Does Toronto have the legal power to ban panhandling on city streets? What would be the costs? This backgrounder reviews some of the key issues as a municipal politician proposes to criminalize begging for money by the poor.
Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive regular updates on our work.
We would like to acknowledge this sacred land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes.
Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.
Revised by the Elders Circle (Council of Aboriginal Initiatives) on November 6, 2014
In the spirit of equity and inclusion, if we can improve on this statement, please contact us. Thank you.