Ontario Court Finds Provisions of Safe Streets Act Unconstitutional

TORONTO — The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has found that the Safe Streets Act violates the Charter freedoms of unhoused people living in poverty.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) in a constitutional challenge to a decades old law argued that sections of the Safe Streets Act prohibiting individuals from seeking donations in public places restricts their freedom of expression and safety.

The Court agreed, and in doing so restricted the law’s overbroad definitions of “aggressive” panhandling and soliciting. The Court’s ruling is a significant victory in the decades long legal challenge waged by CCLA against the Safe Streets Act’s limits on the ability of poor people to ask for help from their fellow citizens.

“This decision affirms that The Safe Streets Act is an unconstitutional restriction of the freedom of unhoused and low-income people who seek donations from the public in order to survive and live with dignity,” said Harini Sivalingam, Director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), an intervenor in the case.

CCLA is grateful to pro bono legal counsel Frank Addario and Rebecca Amoah of Addario Law Group LLP, for their representation in this case.

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À propos de l’association canadienne sur les libertés civiles
L’ACLC est un organisme indépendant à but non lucratif qui compte des partisans dans tout le pays. Fondée en 1964, c’est une association de défense des droits de la personne qui opère à l’échelle du Canada pour défendre les droits, la dignité, la sécurité et les libertés de toute la population.

Communications avec les médias :
media@ccla.org
Alex Nanoff – 613.709.6318