Communities across Canada will be marking National Housing Day with events to promote and raise awareness on the right to housing. Join the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario on November 21, 2014 in Toronto for a National Housing Day Rally and Right to Housing Forum!

This event is FREE!

To register for the Forum: https://acto-right2housing-forum2014.eventbrite.ca

Rally and Forum Schedule:

12:00pm-1:00pm:

National Housing Day Rally at Yonge-Dundas Square: Housing is a human right!

2:00pm-5:00pm:

Right to Housing Forum at Church of the Holy Trinity (wheelchair accessible) - moderated by: Angela Robertson, Executive Director, Central Toronto Community Health Centres

Panel 1 (2:00-3:00): Is Housing First the solution to homelessness in Canada?

Some say yes. Some say maybe. And some say we must analyze Housing First through a gendered, racialized, rights based lens.

Professor Stephen Gaetz, York University/Canadian Homelessness Research Network and Professor Janet Mosher, Osgoode Hall Law School, will discuss and debate the Housing First approach.

Panel 2 (3:15-5:00): The Right to Housing in Canada

There are many ways to build the right to housing in Canada. The panellists will discuss their advocacy work in the courts and in their communities.

• DJ Larkin, Pivot Legal Society (Vancouver), is counsel on a case concerning access to safe shelter as a basic human right.

• Phillip Dufresne, member of the Dream Team (Toronto), will discuss how they filed a human rights complaint against five municipalities in Ontario for their discriminatory by-laws… and won.

• Émilie Joly, Community Organizer at FRAPRU (Quebec-wide tenant organization), will talk about FRAPRU’s successes in organizing tenants and how to build this nationwide.

• Tracy Heffernan, Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario and co-counsel on the Right to Housing Charter challenge will discuss next steps in the R2H litigation and campaign.