What is this Website?

The Canadian Encampment Database is a live project designed to track the processes by which Canadian governments prohibit, manage, or accommodate encampments, as well as any legal battles fought over these encampments. The aims of the project are to create:

• An accountability measure for governments who violate the human rights of encampment residents.

• A resource for legal scholars, housing advocates and other interested parties, to deeper understand the processes behind which these evictions are carried out.

Three legal processes dominate the management, prohibition, or allowance of encampments: 

1. Municipal orders (enforced via bylaws or trespass notices);

2. Court orders (regarding injunctions, or the constitutionality of municipal bylaws and evictions). 

3. Provincial orders (issued in states of emergency, so far exclusively in British Columbia)

The database tracks all three types of processes.