NOVEMBER 24, 2021 - Coming In from the Cold: Canada's National Housing Strategy, Homelessness, and the Right to Housing in a Transnational Perspective

Nov 24, 2021 — All day

The Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) is pleased to present this online event:

Coming In from the Cold: Canada’s National Housing Strategy, Homelessness and the Right to Housing in a Transnational Perspective

Canada’s National Housing Strategy (NHS) commits the government to reducing homelessness by fifty percent and promises that realizing the right to housing is a key objective. During this event we will explore how the Canadian government could realize the right to housing in the context of reducing homelessness. We argue that it is helpful to look at how other jurisdictions with proven successes in reducing homelessness have achieved this goal. We examine Finland and Scotland’s approach because they offer certain similarities in how homelessness is addressed yet they also differ, most crucially in how they understand the right to housing. Both of these jurisdictions offer important lessons for Canada to draw on as it seeks to reduce chronic homelessness. Join us in this discussion with Postdoctoral Fellow David DesBaillets, Assistant Professor Sarah Hamill and Associate Professor David Wiseman.

Free and open to all

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About the Speakers

David DesBaillets, Ph.D., LLD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for 2020-21 and is at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) under the supervision of HRREC Academic Member Professor Darren O'Toole. His main area of research is housing rights in comparative constitutional law and Canadian human rights law. His postdoctoral research touches on the evolution and current development of the right to social housing in Canada for First Nations Peoples. The project aims to examine every legal, human rights, and policy aspect of the question with special emphasis on the legal situation of First Nations in Canada and the indigenous right to housing. The scope of this research includes jurisprudence, policies, and legal systems, internationally, domestically, and transnationally, relevant to the recognition of the right to adequate housing. He is also a published scholar in this area and his portfolio also includes writing and podcasting on topics related to his academic work for progressive media outlets such as Harbinger Media Network and Ricochet.

Sarah Hamill joined Trinity College Dublin in September 2017. She previously worked as a Lecturer at The City Law School, City, University of London, and prior to that she was the Catalyst Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada. She holds an LLB Honours from the University of Glasgow, an LLM from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Alberta. Professor Hamill's main areas of research are property law and legal history. She has published widely in both areas. Her research in property law focuses on the interaction of public and private claims in the context of property law. Current work includes an examination of easements of necessity, as well as socio-legal perspectives on property. Dr Hamill's legal history research has focused on the regulation of alcohol in early-twentieth-century Canada and explored how the province of Alberta sought to make its liquor laws effective.

The panel will be moderated by David Wiseman, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa. Professor Wiseman joined the Faculty in 2010 and teaches first year Property and Access to Justice and upper year courses in Trusts and Elder Law. His principal areas of research and activity are access to justice, social and economic human rights and the institutional competence of courts in Charter litigation.

The Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) is celebrating its 40^th anniversary during the academic year 2021-2022! This event is part of a diverse and rich programme developed to highlight this major milestone.
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