Alexandra Flynn, left, and Dr. Kaitlin Schwan join Lavern Kelly at this year’s Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue. (photos from Canadian Museum for Human Rights)
Housing is recognized as a human right in Canada – so why do 25,000+ people sleep on the street, in encampments or in shelters every night? How can we address issues of discrimination, affordability, inadequate housing, insufficient supply and homelessness? Join a Zoom discussion Nov. 29, at noon, with leaders who are breaking new ground to realize the right to housing across Canada.
Housing is a Human Right: New Actions to Solve Canada’s Ongoing Crisis is the topic of this year’s Annual Simces and Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights, which is offered in partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and Equitas: International Centre for Human Rights Education. It features three panelists.
Alexandra Flynn is an associate professor at Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. She is currently leading CMHC- and SSHRC-funded projects focused on Canada’s housing and homelessness crisis, including land-use practices and the financialization of housing. She is also working on projects related to human rights and tent encampments.
Dr. Kaitlin Schwan is executive director of the Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network and a senior researcher at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Her work focuses on homelessness prevention and human rights, particularly for women and youth. Previously, she was a senior researcher for the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing and director of research for the Shift.
Lavern Kelly, who runs the Youth Excelling & Attaining Housing (YEAH!) Parenting Program for Watari Counseling and Support Services, brings lived experience working with young people, especially single women and young mothers, in Vancouver’s East Side to advocate for their right to housing.
The dialogue will be moderated by Michael Redhead Champagne, a community leader from Winnipeg’s North End with family roots in Shamattawa First Nation. An author, on-screen personality and public speaker, Champagne is an activist and advocate working to eliminate poverty, end homelessness and increase supports for children, youth and families in pursuit of a more compassionate world.
Zena Simces and Dr. Simon Rabkin are working to enhance understanding and create ongoing dialogue on human rights issues in the Greater Vancouver community. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, in Winnipeg, is the first museum in the world solely dedicated to the evolution, celebration and future of human rights. Equitas is an international centre for human rights education.
To register for the Nov. 29 Simces and Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights, go to humanrights.ca/housing-human-right.
– Courtesy Simces & Rabkin Family Dialogue on Human Rights