Please note that our office will be closed from Tuesday, December 24, 2024 to Wednesday, January 01, 2025 for the Christmas Holiday season.
We will be happy to assist you when our office reopens on Thursday, January 2, 2025 at 8:30am.
January 21, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hamilton Community Legal Clinic’s Response to Councillor Nann’s Motion Re: Encampment Response
Hamilton Community Legal Clinic welcomes Council’s vote to change the way it responds to encampments. Specifically, the City has agreed to consult with community stakeholders, including front line services working with the unhoused population, those with lived experience, and the health sector, to create a “human rights based, health focused approach to housing”. A copy of the motion can be reviewed by clicking here.
We have always encouraged this type of collaboration and person-centred approach.
Tackling the issue of homelessness and some of its root causes can seem like a monumental undertaking. There are, however, immediate alternatives to encampments evictions which do not require significant funding changes: revising and unifying shelter service restriction policies so that fewer people are unnecessarily banned from shelters, temporarily suspending by-law enforcement, and allocating existing emergency funds to affordable housing projects like tiny cabins (which have already been established in various municipalities).
We are pleased to see the City signal a willingness to engage in an open dialogue on an incredibly important matter. We encourage the City of Hamilton to prioritize these discussions and resolution in light of the urgency of the ongoing pandemic, shelter and housing crisis.
We are hopeful that the newly formed committee results in solutions that address and eradicate the harms associated with homelessness and evicting encampment residents.
For a copy of this letter, please click here: Statement
Clare has worked in the non-profit sector for approximately 19 years as an Executive Director. She has extensive experience in leadership, strategy, public relations, advocacy, and management. She has served on many local, provincial, and national boards and committees, and is deeply committed to giving back to her community through her engagement with numerous social justice initiatives.
Since 2015, Clare has served as the CEO of Dr. Bob Kemp Hospice and bereavement services. Additionally, her past roles include Executive Director, Interval House of Hamilton; Counselling Coordinator, Sexual Assault Centre of Brant; and Continuing Education Professor of the Child and Youth Program, Mohawk College. She obtained her Bachelor of Sociology from the University of Western, as well as her Master of Social Work from York University.
Clare is a passionate and rights-based social justice advocate, and embodies the principles and values that the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic stands for. She will brings a wealth of experience from the organizations she has worked for in the past that will be of benefit to the Hamilton community.
We would like to congratulate Clare on her new role and look forward to continuing to fight for access to justice under her leadership.
We also extend our deepest gratitude to Hugh Tye for his exceptional leadership as our Executive Director over the past 26 years.
The Board of Directors
Hamilton Community Legal Clinic
The City of Hamilton’s sudden decision to end the Encampment Protocol is a misguided attack on people who are already struggling to survive without adequate shelter, food, medical care, bathrooms, and potable water and without protection from the elements and threat of violence. The decision was seemingly made without meaningful consultation with encampment residents and community advocates, and fails to recognize the continuing housing and shelter crisis in Hamilton.
In the spring of 2020, Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and Ross & McBride worked with community partners to preserve people’s right to stay in encampments. This was in response to a lack of shelter and affordable permanent housing options, and the health and safety risks associated with ongoing displacement, particularly during a global pandemic. We obtained an injunction to prevent the City from forcing people to leave their tents. The injunction remained in place for approximately two months. Significant objectives were accomplished during this time: outreach agencies were able to facilitate access to healthcare and basic needs and connect individuals with much needed supports, and the risk of Covid infection and transmission was reduced.
In the fall of 2020, a settlement was reached. The settlement created an Encampment Task Force and a people-centred Encampment Protocol. The Protocol was a reasonable middle ground approach which recognized that adequate, secure affordable housing for the population must be an end goal, but forcibly removing people from their encampment without adequate shelter and housing options is harmful. The Protocol itself was informed by “A National Protocol for Homeless Encampments in Canada” authored by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Charter protected rights and human rights.
Under the Protocol, the City was required to assess the individual needs of encamped persons, which could result in their ability to remain encamped indefinitely. It also required the City to come up with individualized housing plans, and take a person-centred approach to avoid unnecessary trauma. Hamilton Police Services have been supportive in the application of this Protocol, effectively using it as a means to ensure that individual rights were engaged prior to any enforcement measures were taken by the City.
