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To: Mayor and Council of CITY NAME
Toronto Mayor and Council: Reject Ford’s crackdown on the houseless community: Olivia Chow
Toronto mayor and council, reject Ford’s crackdown on the houseless community.
Why is this important?
Premier Doug Ford has tabled draconian and cruel legislation that will further criminalize people for not having a home — and he is ready to override the courts to make it happen.
This bill will give cities more power to increase policing and forcibly dismantle encampments — when people have nowhere else to go. This is being introduced as winter sets in, a time when houseless folks face the additional threat of freezing to death.
Community advocates and experts have come out against it: this legislation doesn't get to the root of the issue — it will just land more people in jails, cost millions of dollars and spread encampments to new places.
Further, it terrorises people who face regular trespasses to their safety from police and state agencies. Raiding and clearing encampments leads to some of the most vulnerable people in our society being physically assaulted, arrested, and having their only belongings destroyed or confiscated. Clearing encampments criminalises what is for many their only means of survival.
Ford would also have to violate Canadians’ human rights to enforce this legislation by overriding the courts with the notwithstanding clause. This would override a decision in January 2023 by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. According to the CBC: “Justice M.J. Valente ruled that Waterloo Region could not use a municipal bylaw to evict people living in an encampment in Kitchener because that bylaw was deemed to be in violation of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Already some cities have started to speak out against it. If more cities reject Ford’s brutal legislation and demand Ford provide real solutions to the housing crisis, it could force Ford to back down.
A wave of local campaigns calling on local mayors and city councils to come out against Ford's draconian legislation could help tip the scale. Sign the petition to your city’s mayor and council demanding they reject Ford’s crackdown on the houseless community.
This bill will give cities more power to increase policing and forcibly dismantle encampments — when people have nowhere else to go. This is being introduced as winter sets in, a time when houseless folks face the additional threat of freezing to death.
Community advocates and experts have come out against it: this legislation doesn't get to the root of the issue — it will just land more people in jails, cost millions of dollars and spread encampments to new places.
Further, it terrorises people who face regular trespasses to their safety from police and state agencies. Raiding and clearing encampments leads to some of the most vulnerable people in our society being physically assaulted, arrested, and having their only belongings destroyed or confiscated. Clearing encampments criminalises what is for many their only means of survival.
Ford would also have to violate Canadians’ human rights to enforce this legislation by overriding the courts with the notwithstanding clause. This would override a decision in January 2023 by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. According to the CBC: “Justice M.J. Valente ruled that Waterloo Region could not use a municipal bylaw to evict people living in an encampment in Kitchener because that bylaw was deemed to be in violation of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Already some cities have started to speak out against it. If more cities reject Ford’s brutal legislation and demand Ford provide real solutions to the housing crisis, it could force Ford to back down.
A wave of local campaigns calling on local mayors and city councils to come out against Ford's draconian legislation could help tip the scale. Sign the petition to your city’s mayor and council demanding they reject Ford’s crackdown on the houseless community.