UNIVERSITÉ DU QUEBEC À MONTRÉAL THE PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE RIGHT TO HOUSING IN CANADA FROM THE CHARTER TO THE NATIONAL HOUSING STRATEGY: WHERE IS THE RIGHT TO SOCIAL HOUSING IN CANADA TODAY DOCTORAL THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTORATE OF LAW DAVID DESBAILLETS DECEMBER 2020 UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL LE DROIT AU LOGEMENT AU CANADA D'HIER À DEMAIN LE DROIT AU LOGEMENT SOCIAL D'AUJOURD'HUI: DE LA CHARTE À LA STRATÉGIE NATIONALE SUR LE LOGEMENT CANADIEN THÈSE PRÉSENTÉE COMME EXIGENCE PARTIELLE DU DOCTORAT EN DROIT PAR DAVID DESBAILLETS DÉCEMBRE 2020 UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL Service des bibliothèques Avertissement La diffusion de cette thèse se fait dans le respect des droits de son auteur, qui a signé le formulaire Autorisation de reproduire et de diffuser un travail de recherche de cycles supérieurs (SDU-522 – Rév.10-2015). Cette autorisation stipule que «conformément à l’article 11 du Règlement no 8 des études de cycles supérieurs, [l’auteur] concède à l’Université du Québec à Montréal une licence non exclusive d’utilisation et de publication de la totalité ou d’une partie importante de [son] travail de recherche pour des fins pédagogiques et non commerciales. Plus précisément, [l’auteur] autorise l’Université du Québec à Montréal à reproduire, diffuser, prêter, distribuer ou vendre des copies de [son] travail de recherche à des fins non commerciales sur quelque support que ce soit, y compris l’Internet. Cette licence et cette autorisation n’entraînent pas une renonciation de [la] part [de l’auteur] à [ses] droits moraux ni à [ses] droits de propriété intellectuelle. Sauf entente contraire, [l’auteur] conserve la liberté de diffuser et de commercialiser ou non ce travail dont [il] possède un exemplaire.» Acknowledgments I have spent the better part of eight years of my life working on this the crowning achievement of my academic career so far. In that time my life changed dramatically, both in a personal and professional sense. I have encountered so many people throughout this period that have offered me a hand, their ears, their eyes, and, most importantly, the crucial critique that informed a great deal of my writing and rewriting nearly 350 pages. Shannon Babcock (loving partner and sometimes staunch critic of my punctuation); Sarah Patterson (friend, lawyer and editor); Professor Martha Jackman, who worked with me on the chapter that deals with the intersection between the Tanudjaja case and international human rights (subsequently published in the Windsor Yearbook on Access to Justice), the Canadian Law and Society Association (the first conference at which I presented parts of this work); Sarah Hamill (reader of the chapter on Finland and collaborator); Professor Martin Gallié (colleague, reader of chapter devoted to DALO, as well as being a helpful resource on French housing rights). In terms of moral leadership and general sources of inspiration for my doctoral project, I would be an irresponsible housing rights scholar if I didn’t mention the two Canadian housing rights champions that continue to educate me and countless others on this fascinating topic: they are the incomparable Bruce Porter (who delighted me by reading one of my papers) and the UN Special Rapporteur for Housing, Leilani Farha. Finally, the biggest acknowledgement and deepest gratitude of all must go to my longest academic relationship: Professor Hugo Cyr, my supervisor. As for the personal changes in my life, there are only three that really matter. First, my wife Shannon (she deserves two mentions) whose patience, love, emotional and financial generosity, are the only thing that kept me from throwing in the towel a few years ago; my good-hearted parents, who started this adventure with me and will be greatly relieved to see it end; and finally, to my beloved baby boy Asher, you are the heart and soul of my life and the reason I get up in the morning (literally and figuratively). Dedicated to my new family and my old one v Table of Contents Acknowledgments..........................................................................iii Table of Contents ............................................................................ v List of Acronyms: ...........................................................................viii Résumé ............................................................................................ x Abstract ........................................................................................... xi The Right to Social Housing in Canada ......................................... 1 Part I: International, Transnational, Comparative, Judicial Internationalisation, and Incrementalist Perspectives on the Right to Social Housing ................................................................. 34 A) International, Comparative Legal Theories of ESCR and their Relevance for the Right to Housing in Canada ............................... 40 1) Protection of ESCR ............................................ 43 2) Progressive Realization of ESCR ....................... 44 3) Available Resources and Reasonableness in ESCR 47 4) The Doctrine of Substantive Equality and ESCR 50 5) Fulfilling ESCR ..................................................... 53 6) Separation of Powers Doctrine ....................... 59 B) The Judicial Internationalisation Theory of Human Rights Adjudication and ESCR in Canada .................................................. 71 C) Assessment of Jessie Hohmann’s Critique of Housing Rights as it Applies to the Right to Social Housing in Canada........................... 81 D) Assessment of Jeff King’s Theory of Incrementalism and ESCR Adjudication in Canada .................................................................... 90 Part I-Conclusions ....................................................................... 100 Part II- The Modern Right to Housing in International Law....... 106 v vi A) The Evolution of International Housing Rights ......................... 110 1) The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights ...................................................................................................................... 113 2) The Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights ................. 115 B) International Human Rights Instruments and Jurisprudence that Influence Canadian ECSR Norms ................................................... 124 1) The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights .................. 127 2) The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women .......................................................................................... 131 3) Convention on the Rights of the Child ................................................ 133 4) The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination .............................................................................................. 135 5) Inter-American Human Rights System ................................................. 138 6) Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities ......................... 142 C) Comparative Analysis of the Right to Housing in Foreign Jurisdictions with Canada ............................................................... 146 1) A Constitutional Right to Housing: The South African Experience and its Lessons for Canada ............................................................................... 150 2) The Informal Right to Housing: The Indian Experience and its Lessons for Canada ................................................................................................. 160 3) Housing First and The Right to Social Housing: the Finnish Model as a Case Study for the National Housing Strategy in Canada ................... 164 4) DALO: An Example of the Pitfalls of Legislating the Right to Housing from France. ................................................................................................ 170 Part II-Conclusions ...................................................................... 176 Part III-The Right to Social Housing in Canadian Law .............. 179 A) The Historical Constitutional and Legal Contexts in Canada with Respect to the Right to Housing .............................................. 183 1) The Canadian Bill of Rights ............................ 185 2) The Canadian Assistance Plan and the Impact of Federal Social Transfers on the Right to Social Housing .................................................. 186 3) Charlottetown and the Social Charter Debate 192 B) The Canadian Charter Framework and the Right to Social Housing ............................................................................................. 198 1) The Charter, S.1 and its Relationship to ESCR 200 vi vii 2) Systemic and Textual Methods of Reading Charter Rights ............... 210 3) Purposive and Teleological Approaches to ESCR in the Charter .... 212 4) The Principle of Dialogue, ESCR, and the Charter ............................. 221 5) Judicial Internationalisation and the Charter 226 6) Justiciability Doctrine and ESCR ........................................................... 229 7) Incrementalism and the Charter: Does the Theory Provide a Model for ESCR Adjudication in Canada ............................................................ 233 8) The Principle of Harm Reduction and the Charter ............................ 241 9) The Doctrine of Substantive Equality and ESCR ................................. 249