Despite the Protocol, many encampment residents continue to remain without housing, signalling the root of this problem: a lack of adequate affordable housing, long term health care supports, and safe shelter spaces. None of these fundamental root causes of homelessness are being appropriately addressed, which simply leaves unhoused residents to bear the brunt. City Council’s decision to re-enact By-laws to evict these residents will not lead to a reduction in encampments. At best, it may lead to their reduced visibility as people try to go further off-grid, and deepen the isolation of unhoused persons.
We are mindful of the brutal eviction tactics used by the City of Toronto against encampment residents. We take the position that dismantling and evicting encampment residents is an act of violence. De-escalation and acknowledgment that our community lacks the resources to resolve the encampment concerns should be the starting point for discussion. While we acknowledge that living in encampments is not a long time viable solution, the violent act of evicting and displacing residents without adequate shelter options is a violation of the right to the security of the person, equality rights and the human right to housing.
Our community at large has shown itself to be largely compassionate towards unhoused persons living in tents. The City of Hamilton has a duty to this population, along with other constituents. We call on the City to do the right thing: stop dismantling encampments and sit down with community stakeholders to come up with a new strategy that respects the human rights and dignity of the encampment residents.
Hate against Asian communities is not a new issue globally, in Canada and more specifically in Hamilton. Anti-Asian racism can be traced back to the foundation of Canada from the early discriminatory treatment of Chinese railroad workers, the 1942 internment of Japanese Canadians, efforts to curb Indian immigration and many more… Since the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a surge in blatant threats, intimidation and assaults against Asians.
The fatal shooting in Atlanta on March 19,th 2021 that left eight dead, six of them being Asian women who worked in spas, is a devastating outcome. We send our heart-filled condolences to friends and family members of Delaina Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim and Yong Ae Yue. Advancing Justice-Atlanta said in a statement: “The shootings happened under the trauma of increasing violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fuelled by white supremacy and systemic racism.”
In Canada, Anti-Asian hate has also been on the rise. Sources that track these incidents have reported 959 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes across Canada during the pandemic. In Vancouver, there was a 717 per cent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes from 2019 to 2020. And this is not solely a “West coast issue”. Sadly, these incidents also happen within the Hamilton area, although often underreported. This serves as a reminder of the work that is needed to make Hamilton a truly more inclusive city, free of hate. We need to work together to stand up against all forms of discrimination. To do so, we must actively listen to members of this community, learn and take action to fight against hate.
We at NHH want the Asian community to know that we stand with you now and always.
Below is a link with resources and steps that can be taken to fight against Anti-Asian racism in Canada:
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2021/03/10377626/asian-american-canadian-racism-how-to-help-actions
The survivors who have recently come forward to expose their unjust and violent workplaces have done so in the face of potential personal, social and economic peril. It is a huge burden to take these risks and this is absolutely compounded by the precariousness of employment, income, supports and services in the pandemic. These harrowing experiences alert us to how commonplace sexual violence truly is, not just in specific industries, but in our broader culture.
Sexual violence is endemic in our society and yet only 5-8% of these cases are formally reported to police. (1) There are numerous factors that survivors have to weigh when deciding whether to report their experience(s). For instance, navigating the routes to justice while centering their own healing. This is a personal process, is rarely linear and is often complicated by intersecting factors in the survivor’s life (i.e. age, gender, race, sexual orientation, access to resources, job precarity, etc).
In our society, survivors are often not taken seriously, are blamed for the incident(s), or are shamed based on the assumption that they have something to gain from these accusations. Yet, especially in the tight-knit restaurant industry, the threat of being blacklisted and ending up jobless is very real. Sexual violence is expressed often in highly differential power relationships — employee/employer, student/teacher, staffer/politician. This power imbalance translates into who our society chooses to believe, further entrenching the powerlessness of survivors.
We know that the barriers to legal justice in these sexual violence cases are staggering. Police reports are central to the legal process but many communities do not trust police, plus the police have been known to perpetuate the most damaging assumptions about survivors. The criminal justice system then places the burden of proof on the victims, and the trial process can sometimes re-victimize and re-traumatize survivors. It can feel futile when less than 1% (2) of sexual assaults lead to offenders receiving convictions. Even if convicted, the sentencing can be insulting to victims.
