Leilani Farha: “Forced eviction, bulldozing homes, is a gross violation of the right to housing under international law”

Video of Toronto police evicting tent with heavy machinery.

Housing is a human right.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to housing as part of the right to an adequate standard of living.

As of November 2022, 9,711 people were considered “actively homeless” in Toronto, up from 9,199 people one year prior.

Leilani Farha, the Ottawa-based former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (from 2014 to 2020), shared this video and tweets:

“I repeat, Mayor @JohnTory – forced eviction, bulldozing homes, is a gross violation of the right to housing under int’l law, now recognized in law in Canada. To Min @HonAhmedHussen – surely you can w/hold federal homelessness $ from Toronto until Mayor Tory complies w/ the NHSA.

To Toronto Police Chief @TPSMyronDemkiw – Forcibly evicting homeless ppl violates int’l human rights law, now recognized in law in Canada. Police are bound by human rights law. Perhaps you could raise this w/ the Mayor when he calls on you to evict homeless people to nowhere.

@CaseCE do you really want your construction equipment to be used by the City of Toronto in the commission of human rights violations?”

As noted on the CASE website, “Jerome Increase Case founded the Racine Threshing Machine Works in Racine, Wisconsin, USA [in 1842].”

Their website further states: “At CASE, we do more than build great equipment…our passion also lies in building communities.”

Case Construction Equipment is headquartered in Turin, Italy.

Further reading: Protest rejects police violence and encampment evictions, calls for affordable housing and accessible washrooms (November 23, 2022) and Canadian government provides more than $525 million for housing – warplanes (December 23, 2022).