{"id":111533,"date":"2026-06-22T16:16:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/?p=111533"},"modified":"2026-06-22T16:16:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:16:47","slug":"the-over-judicialization-of-homelessness-social-profiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/the-over-judicialization-of-homelessness-social-profiling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Over-Judicialization of Homelessness: Social Profiling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2025, in the decision\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Commission des droits de la\u00a0<\/span>personne<\/span>\u00a0et des droits de la jeunesse (Levasseur)<\/span><\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>c<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Ville de Montr\u00e9al (Service de police de la Ville de Montr\u00e9al)<\/em><\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>the Human Rights Tribunal recognized the concept of social profiling: when a person in authority targets an individual based on stereotypes related to their social condition, such as homelessness, without valid reason, thereby exposing them to unequal treatment.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

However, the excessive judicialization of people experiencing homelessness has long been recognized. A 2009\u00a0<\/span><\/span>report from the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse <\/span><\/span><\/a>concluded that this excessive judicialization exacerbates the marginalization and exclusion of these individuals rather than addressing them.<\/p>\n\n

Behaviors associated with survival in public space, such as prolonged occupation of a place or nocturnal presence in a park, are often repressed by police forces, since they are considered public disorders. <\/p>\n\n

The law and municipal regulations, in the way they are drafted and applied, become an instrument of discriminatory management of poverty, notably by issuing statements of offence. <\/p>\n\n

Faced with this cycle of debt and marginalization, the Clinique Droits Devant supports homeless people through the Justice-Homelessness Support Program (PAJIC). <\/p>\n\n

This documentary vignettes features two case workers from the Droits Devant Clinic, Julie B\u00e9liveau and Genevi\u00e8ve Raymond, who explain the consequences of the over-judicialization of homelessness and introduce the PAJIC. <\/p>\n\n

This video was produced by Anne-Charlotte Dal Soglio, Jordi Kasanda and Daniil Eremin as part of the course Plaidoirie visuelle\/Droit et cin\u00e9ma at the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People experiencing homelessness are often targeted by law enforcement because of behaviors related to their survival in public spaces. This cycle of judicialization accentuates their marginalization rather than addressing it. In this visual post, produced by students as part of the course Visual Advocacy\/Law and Film, two speakers from the Clinique Droit Devant expose the mechanisms of social profiling and present the Justice-Homelessness Support Program (PAJIC). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":111530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[79,57,47,134],"class_list":["post-111533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-savoir","tag-acces-a-la-justice","tag-droit-criminel","tag-droits-personne","tag-projets-etudiants"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":42,"label":"JuriSavoir"}],"post_tag":[{"value":79,"label":"Acc\u00e8s \u00e0 la justice"},{"value":57,"label":"Droit criminel"},{"value":47,"label":"Droits de la personne"},{"value":134,"label":"Projets \u00e9tudiants"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/itinerance-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Patrick Walton","author_link":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/author\/patrick\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":42,"name":"JuriSavoir","slug":"savoir","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Des publications visuelles sur des enjeux juridiques mettant en relief les travaux de chercheuses et de chercheurs en droit ou les activit\u00e9s de praticiennes et praticiens.","parent":0,"count":84,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":42,"category_count":84,"category_description":"Des publications visuelles sur des enjeux juridiques mettant en relief les travaux de chercheuses et de chercheurs en droit ou les activit\u00e9s de praticiennes et praticiens.","cat_name":"JuriSavoir","category_nicename":"savoir","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":79,"name":"Acc\u00e8s \u00e0 la justice","slug":"acces-a-la-justice","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":79,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":29,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":57,"name":"Droit criminel","slug":"droit-criminel","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":57,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":47,"name":"Droits de la personne","slug":"droits-personne","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":47,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":134,"name":"Projets \u00e9tudiants","slug":"projets-etudiants","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":134,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":27,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111533"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111554,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111533\/revisions\/111554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurivision.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}