Subscribe to our RSS feed
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on TwitterThis Saturday, be sure to join Iler Campbell LLP lawyers at CHF Canada’s 2017 London Fall Education Event. Celia Chandler, who spoke at least year’s event on human rights, is joined this year by her colleague, Safia Lakhani. Safia’s a litigator with the firm and together they will talk about how a co‑op can use Small Claims Court to its advantage. They both look forward to reconnecting with clients and housing co‑op friends and to meeting lots of new ones.
Iler Campbell at CHF Canada London Fall Education Event this weekend
October 25th, 2017 by Iler CampbellLessons for housing providers from the 2017 National Conference on LGBTTQIA2S Lives
October 3rd, 2017 by Elliot FonarevMontréal Pride (Fierté Montréal) hosted the 2017 National Conference on LGBTTQIA2S Lives in August. I had the privilege of attending as a student bursary recipient. The acronym, “LGBTTQIA2S” stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, intersex, asexual, and two-spirited – in this blog I also use the term “sexual and gender minorities” to refer to members of this community.
The conference brought together community and cultural partners, university researchers, and government representatives for a discussion of the important issues facing sexual and gender minorities across Canada today. The workshops highlighted how different civil society groups, academics, businesses, and governments have approached civil and human rights, health and family rights, social and cultural issues, employment and workplace inclusion, migrant and refugee issues, and international issues and movements. The topics focused on different realities and identities within the LGBTTQIA2S umbrella, raising a broad range of issues affecting different people in the community. The overall theme that emerged from discussions was that although there have been many recent gains with respect to legal recognition and formal protections of sexual and gender minorities in Canada, many members of the LGBTTQIA2S communities continue to experience high levels of insecurity and marginalization and remain vulnerable in every sector of life.
One community in particular should be of interest to our clients who house and employ individuals from the LGBTTQIA2S communities: migrants and asylum seekers who are sexual and gender minorities. One panel featured settlement workers who work exclusively with sexual and gender minorities in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, spoke of the difficulty that many of these individuals, particularly transgender migrants, experience in finding housing. These individuals are at risk of encountering multiple kinds of discrimination due to the intersection of their status as migrants and sexual or gender minorities, and often race or ethnicity. Many sexual and gender minorities who are not migrants and live in social housing communities also report feeling unwelcome and unsafe due to their sexual orientation or gender as well as other intersecting identities.
Protecting housing and human rights without limiting options
September 28th, 2017 by Michael HacklThis article was first published on rabble.ca
Canada has been facing a housing crisis for a number of years now, with rising costs affecting both homeowners and tenants. According to the Canadian Rental Housing Index, renters in Canada are spending an average of 22 per cent of their before-tax income on rent and utilities. Further, this index reported that 40 per cent of renter households were spending more than 30 per cent of their before-tax income on rent and utilities, and a staggering 19 per cent were spending over 50 per cent of their before-tax income on rent and utilities. Keep in mind that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) defines affordable housing as housing that costs less than 30 per cent of before-tax household income. This means that almost half of renter households in Canada are not in affordable housing, and one in five homes are spending over half of their before-tax income just to have a roof over their heads.
Imagine then, the relief that a family in Vancouver must have felt on being told that they had reached the top of a waiting list for a two-bedroom apartment that would have resulted in a significant reduction in their housing costs if they had been offered the unit. Unfortunately for them, the housing provider did not offer them the unit. At the time that the family was told that they were first on the waiting list, the family consisted of two parents and a two-year-old son, but the mother was seven months pregnant (and has since given birth to a baby girl). According to a voicemail left by a representative of the housing provider, they could not offer the family the unit because they did not know the sex of their then unborn child. For its part, the housing provider has said that the family was not being considered for the unit in any event, but the family feels they were passed over for this apartment because they have two young children of different sexes and the housing provider was unwilling to offer them a unit where those two children would share a bedroom.
Continue reading “Protecting housing and human rights without limiting options”
Iler Campbell at the CHFT Fall 2017 Education Event
September 27th, 2017 by Iler CampbellIler Campbell is proud to be a Gold Sponsor of On Co-op’s 2017 Provincial Co-op Conference
September 12th, 2017 by Iler Campbell
We’re on the road – again! Co-op managers: join us for a human rights workshop
September 12th, 2017 by Iler CampbellOn Friday, October 13, 2017, we will host our first IC Education event in Peel Region. This event for co‑op managers is co‑sponsored by our friends at Peel‑Halton Co‑operative Housing Federation.
If you are grappling with human rights issues at the co‑op you manage, this may be the event for you. We’re going to talk about how to distinguish a human right from a personal preference and how far the housing provider’s duty to accommodate extends and what the Rouge Valley decision from the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario means for co‑ops.
And we’d love to see you there! We have a few spaces left. To register, click here.
|
Older Entries |
