The Longest Night of the Year

Most Calgarians remember well the night of June 20, 2013. That night, the effects of several days of torrential rain culminated in what we now refer to nostalgically as the great flood. Both the Bow and Elbow Rivers swelled and spilled over their banks, displacing roughly 100,000 people from their homes. At the time I was working for The City of Calgary and was deployed to the various reception centres set up around the city to care for those who had been displaced. We received everyone regardless of circumstances, ensuring that they were safe, warm and dry. Meanwhile, rescue crews searched through flooded neighbourhoods, carrying people to safety from flooded basements and homes if needed.

Following the flood, Calgary Transit published a book about the event and their response to it. According to the book, Calgary Transit provided 344 buses to assist evacuees and volunteers, and redeployed 450 staff to deal with the crisis. One of those staff, a Calgary Transit Peace Officer, reflected on his experience. “I attended the Fish Creek evacuation centre on the Friday and Saturday after the flood. I was put in charge of registering the evacuees and organized a group of volunteers to receive them.” He goes on to recall how “… the number of Calgarians who came in to offer all manner of assistance made it quite the uplifting experience. I was glad to be a small part of it.”

It is almost ten years later. The night is December 21st, 2022. Once again, Calgary is subjected to life threatening extreme weather. Except this time, it isn’t a flood, it’s cold. The overnight temperature plunged to -33 (-44 with windchill) prompting Environment Canada to issue an extreme weather alert. Temperatures that cold are a death sentence for anyone without shelter. It is, fittingly, the longest night of the year.

Once again, like during the flood, those without shelter are seeking a place of safety. For those without homes, one of the first and most accessible places of safety is transit. It was discouraging, therefore, to see a video surface of Calgary Transit Peace Officers kicking people out of trains and stations into the cold for failure to produce a ticket. While during the flood, Transit Peace Officers proudly recounted their uplifting experience helping people find safety, in this instance they were instead throwing them back into the waters. That same night a vigil is held to remember the 217 people who died in 2022 while homeless.

This should make us all stop and ponder our moral responsibility to each other in times of crisis and need. A fundamental moral principle underpinning our shared life together in community is the dignity and equality of all life, regardless of circumstances. In fact, this principle is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, enacted 75 years ago as the world recoiled in horror from the depravities witnessed during the war. According to the Declaration “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations 1948, Article 3).

This principle is enshrined in Canadian law. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 7) states: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” The Government of Canada interprets this to mean that the state or its administrative functionaries cannot conduct itself in a way that jeopardizes the life, liberty and security of a person.

In its explanation of the application of the Charter, the Government states that “The right to life is engaged where the law or state action imposes death or an increased risk of death, either directly or indirectly.” Similarly, the Right to the Security of the Person “will be engaged where state action has the likely effect of seriously impairing a person’s physical or mental health.” For this section to be relevant, there must be a “sufficient causal connection” between the act and the effect. Section 7 of the Charter also comes into play when there is a gross disproportionality between an offence (such as failure to buy a transit ticket) and the effect of the penalty (such as removing unsheltered people into extreme life threatening cold).

Some are arguing that we should also enshrine a right to safety into law. John Twigg, an expert in Disaster Risk Reduction at the University College London, defines the right to safety as follows: “Everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of protection against natural and man-made hazards.” While this is not yet standard practice in Canada, there are precedents. For example, in Alberta it is not allowable to disconnect a person’s utilities during the winter months due to the adverse effect it would have given our climate. At a broader level, we also recognize the right of people to seek asylum from life-threatening situations and as a matter of principal and law, do not return them to such situations.

Of course, this requires us to see those seeking refuge as human beings. I recall speaking with a man who was homeless several winters ago. Suffering from severe frostbite, he recounted how he had been keeping warm through a similarly bitter winter night by sheltering in a C-Train station. Then, as now, the Transit Peace Officers ordered him to leave the station. He asked them – “aren’t you supposed to be protecting people?” Their response was – “Yes. And you’re not a person.”

Granted, transit vehicles, shelters or train stations are not intended or equipped to serve as homeless shelters. At the same time, the response of simply removing people from what is perhaps their only place of refuge during extreme weather is equally untenable and morally wrong. As a matter of principle and in fulfillment of Calgary and Canada’s human rights obligations, if during life threatening situations people are taking refuge in places not designed for shelter, there should be an obligation to ensure that they are transferred responsibly to appropriate alternate places of shelter, or allow them to remain until such transfer can be arranged. We call on The City of Calgary to adopt such a policy and process immediately.