North America’s growing rental housing housing crisis can be found expressed in its three major languages, English, Spanish and French. The third language, French, is prevalent in the province of Quebec.
Many French speakers are anything but shy in expressing their anxiety about the current housing situation. Indeed a national coalition of activist groups: The Popular Action Front in Urban Redevelopment (FRAPRU), has been demanding action from both Canadian and Quebec governments since 1978. FRAPRU’s priority has been, and still is, social housing
Americans tend to see Canadians as good-hearted but boring, the sort of people who might be depended upon to do ‘the right thing.’ Those who believe so clearly haven’t interacted with the Canadian government, which has many, many decades of cynical, evasive behaviours where it comes to protecting significant groups of its own citizens. Indeed, Canada participated actively with South Africa to help that country implement the ‘Apartheid’ system that mistreated the majority of its citizens1. Canada’s record, particularly where its Indigenous people are concerned, is well beyond atrocious.
The Province of Quebec is feeling the pinch of ‘financialization,’ along with the rest of the provinces and territories, resulting in a growing lack of affordable housing. FRAPRU is currently pointing strongly towards the duplicity of both country and Province.
Duplicity has recently been exemplified by the Federal embrace of The United Nations’ Right to Adequate Housing. Welcomed with open arms in Canada as a form of constitutional commitment, this largely phantom pledge has been fading further and further from view.
There is a famous French saying, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The more things change, the more they remain the same. Fulfilling that prophecy, government financial assistance programs remain heavily skewed towards helping to boost the middle class onto ‘the housing ownership ladder,’ leaving more and more citizens with low incomes both figuratively and unfortunately literally ‘out in the cold.’
For a glimpse of what’s happening in Province of Quebec, try news about October actions in the national capital Ottawa by FRAPRU: Protest for Social Housing in Ottawa: Federal Government Reminded of its Housing Rights Obligations
More recently (late November), here’s an article about about actions in the region of the the provincial capital, Quebec City. It’s in French, but all the major web browsers do a pretty darn good job of providing a one click translation from the menu bar: Le FRAPRU et ses membres de la ville de Québec se mobilisent pour revendiquer des logements sociaux
Footnotes
- Read about this in K:British Columbia an Untold Story: The Indian Act
