There is a lack of respect when it comes to housing for people that need it the most – Babbington

By Lincoln DePradine

A senior labour activist has blasted Canada’s political leaders on their handling of the provision of housing and the treatment of people that have fled to the country as refugees and asylum seekers.

“There is a lack of respect when it comes to housing for people that need it the most,’’ Andria Babbington, president of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council, charged at a downtown Toronto protest.

The event, organized by “Progress Toronto’’, was titled, “Rally for Housing & Shelter Funding Now’’.

The issues of housing and the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers converged earlier this year, when national public attention was drawn to homelessness among Africans who had arrived in the country seeking safe haven.

They slept on the streets until members of Toronto’s Black and Caribbean community sprang into action to assist the African refugees and asylum seekers with shelter, clothing and other basic necessities.

“We are in a housing crisis,’’ Syed Hussan of the Migrant Rights Network Secretariat told protestors at the “Rally for Housing & Shelter Funding Now’’.

The crisis, according to Hussan, has become like a “football’’ among political leaders.

“This crisis has gone on for a long time. There is just not enough space,’’ he said. “And then, there is this football. The city says it’s a federal responsibility; the feds say it’s the province; the province says it’s the city.’’

It’s not fair, Hussan argued, that people are being denied rights in Canada because of their designation and the “categories’’ into which they are placed, such as citizens and refugees.

“Citizens, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented, migrant workers, students – all need to eat and need shelter, and that makes us human,’’ he said.

Babbington, the first Black woman elected to serve as president of the Toronto & York Region Labour Council comprising more than 220,000 members, cried “shame’’ on government leaders that “turn their back’’ and “turn a blind eye’’ on asylum seekers.

“They forget who put them in the seat they’re in; they do forget that and they take it for granted,’’ said Babbington. “We put them in, we vote them in, and we can take them out.’’

The solutions demanded are not “band aid’’ and “quick-fix’’, Jamaican-born Babbington said.

“We are going to continue to fight,’’ she promised. “If they have to wait until someone has a citizenship card in their hand to pretend that they welcome them, then it’s no good.’’