Sleeping Rough and Shooting Up. Taking British Columbia's Urban Justice Issues to Court

• Author: Margot Young
• Profession: Professor
• Pages: 413-441

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chapter 14

SLEEPING ROUGH AND SHOOTING UP

TAKING BRITISH COLUMBIA’S URBAN

JUSTICE ISSUES TO COURT*

MarGot younG†

A. INTRODUCTION

Canada sits in a dif‌ferent spot than thirty years ago when the Canadian

Charter of Rights and Freedoms1was proclaimed amid grand hopes for a so-

ciety marked by the key liberal values enshrined in that document. Today,

Canadians are no longer a people with appropriate conf‌idence in a “kind-

er, gentler” national soul. Poverty is more than ever a critical issue,2 high-

lighting desperation and deprivation surrounded by privilege and excess.3

* Thank s are due to Kenda Shupe, Ted Murray, Brad Por, Kate Mul herin, and Alexa nder

Makof‌f for resea rch assistance. M artha Jackma n and Bruce Porter proved patient ed i-

tors. Funding a ssistance was prov ided by SSHRC and by the UBC Peter Wall S olutions

Initiative.

† Professor, Facu lty of Law, University of British C olumbia and Research Pa rtner in

the SSHRC-CUR A Project, “Reconceiv ing Human Right s Practice,” online:

www.socialrightscura.ca.

1 Part I of the Const itution Act, 1982, being Sche dule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982 ,

c 11 [Charter].

2 In 2010, three million p eople, about 9 percent of Canadi ans, were below the afte r-tax

Low Income Cut-Of‌f — Can ada’s unocial low income measu rement. Included in

this f‌igu re are 546,000 childr en. Statistics Ca nada, “Incomes of Can adians, 2010” at 1,

online: The Da ily www.statca n.gc.ca.

3 For example, food secur ity is a real issue ac ross Canada, and p articularly for I ndige-

nous peoples. The Un ited Nations Special R apporteur on the Right to Fo od made the

following sta tement in May 2012: “A growing number of pe ople across Canada rem ain

unable to meet thei r basic food needs. In 200 7/2008, approximately 7.7 per cent of

414► margot young

Homelessness has emerged as a seemingly intractable urban blight.4 Our

nation ranks as one of the more unequal among Western countries.5 This

inequality grows and the chasm between the “haves” and the “have-nots”

yawns, increasingly evident in indicators of social dysfunction, injustice,

and anomie.6 The triumph of neo-liberalism, and its attendant vision of

the sturdy, calculating individual, ground many of these developments.

Theorists chart both the “hollowing out” and, then, the “f‌illing in” of the

State as part of neo-libera l policies.7 The role of government is both reduced

and expanded to serve the “rationa l, entrepreneurial, economic individua l.”8

The idea of “social” citizenship is eviscerated: social issues are viewed as

essentially economic problems, and the economic order reaches to include

all human activities within its logic. The State is no longer of‌fered by our

political elite as a resource for socia l justice and a facilitator of substantive

equality and freedoms. The citizen stands alone, free to succeed or fail on

his own.

households in Ca nada reported exper iencing moderate or severe food in security.

Approximately 1.92 m illion people in Cana da, aged 12 or older, lived in food in secure

households in 2007/2008 a nd a staggering 1 in 10 f amilies, 10.8 per cent , with at least

one child under the a ge of six were food insecure du ring the same per iod.” Olivier

De Schutter, Specia l Rapporteur on the R ight to Food, “Visit to Ca nada from 6 to 16

May 2012 — End-of-Mission St atement,” online: Oce of the High Com missioner for

Human Rights w ww.ohchr.org.

4 A 2007 report issued by t he then United Nations Specia l Rapporteur on Adequ ate

Housing, Milo on Kothari, state d, “The Special R apporteur remain s concerned about

the signif‌ic ant number of homeless in al l parts of the countr y . . . . It has been stated

that the wides pread and rapid growth of homele ssness in Canada s ince the mid-

1990s is unprecedente d since World War II.” Human Rights Cou ncil, Promotion and

Protection of all Human Rights, Civ il, Political, Economic, Social an d Cultural Rights,

Including the Right to Developme nt: Report of the Special Rapport eur on Adequate

Housing a s a Component of the Right to an Adequate St andard of Living, and on the Right

to Non-discriminat ion in This Context, Miloon Kothar i, UNGAOR, 10th sess, UN Doc A /

HRC/10/7/Add.3, (2009) at paras 53– 54.

5 Armine Yalniz yan, The Rise of Canada’s Riches t 1% (Ottawa: Canad ian Centre for

Policy Altern atives, 2010), online: Cana dian Centre for Policy A lternatives

www.policya lternatives.ca; “C anadian Income Ine quality: Is Can ada Becoming More

Unequal?,” online: Con ference Board of Canada w ww.conferenceboard.ca .

6 See, for example, R ichard G Wilkin son & Kate Pickett, The Sp irit Level: Why More

Equal Societies Alm ost Always Do Better (London: Al len Lane, 2009).

7 Luke Des forges, Rhys Jones, & Mike Woods , “New Geographies of Citiz enship” (2005)

9:5 Citizenship St udies 439 at 440.

8 Leslie Kern , Sex and the Revitalized City: Gen der, Condominium Development, and Urban

Citizenship (Vancouver: UBC Pr ess, 2010) at 6.