On June 8, 2022, the Vancouver City Council voted on a historic motion calling on the government of British Columbia to end its immigration detention contract with the Canada Border Services Agency and stop incarcerating immigration detainees in provincial jails. See video

On May 4, 2022 the Hon. Judge Perry Borden rendered a decision for my client in the Nova Scotia Provincial Court. He was arrested for breaching probation and an undertaking, both for contravening a “no contact” condition. How the police made the stop, just assuming he was “the Black person” they were looking for based on very little information — which could have resulted in any Black person being stopped — was the problem, leading to a finding of Charter […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 21, 2022 Each and every person across Turtle Island, regardless of circumstance, deserves safety, dignity, and respect, none of which were shown by HRM or their police on August 18, 2021 during the violent eviction of encampments and unlawful arrests of those expressing opposition to the eviction. “No one should face prosecutions and the risk of convictions for criminal offences that are based on unlawful state and police actions,” said Asaf Rashid, lawyer representing 8 individuals […]

Halifax chose to keep housing service providers and supporters in the dark about their planned eviction of homeless encampments, creating a false dichotomy of security versus ensuring housing needs were met. By doing this, they clearly violated the right to adequate housing as it relates to homeless encampments in Canada, as covered in the National Protocol on Homeless Encampments in Canada. I will elaborate on this below. News this past week revealed that the office of Halifax’s Chief Administrative Officer, […]

Petition · Demand a full & independent investigation into Halifax Police actions on August 18th, 2021 · Change.org Here’s the full petition (go to the link above to support): The actions of the Halifax Regional Police in the mass evictions that occurred on August 18, 2021 reflect longstanding and systemic issues with policing in HRM, including the Municipality’s reliance on police to address complex social needs; excessive force by police; and the militarization of the police. Some of the policing […]

I learned of the recent, and sudden passing of Robert Devet last night.  I only spoke to him on a few occasions, including interviews, but I heard about his work for years. Robert was a tireless fighter for social change. He was the founder of the Nova Scotia Advocate, which is media through which, in the words of Robert,  “we write about poverty, housing and gentrification, workers and bosses, City Hall, the environment, racism, homophobia and misogyny, refugees, people living […]

From: Wayne MacKay, Vince Calderhead, Claire McNeil, Katrin MacPhee, Mark Culligan, Mitch Broughton, Andrea MacNevin, Asaf Rashid Human rights lawyers and advocates, Halifax, Nova Scotia We are writing this open letter in the wake of the City’s forced eviction and clearance of the encampments of a large number of people who are homeless and, more recently, the Halifax City Council’s decision to suspend the police response to the lack of affordable housing in this City. At the same time, the […]

Dear Hon Iain Rankin,   As the lockdown comes into place, it is essential that everyone has a place to stay.  This necessitates another moratorium on evictions. It is unsafe and against the interests of protecting public health to have anyone be rendered homeless during the heightened state of emergency as of the most recent public health order: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/docs/health-protection-act-order-by-the-medical-officer-of-health.pdf.   Furthermore, failure to put in place a moratorium against evictions at this time should be seen as a violation of […]