Acting on behalf of Wasiu Adekanmbi, Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC), Lewis Litigation PC and Steiber Berlach LLP, have commenced a proposed class action against the City of Toronto for its decision to prevent refugee claimants from accessing its base shelter system beds between November 2022 and October 2023.  On November 7, 2022, the City of Toronto stopped allowing refugee claimants to access its base shelter system.  On July 19, 2023, City Council reversed the eligibility change, but it took another two more months for the City to return to universal access for shelter users.

The City’s base shelter system in this ten month period consisted of 20 overnight shelters run by the City and 81 run by community partner agencies. During this ten-month period, many refugee claimants were directed to call Service Canada or Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) although these organizations are unable to provide housing assistance to these refugee claimants. This led to further challenges for refugee claimants who were seeking shelter beds at this time.

The claim alleges that the City’s practice of preventing refugee claimants from accessing base shelter beds constitutes a breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Ontario Human Rights Code, and amounts to systemic negligence. The City provided some refugee claimants with misinformation about where they could go next, which only exacerbated the hardship faced by this vulnerable population and amounted to negligent misrepresentation.  The City acted contrary to several of its own policies, including the Housing Charter, the Toronto Shelter Standards, and Access T.O.

“The City’s decision disproportionately affected and violated the rights of Black refugee claimants that arrived from predominantly Black countries”, noted Demar Kemar Hewitt, the Executive Director of Black Legal Action Centre.

The proposed class includes:

1.      Refugees, refugee claimants, and asylum seekers who sought shelter in the City of Toronto’s shelter system between November 7, 2022 and October 1, 2023 and were unable to obtain a shelter bed; and,

2.      Refugees, refugee claimants, and asylum seekers who sought shelter in the City of Toronto’s shelter system between November 7, 2022 and October 1, 2023 and were unable to obtain a shelter bed and were told to contact either Service Canada or IRCC.

If you were a refugee claimant who sought, and were unable to obtain, a shelter bed in the City of Toronto between November 7, 2022 and October 1, 2023, please contact the lawyers for the proposed class by sending an email to shelterbedclassaction@sblegal.ca or leaving a message at our toll-free number 416-594-6870.

For more background, see Ombudsman Toronto Report: An Investigation into the City’s Decision to Stop Allowing Refugee Claimants into Base Shelter System Beds dated December 10, 2024.