Inequalities ‘built into’ B.C. justice, health and child welfare systems: report

British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner says inequalities are baked into the province’s justice, health and child welfare systems.

Kasari Govender says her office’s latest report is aimed at spotlighting the human rights issues people face when they come into contact with 10 provincial systems, especially Indigenous people, women and other marginalized groups.

Govender says “unaffordable, inaccessible and inappropriate housing” tops the list for human rights issues in B.C., where homelessness and encampments “unsurprisingly” grow amid the housing affordability crisis.

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She says women and girls are particularly at risk of violence on the street, and choose to stay with abusive partners with no other affordable options for housing.

Govender’s report, titled “Rights in Focus: Lived Realities in B.C.,” says thousands of people have been forced into homelessness in the province due to a “collision of market forces with inadequate social support.”

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She says her office will produce rights-in-focus reports every three years, examining human rights issues tied to the everyday lives of people who need homes, health care and education, and for those who face inequalities in the criminal justice and child welfare systems, among others.