Photo credit: CBC
A coalition of mainly Black-led groups amended Friday that the city adopts recommendations from a report critical of its refusal to let refugee claimants access beds in its homeless shelter system in 2022 and 2023.
CBC reports that the report by Ombudsman Kwamme Addo, released last week, found that the city’s decision to stop allowing refugees access to beds in its base shelter system was “poorly thought out, planned for, and communicated” and amounted to anti-Black racism. City manager Paul Johnson said he did not agree with the report’s findings.
Although the council received the report Wednesday, it was not debated, and its recommendations were not discussed. Chair of the African Canadian Collective, Kizito Musabimana said the decision to deny spaces in its shelter system to refugee claimants was “definitely systematic racism.”
He said, “We are speaking for all African Black Refugee claimants. Today, we are speaking for all Black people when we say change must come. Change must come today and we will take nothing less.”
Saleh Sheihk, a member of the advocacy support group, Crisis in Our City, said: “Anti-Black racism is real, and we saw the Black refugees being treated this way. That shouldn’t be happening. this is not just a call for action. It is a call for justice, fairness and humanity.”
Savhanna Wilson, spokesperson for the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness, said Black community leaders, African churches, volunteers, and private citizens stepped up to meet the needs of the refugee claimants excluded from the shelter system, saying the decision harmed the refugees and denied them their basic human rights.
Wilson said, “This report demands concrete action, and the City of Toronto must uphold its legal and moral obligation to realize the right to housing for everyone today.”