Both our legal system and our community are failing survivors which is why many choose to never report their assaults.
To the survivors directly: at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic we believe you. We say this to upend the cultural norm of doubting victims of sexual assault. We say this with the explicit intention of making space for all survivors to come forward to speak their truth and be heard. This does not mean that allegations should not be investigated. Of course they should. But we know that just because an assault does not produce a conviction, it does not mean that it didn’t happen or was exaggerated or fabricated. You and your experiences are worthy of our collective attention and concern. You are highlighting issues that many people would rather not see. We are inspired by your bravery to challenge the broader social systems and structures that make these cultures possible.
Although HCLC’s mandate does not allow us to practice in sexual violence matters, we do provide services in employment law and WSIB and are available to connect you with other community legal services. While this is not the right option for everybody, we hope this legal information will help you make an informed decision for yourself.
If you are seeking support or you would like to learn more about the #WeBelieveSurvivors movement, we encourage you to contact the Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area (SACHA) at 905-525-4162 [support line], 905-525-4573 [office line], or for more information visit www.sacha.ca.
#WeBelieveSurvivors!
We stand in solidarity with victims of hate in Hamilton and call for a thorough investigation into the alarming voicemail messages recently left for the office staff of Ward 3, home to the city’s only racialized councillor. We stand in solidarity with Councillor Nann and the Ward 3 staff.
The timing of these calls highlights how hatred, intolerance and exclusion already present in our community may be triggered by influences south of the border. In the days following insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the malicious caller issued violent and threatening messages toward Black people and cited contacts with far-right and white-nationalist groups. These disturbing calls follow on the surge in local hate incidences after the inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. President in January 2017.
We must acknowledge our society’s own complicity in allowing hate to grow and work to keep it at bay. Hamilton has among the highest rates of hate crimes and hate incidences in the country, and this should compel us to examine the structures and practices that have allowed for this dubious distinction. It also points to the need for loud and unequivocal checking of hate manifestations as they occur.
We echo Cllr Nann’s commitment to “report the act of hate, speak about it and act with an even deeper commitment to democracy, accountability and justice.”
As Hamilton celebrated Lincoln Alexander yesterday, “a man who rose above existing prejudices and racism to help shape the diverse and inclusive country that we live in today” (quote from Hamilton Police Service statement), we urge HPS to fully investigate these incidences of hate, including any ties with far-right and white-nationalist groups involved, and to set a high bar for addressing it.
We also call on Mayor Fred Eisenberger and every member of City Council to denounce these incidents and to respond to them with the full power of their offices.
No Hate in the Hammer is the Hamilton coalition of individuals and organizations working together to make Hamilton a truly inclusive city where everyone is free from all forms of hate.
We stand in solidarity with Shaar Hashomayim and members of the Jewish community in denouncing the vile anti-Semitic vandalism against a place of worship.
No Hate in the Hammer, the Hamilton Ontario coalition of individuals and organizations working together to make Hamilton a truly inclusive city where everyone is free from all forms of hate , learned with shock and sadness of the hateful anti-Semitic vandalism and attempted arson at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, one of Montréal’s largest synagogues. Four giant swastikas were spray-painted on the entrance doors of the synagogue by a man who was also carrying a large gasoline canister. The desecration of a place of worship with an abhorrent symbol of hate must be condemned.
We stand in solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in Montréal, Hamilton and elsewhere, and unequivocally condemn this despicable act of hatred. We are strongly committed to a Canada which is safe and welcoming to all. There is no place in our society for hate based on religion or ethnicity.
Sadly, we remember that Hamilton synagogues, too, as well as houses of worship of other religions, have suffered similar acts of desecration in the past few years. We are pained when we think how members of those synagogues who now call Canada home might come there to pray, only to see the same symbols that in their youth were worn by those who brutally murdered their loved ones. This must stop.
One of the founding board members of No Hate in the Hammer, Rabbi Hillel Lavery-Yisraëli, noted the irony in painting swastikas on the doors of the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue. “In Hebrew, ‘Shaar Hashomayim’ means ‘the gate of Heaven.’ There is much that we don’t know about what awaits us in the afterlife, but I think we all know that any Heaven worth going to does not have a white-supremacist entrance policy.”
