Media Advisory - Advocates to Release Open Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau on the Right to Housing

WHO:

Michèle Biss, Canada Without Poverty

Stéphan Corriveau, Réseau québécois des OSBL d'habitation

Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing

Anita Khanna, Campaign 2000: End Child and Family Poverty in Canada

Jeff Morrison, Canadian Housing & Renewal Association

Alex Neve, Amnesty International Canada

Tim Richter, Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness 

WHAT:

Release of an open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, signed by over 150 organizations & prominent Canadians on legislating the right to housing.

WHERE:

Charles Lynch Room, Centre Block, Parliament Hill

WHEN:

AUGUST 14, 2018, 10 A.M. EST

WHY:

In November 2017 the federal government committed to a National Housing Strategy (NHS) that would be based in human rights.  For the first time ever, the federal government committed to implementing Canada's obligation under international human rights law, as described in the NHS, "to progressively implement the right of every Canadian to access adequate housing."  It promised to "affirm the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights."  The government is expected to introduce legislation on the National Housing Strategy this autumn.

Legislation implementing a rights-based national housing strategy provides an historic opportunity for the federal government to address, as a priority, a critical human rights issue at home and at the same time to provide leadership in human rights internationally.