ANALYSIS: Green Light for Homeless Camps in Hamilton’s Parks Signals Where Canada May Be Headed

Hamilton has voted to allow homeless encampments in parks, as legal battles rage over tearing encampments down.

A woman struggles to keep her tent upright at the encampment in Victoria Park in Halifax during post-tropical storm Lee on Sept. 16, 2023. Kelly Clark/The Canadian Press

The number of homeless encampments nationwide is growing, and so is the case law saying cities can’t remove them.

A landmark court decision in 2009 in British Columbia first established that, in some cases, removing encampments violates the charter right to “life, liberty, and security.” In January 2023, the first Ontario court decision to this effect was handed down in Waterloo.