Eli Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate said: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
We call upon our leaders and friends and ask that we all do everything we can to root out hate from our midst, once and for all. We cannot afford to remain silent.
In sadness, solidarity, and hope,
No Hate in the Hammer.
We are in the midst of the worst affordable housing crisis in the country’s history. Wages and social assistance rates are too low. Rent is too high. Here in Hamilton this pressure was becoming unbearable: 45% of Hamilton tenants were spending more than 30% of their income on rent, and 20% were spending more than 50%. In 2018, Hamilton saw the highest one-year average rent increase in all of Canada, at 24%.
The combination of a lack of rent control, increased profitability of the market and municipal “revitalization” policies has led to gentrification causing mass displacement of tenants; forcing thousands of people in Hamilton, living in precarity, to survive through the toughest times, and make every last dollar stretch for them and their families.
Landlords want to push long-term tenants out of the buildings so they can raise rents. HCLC supports apartment tenants to organize building committees which take up the concerns of all residents. Through the [Dis]placement Project and Tools for Tenants initiatives, HCLC provide(s)(d) training on housing law to tenants, tenant associations, community leaders, emerging community leaders, and service providers. These initiatives are partnerships between legal and community organizations designed to improve the capacity of frontline workers so they can provide basic legal information and referrals to their clients and to empower tenants to self-advocate thereby increasing access to justice and grassroots mobilization in response to the need for greater housing security.
HCLC zealously responds to the roots of systemic displacement by routinely advocating for policy reform at the municipal level. We successfully advocated for changes to some of the City of Hamilton’s development grant programs that unintentionally encouraged landlords to displace longstanding tenants. Additionally our advocacy resulted in the creation of the Tenant Defence Fund Pilot Project, a fund that tenants can access to cover the cost of hiring legal counsel to defend against applications for Above Guideline Rent Increases.
Unfortunately tenants have also been threatened by unlawful evictions by Hamilton Police Services (HPS), a service that does not have the authority to evict tenants protected by the Residential Tenancies Act. HCLC successfully represented two tenants in their claim of negligence causing damage for their unlawful eviction by HPS. Their settlements included financial compensation for their personal damages and require the HPS to amend their operational manual to better reflect housing law, reinforcing that they do not have the authority to evict tenants covered by the Residential Tenancies Act.
We are excited to welcome you to our new HCLC website. This is an important part of our 10th Anniversary celebrations. We want you to better understand our values, our work, and how to access our services. We also want to constantly improve our services and communications.
Our mission is to advocate for social change. We do this by providing legal advice and representation to individuals. We also do it through systemic activities in collaboration with community—public legal education, community organizing, and law reform. We want to work with you to improve the quality of life for all.
We approach everything we do using an Anti-Racism Anti-Oppression framework. We are committed to advocating for structural change at all levels of society to end inequities, power imbalances, and entrenched dominance.
Each week for the next few months we will highlight an area of our practice or a community initiative. These brief profiles will illustrate the scope of our work and our commitment to the community.
Thank you for joining us virtually to celebrate 10 Years of Inclusive Justice. We look forward to gathering together in person as soon as it is safe.
— Board and Staff of Hamilton Community Legal Clinic
We ask that organizations including all levels of government ensure that vulnerable community members are part of the planning process to keep communities safe. It is critical that pandemic planning and the actions generated are equitable and uphold fundamental human rights. Specifically, it is essential that the City of Hamilton and the provincial government follow the principles set out in the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s “Policy Statement on a human-rights approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic” to ensure that everyone’s human rights are protected. Without these considerations, low income, racialized, Black, and First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities and persons with disabilities will be disproportionately impacted. We also remind all officials that this is a crisis best addressed from a public health approach.
The Province continues to stress the importance of staying at home. It is imperative to recognize that not everyone has a home to go to. Individuals, especially those who are homeless, must not be penalized because of their economic circumstances. We are urging the City to immediately divert all available resources to existing efforts in securing facilities like stadiums, hotels, and dorms so that people can participate in the collective goal to slow transmission. This is the most effective and just way to flatten the curve and we call on all levels of government and private/public sector partners to come together to make it happen.
