The Social Rights Advocacy Centre

A not for profit NGO supporting access to justice for social rights in Canada and around the world through an inclusive and accountable human rights practice

• SRAC co-ordinates the work of the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues, with interventions in 14 Supreme Court of Canada cases. Current litigation initiatives include several interventions by CCPI in coaliition with others.

• SRAC helped lead advocacy for the recognition of the right to housing in federal legislation, in the National Housing Strategy Act and is a founding member and active in the National Right to Housing Network.

• SRAC has played an important role ini promoting ESC-Rights internationally, including a leading role in the development of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR

• SRAC was a founding member of ESCR-Net and remains active on the Steering Committee of ESCR-Net's Strategic Litigation Working Group

• SRAC co-directed a major SSHRC research project on Social Rights in Canada partnering 4 universities and 4 NGOs. Check out the website archives here.

• SRAC has contributed to many articles and chapters on social rights in publications.

Current Activities

Kanyinda v Quebec

Interventions in the Kanyinda case at the Supreme Court of Cananda

Check out the documents with translations into English

Waterloo v Persons to be Named

Arguing for positive measures to adddress homelessness as violation of the rights to life and security of the person and for recognizing homelessness as a prohibited ground of discrimination.

Heegsma v Hamilton OCA

Attemted to intervene at the Ontario Court of Appeal to address the decision of Ontario Superior Court Justice Ramsa regarding positive obligations to address homelessness and on discrimination on the ground of homelessness

The Herongate Claim

Challenging exclusionary development and financialization

Joint intervention application with Canadian Centre on Housing Rights.

UN Human Rights Committee Review of Canada March 2026

Check out the compilation of NGO Submissions and Key Recommendations.

 

Right to Housing in the National Housing Strategy Act

Grounding Canada's New National Housing Strategy in the Right to Adequate Housing

Powerpoint on Implementing the Right to Housing under the NHSA

Support for Submissions to the NEHA Panel on Women's Right to Housing under the NHSA

See Bruce Porter, Implementing the Right to Adequate Housing Under the National Housing Strategy Act: The International Human Rights Framework (2021)

B Porter and E McIsaac, "Housing Rights: Canada Takes and Historic Step Forward"

Internships through the International and Transnational Law Intensive Program [ITLIP] at Osgoode

Freedom of Expression for Charities

Challenging the Violation of Charities' Right to Freedom of Expression: Canada Without Poverty v. Canada

See the decision. CWP v AG Canada 20180716

Right to Housing

Work on Right to Housing with the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (Previously CERA)

Powerpoint on applying the right to housing to the arrears/eviction crisis.

Human Rights Cities Project and Right to Housing with Maytree

Nevena Dragicevic and Bruce Porter, Human Rights Cities: The power and potential of local government to act on economic and social rights (Maytree, December 2020).

See Maytree's Work on the Right to Housing

The Charter Challenge to Canada's Failure to Address Homelessness:

Charter Challenge to Canada's Failure to Address Homelessness in Tanudjaja et al v. Ontario and Canada For more information on this historic case that was never fully heard click here.

Social Rights Community-University Research Alliance - check out the wealth of information on this archived website!

Recent Publications

Bruce Porter, La interdependencia de · los derechos humanos in Derechos sociales y el momento constituyente de Chile: Perspectivas globales y locales para el debate constitucional (Distrito Global, 2021)

Jackie Dugard, Franziska Sucker & Bruce Porter & Jamie Burton, Supporting the TRIPS COVID-19 waiver is an essential step to support international human rights (Open Global Rights, 2021)

Bruce Porter, Implementing the Right to Adequate Housing Under the National Housing Strategy Act: The International Human Rights Framework(2021) (en francais)

Jackie Dugard, Bruce Porter, Daniela Ikawa and Lilian Chenwi (eds) Research Handbook on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as Human Rights (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020)

Martha Jackman & Bruce Porter "Social and Economic Rights" in P. Oliver, P. Macklem and N. Des Rosiers, The Oxford Handbook of the Canadian Constitution (New York, Oxford Univesity Press, 2017) at pp 843-866.

Check out all of the other SRAC publications.

Previous Initiatives

Challenging Canada's Failure to Support Vaccine Equity through the TRIPS Waiver at the WTO

Urgent Letter to Minister Ng signed by over 100 organizations and individuals

Media Release November 25 2021

 

CONTACTBruce Porter is the Executive Director of SRAC and is supported in social rights research and education as a Maytree Fellow.