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 […]

On January 5, 2021, the Canada border Services Agency publicized that they would be drastically increasing the so-called fees charged to those deported from the country.  Anyone deported would owe $3,250, regardless of how far they are actually travelling. Those who were escorted out of the country would be charged a blink-worthy $10,900.  Those who were detained in immigration detention would be charged $1,300.  Currently, Canada charges $750 for those deported to the United States and St. Pierre and Miquelon […]

Santina Rao finally had her charges of assault of a peace officer, resisting arrest and causing a disturbance dropped on July 7, 2020. Finally. This happened six months after she was racially profiled by Walmart security, falsely accused of shoplifting, then violently arrested by Halifax Regional Police after they interrogated her for her identification and other information, all in front of her two young children.

Tens of thousands of people have hit the streets across the county in response to the horrific choking death of George Floyd by the knee of Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin, Toronto police involvement in the death of Black-Indigenous woman Regis Korchinski and so many other racialized people who have been the victim of disproportionate killing by police.  There is a strong push for systemic change and calls to defund and disarm the police and to give the money to […]

The impending end to the provincial moratorium on residential evictions of those with incomes affected by COVID-19 is coming on June 30, placing many tenants on the edge.  More broadly, all residential evictions during the pandemic are problematic as everyone needs a place to “stay the blazes home”.  Any evictions at this time should be considered forced evictions, and violations of the right to housing under international law pursuant to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), […]

Public parks are essential public spaces.  In ordinary times, they are places where people gather, play with kids, walk and play with dogs, play games with friends and strangers in the community, run, bike and express themselves.  They are crucial spaces for community cohesion.  But these are not ordinary times.  People cannot gather in groups of more than five, and cannot come closer than two metres to each other.  Some people are not allowed out at all due to self-isolation […]

Before COVID, there was already an affordable housing crisis, poor wages relative to the costs of living and multitudes of working people with no savings and a single paycheque or less from living on the streets.  Government supports during the pandemic fall far short and without action, there will be major crisis of housing insecurity and homelessness. Housing is not currently a right protected under any provincial or national law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  What the […]

On the morning of February 19, 2020, Santina Rao will be in the Halifax provincial court for charges arising out of her arrest at Walmart on January 15, 2020, which many – including me – see as the result of racial profiling.  The proceedings continue despite public pressure on the Crown to drop the charges, including a petition signed by approximately 6,000 at last count. What happened to Rao case raises a number of issues, including human rights, culpability of […]