The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing is raising the alarm about a letter from 13 Ontario Mayors, including Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens and Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff, calling on the province to use the Notwithstanding Clause, if necessary, to help them dismantle homelessness encampments.
Leilani Farha calls the letter "alarming" and suggests mayors are trying to "disappear homeless people."
The mayors wrote Premier Doug Ford a letter calling for action also to force those suffering mental illness and addiction challenges into treatment.
An Ontario Superior Court ruled in January 2023 that if the municipality in question doesn't have room in its shelter system for those living in encampments, the removal of encampments was a violation of their right to life, liberty and security.
In Windsor, a recent report to city councillors found capacity at the city's homeless shelters was 96 to 98 per cent.
"The provincial government is requested to become an intervenor on any court case that restricts the ability of municipalities to regulate and prohibit encampments, advocating for the principal endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court (City of Grant Pass, Oregon) that courts should not be dictating homelessness policy," said the letter to Doug Ford.
That ruling, made earlier this year, said it was not cruel and unusual punishment for municipalities to enact civil and criminal penalties for camping on public property.
However, Farha argues an American ruling has no bearing on Canada.
"The Grants Pass is a SCOTUS decision and is irrelevant to Canada -- a decision made by Trump-appointed judges," she wrote on X. "I've been to encampments across the United States. I've met with mayors and city counselors (sp) across the United States. I've never seen such cruelty toward homeless people as I saw there. Is this the direction this country wants to move in?"
The letter also makes a series of asks of the provincial government, including "strengthening the existing system of mandatory community-based and residential mental health care, and to expand service to treat those who have severe and debilitating addictions" and "implement a Drug and Diversion Court system throughout the entire province." The mayors want the province to ensure the emphasis of the new court system is on rehabilitation and not incarceration. They also ask the province to amend the Trespass to Property Act to include a provision for those who repeatedly trespass on municipal property.
The letter also prompted Toronto-based community worker Diana Chana McNally to launch a petition on Change.org opposing the measures.
"13 mayors have drafted a letter to Doug Ford asking the Premier to use the Charter's notwithstanding clause to bypass the court system and allow them to evict encampments even when there is nowhere else for people to go," she wrote. "Nothing about this would solve homelessness. Only providing solutions like permanent, affordable housing, as well as more decent shelter beds and more voluntary treatment and crisis beds, can help."
Mayors in Barrie, Brampton, Brantford, Cambridge, Clarington, Guelph, Oakville, Oshawa, Pickering, St. Catherines, and Sudbury also signed the letter.