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Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.

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Michael Shapcott

Housing rights bill gets first reading in Ontario Legislature

Bill 47, the Right to Housing Act, was tabled and received first reading in the Ontario Legislature on March 27, 2008. This historic legislation, introduced by Cheri DiNovo, the MPP for Parkdale – High Park, would enshrine in provincial law the international right to adequate housing. In mid-March, as the United Nation's Human Rights Council was debating Canada's deteriorating housing record, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, called on governments across Canada to incorporate housing rights in federal and provincial laws as the first step towards fully realizing this critical right in Canada.

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Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott

Michael Shapcott is Director, Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at Wellesley Institute. Michael has worked extensively in Toronto, in many parts of Canada, nationally and internationally on social innovation, the non-profit sector, civic engagement, housing and housing rights, poverty, social exclusion, urban health and health equity. He is recognized as one of Canada’s leading community-based housing and homelessness experts. He is currently on secondment to the Princes' Charities Canada.

Acknowledgement of Traditional Land

We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.