plan Update
