We Want to Hear from You!

The Alberta Human Rights Commission and the tribunals that accompany the human rights complaint procedure are responsible for assessing whether the human rights laws of the land (namely, the laws contained in the Alberta Human Rights Act) have been broken. If broken, the tribunals may assess awards to be paid out to those adversely affected by illegal discrimination. As much as we, the Child-Friendly Housing Coalition of Alberta, might like to, some days, be able to assess awards related to discrimination, we simply can’t. However, we still want to hear from you.

If you are facing, or have faced discrimination in housing, related to family status and/or age, please drop us a line at hello@cfhca.ca. This applies even if you have encountered discrimination prior to Bill 23 taking effect on January 1, 2018. Even if the discrimination may technically be legal (ie., in a ‘grandfathered’ age-discriminatory condo), we would be interested in hearing from you.

While we are not lawyers, and anything that we say should not be construed as legal advice, we may be able to provide a little informational support. Moreover, we want to hear from you. In hearing stories from Albertans, we hope to identify commonalities and insights.

Our website may be visited at times by some outside Alberta. In fact, our analytics shows the occasional international visitor.

Other provinces in Canada have enjoyed protections, on paper, for children in rental housing. Alberta has finally caught up to the rest of Canada as it relates to rental housing. Most of the rest of Canada (ie., every other province except for BC, to our knowledge) has enjoyed protections for children in condos. As one example, Ontario granted protection for children in rental housing and in condos back in December 1986 (see Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, page 215, Section 18, Subsection 14). Barring exemptions for seniors-only housing, which do exist in several jurisdictions, provinces apart from Alberta and BC provide protections for children in both the rental of and purchase of condos.

The U.S. has, in fact, had protection for familial status since 1989, in both rental housing and condos.

However, apart from being protected on paper, there is the question of how well accepted these protections are, whether socially, culturally and legally. What happens when landlords and condo boards are not aware of the laws that exist or when they choose to ignore the protections that exist?

Note: In some countries, laws to protect children in housing may not exist as no one would ever think of targeting children with discriminatory housing practices.

If you live in another Canadian province outside of Alberta, or somewhere in the United States, or somewhere elsewhere in the world, and you have experienced discrimination related to family status and/or age in housing and you’d be willing to share a little of your experience, please drop us a line — hello@cfhca.ca

For international visitors (whether you’re residing now in Canada or not), we’d be interested in hearing about what sorts of protections exist for children in housing in your home country. Also, how do you perceive the frequency of discrimination in your home country? Should greater protection be brought forward in your home country? Why or why not?

Please drop us a line — hello@cfhca.ca