Resources on Poverty and Homelessness or Social Condition as Grounds of Discrimination

Resources

The following resources provide useful information and research into poverty, homelessness or social condition as prohibited grounds of poverty and homelessness.

International Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP)

The ICHRP is facilitating Penalising Poverty: A Platform-Network for collaborative research and advocacy to generate knowledge and policy advocacy to strengthen human rights-based responses to laws and practices that penalise people in poverty and propose policy alternatives. CURA community researcher, Bruce Porter, presented “Getting the Right(s) Framework: Rights to Housing, to Livelihood and Discrimination Against the Poor” at an expert workshop held by the ICHRP on the Penalisation of People Living in Poverty in Geneva on 17-18 March 2011.

Social Rights, Discrimination and the Right to Equal Citizenship

CURA community researcher, Bruce Porter, provides an overview of “Social Rights, Discrimination and the Right to Equal Citizenship” in his chapter "Claiming Adjudicative Space: Social Rights, Equality and Citizenship" in Margot Young et al, eds, Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship, and Legal Activism (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007) 77. Highlighted below are some of the key documents he references:

• Ekos Research Associates, Memorandum Concerning Child Poverty Focus Groups: Revised Conclusions (February 4, 1997). Secured through a Freedom of Information Request, this memorandum analyzes the results of focus groups on poverty. It concludes that “welfare recipients are seen in unremittingly negative terms by the economically secure”.

• People on Welfare for Equal Rights v. Constable Michael Spurr (1991) (Nova Scotia Police Review Board). Decision regarding a complaint filed by People on Welfare for Equal Rights against Constable Michael Spurr after he suggested that people on welfare are genetically inferior and should stop having children

Promoting Equality: A New Vision – Report of the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel

In 1999, the federal government announced the establishment of an independent panel chaired by Justice La Forest to review the Canadian Human Rights Act. Many CURA researchers and organizations were involved in the review through participating in the consultation process or developing research reports to inform the panel’s findings. One of the issues the panel was asked to address was whether social condition should be added as a prohibited ground of discrimination in the Act. The panel ultimately recommended that social condition be added to the prohibited grounds for discrimination and that government programs be created to deal with the inequalities created by poverty. Unfortunately, social condition was never added the to the list of prohibited grounds for discrimination. Despite this, CURA research continues to support individuals who are facing discrimination on the ground of the social condition of poverty.

Full Report

Excerpt on Consideration of Social Condition as a Prohibited Ground of Discrimination

See reseearch commissioned for the panel

• Lucie Lamarche, Social Condition as a Prohibited Ground of Discrimination in Human Rights Legislation: Review of the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms
  

See also R v Clarke, in which the defence made an application for an order granting the right to ask questions of prospective jury members as part of a challenge for cause. The following question was objected to by the Crown: “would your ability to judge the evidence in this case without bias, prejudice or partiality be affected by the fact that the people charged were participating in a demonstration on behalf of the homeless and the poor”. Based on expert evidence provided by CURA community researcher, Bruce Porter, the Court agreed to allow the question, finding that discriminatory attitudes about poor people are analogous to racial prejudice and constitute grounds for challenge for cause in jury selection.

Decision in R v Clarke (Ontario Superior Court, 2003)

Bruce Porter’s Affidavit

See also the cura research provided for Boulter v Nova Scotia Power Incorporation

In this case, CURA research supported the claim that s. 67(1) of Nova Scotia’s Public Utilities Act discriminated against people living in poverty therefore violating s. 15 of the Charter. Section 67(1) required the same power rates to be set for all consumers, which precluded a rate affordability program for low-income consumers. Evidence was presented that showed how low-income people were adversely affected by the uniform electricity rate, often forcing them to choose between shelter and food. The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal found that poverty was not an analogous ground under s. 15 of the Charter because it was not an “immutable characteristic”. The case was ultimately denied leave by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Supreme Court of Canada Application for Leave to Appeal

Bruce Porter’s Response to Information Requests from Attorney General: Outlines how discriminatory attitudes and prejudices against low-income people may be reflected in a policy of refusing to accommodate the unique circumstances of poor households.

Toussaint v. Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

A current case to address the issue of discrimination on the grounds of poverty or the “social condition of poverty” is the case of Toussaint v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration”. For an outline of research done for that case click here.

Further research on social condition or poverty as a ground of discrimination is the following:

Martha Jackman, “Constitutional Contact with the Disparities in the World: Poverty as a Prohibited Ground of Discrimination under the Canadian Charter and Human Rights Law” Review of Constitutional Studies Vol. 2 (1994) 76.

Wayne Mackay, Tina Piper and Natasha Kim, “Social Condition as a Prohibited Ground of Discrimination Under the Canadian Human Rights Act” Paper Prepared for the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel (1999), available at http://www.justice-canada.net/chra/en/socond2.html.

Charter Committee on Poverty Issues, Bringing Poverty into the Scope of Human Rights Protections in Canada Submission to the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Task Force (1999).

National Anti-Poverty Organization, Submissions to the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel (2000) at http://www.povnet.org/node/1121

Federated Anti-Poverty Groups of British Columbia Submissions on including social condition/poverty in Canadian Human Rights Act (December, 1999) at http://www.povnet.org/node/1122

See also:  FAPG Including Social Condition