SR Vol 27 No 3, July 2009 - Nova Scotia Barristers' Society

a great big
gaping hole
There is a great big gaping hole in
donalee Moulton
Nova Scotia’s social safety net –
Freelancer
and youth 16-19 years of age are
falling through. The issue is legislative.
It’s also regulatory. It’s also a problem of practice. And perception.
Here’s what’s happening, explains Emma Halpern, equity officer with
the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society. “If a young person is not under
the care and custody of the province, they have a very difficult time
accessing funds and services from the Department of Community
Services.”
That leaves a lot of young people – literally – out on the street. The
age limit for support is 15 years in practical terms, says Ann Marie
MacInnes, a senior staff lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid in Sydney.
“The law allows for 16- to 18-year-olds,” she notes, “but that is not
the practice in Nova Scotia.”
As a result, says MacInnes, “these kids are left homeless in Cape
Breton.”
In Halifax, there are some options (such as Phoenix Youth Programs)
but even in the province’s largest community, those options are
limited. Homeless shelters, for example, are often intended for adults.
There are often few resources dedicated for youth.
And youth are more vulnerable than many other groups. That
vulnerability is reflected in the judicial system. “The legislation is
contradictory,” says Halpern, who coordinates the Society’s annual
UnCommon Law conference, which explores youth justice themes.
“In some ways, youth are treated as adults at age 16 and they can be
required to take care of themselves completely. On the other hand,
they don’t have a political voice until age 18.”
That effect is pronounced, yet the violations that bring many of these
youth in conflict with the law often aren’t. In youth justice, the vast
majority of charges are curfew or keep-the-peace violations. “When
you look at things from a common sense perspective, a lot of these
kids’ behaviour is being criminalized because of an existing order,”
says MacInnes, noting she once represented a young person who had
53 breach charges and had never been convicted of anything.
“It’s hard to deal with the issues a young person is facing when they
don’t even have basic food and shelter,” she stresses.
Rob* knows that firsthand. Just 18 years old, he has lived in 19
different homes. He was removed from his parents’ care at two and
adopted at four. He ran away when he was 12 after being physically
abused. “From the time I moved away from home until now,” he
says, “I lived in a total of 18 places. Some of these places weren’t all
that bad. Others were horrible.”
What Rob discovered is what many youth outside the community
services system have learned the hard way: You can’t get housing if
you can’t get a job. You can’t get a job if you don’t have a permanent
address. You can’t get a job if you can’t take get cleaned up; you can’t
take a shower if you don’t have a place to eat and sleep. And so on.
It’s what the experts call the criminalization of poverty. Here’s an
example from the Ontario Women’s Justice Network. That province
has the Safe Streets Act or what is commonly called the “squeegee law,”
which makes it illegal to solicit in an “aggressive manner.” In a case
challenging the law, the Court of Appeal for Ontario determined the
law was just and constitutional. The court concluded that the right
to life, liberty and security was not infringed because the defendants
in this case could have solicited money in other ways that were not
prohibited by law.
The law, she adds, defines much of what youth can and can’t do –
where they can work, where they can live, even possibly what time
they have to be home. “For many kids, their lives have been affected
by the law since they were born, and they have very little say.”
18 The Society Record