How do evictions impact neighbours and community?
Join us at 3 PM PT/6 PM ET on May 13th for a special hybrid webinar to celebrate BSH’s upcoming book launch, featuring evictions research from across Canada. This webinar will dive into select chapters with with Drs. Alexandra Flynn, BSH Director and Associate Professor & Dean of Graduate Studies, Peter A. Allard School of Law; David Wachsmuth, Associate Professor, School of Urban Planning McGill University; Julie Mah, Assistant Professor, Department of Human Geography, University of Toronto; Martine August, Associate Professor, School of Planning, University of Waterloo; Sarah Buhler, Professor, College of Law, University of Saskatchewan; and Margaret Flynn, Director of Policy, Research and Law Reform Canadian Centre for Housing Rights.
This webinar will highlight new findings from BSH’s recent Evictions and Security of Tenure project related to eviction processes, realities, and injustices.
Register HereAbout the Speakers
Dr. Alexandra Flynn is the Director of BSH, and Associate Professor as well as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Programs at UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law. Her teaching and research focus on municipal law and governance, administrative law, and property law. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, public reports, media articles, and a book on how cities are legally understood in law and how they govern, including the overlapping geographies and governance of city spaces, and the formal and informal bodies that represent residents. She is the Primary Investigator and Director of the Housing Research Collaborative, which comprises CMHC and SSHRC-funded projects focused on Canada’s housing crisis: the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project, which helps communities to measure and address their housing need; and the Balanced Supply of Housing Node, which brings together academic and non-profit community organizations to research responsive land use practices and the financialization of housing. She is also working on several projects related to precariously housed people in Canadian cities, including the governance of personal property of precariously housed people, and human rights and tent encampments. Professor Flynn has a long history working in law and policy. Prior to entering academia, she practiced banking and securities law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York, where she was the recipient of several Legal Aid awards. She also practiced Aboriginal Law at Ratcliff & Company in Vancouver, representing First Nations, and worked in a senior policy role at the City of Toronto focused on intergovernmental relationships. Professor Flynn is a past TEDx speaker and a frequent media commentator. She has a long history of volunteer work in the areas of homelessness and access to justice.
Dr. David Wachsmuth (he/him) is the Canada Research Chair in Urban Governance at McGill University, where he is also an Assistant Professor in the School of Urban Planning and an Associate Member in the Department of Geography. He directs UPGo, the Urban Politics and Governance research group at McGill, where he leads a team of researchers investigating pressing urban governance problems related to economic development, environmental sustainability, and housing markets. He is the co-lead of the Adapting Urban Environments for the Future theme of the McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative, where he is part of a broad interdisciplinary team developing new ways of conceptualizing, measuring, and improving urban sustainability.
Margaret Flynn is an experienced teacher and lawyer, called to the Ontario bar in 2006. Prior to joining CCHR, she worked at the Ontario Human Rights Commission. As legal counsel for the Commission, Margaret engaged in public interest inquiries, negotiation, mediation and litigation to advance human rights in housing. Margaret also has experience preparing public legal education materials, and providing support and referrals to people who are precariously housed. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto.
Sarah Buhler is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law’s. Previously, she practiced law in a Saskatoon firm, taught as a sessional lecturer at the College of Law, and served as the Executive Director and Supervising Lawyer at Community Legal Assistance Services for Saskatoon Inner City (CLASSIC). Sarah graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2002 and was called to the Bar in Saskatchewan in 2003, receiving the Saskatoon Bar Association Award for highest standing in the provincial bar admission examinations.
Sarah is the recipient of the University of Saskatchewan Award for Distinction in Outreach and Engagement, the Provost’s College Award for Outstanding Teaching, and the University of Saskatchewan Award for Distinction in Community Engaged Teaching and Scholarship. In 2023, she received the University of Saskatchewan Alumni Achievement Award for Outstanding Impact.
Dr. Julie Mah is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough in the Department of Human Geography – City Studies Program. Her research examines issues of housing affordability, gentrification and displacement (direct and indirect), evictions, and the planning mechanisms that can be employed to address spatialized inequities. She received a PhD in planning from the University of Toronto and she has worked as a planning consultant on community improvement plans, cultural plans, and economic development strategies in small and mid-sized cities in Ontario. Her current research focuses on: (1) investigating evictions and above guideline rent increases (AGIs) in Ontario; (2) examining the impacts of housing policy and landlord-tenant policy regimes on rental affordability and tenant displacement; and (3) evaluating the effectiveness of value capture tools to generate new affordable housing.
Dr. Martine August is an Associate Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on the political economy of housing and the pursuit of urban social justice, exploring themes related to gentrification, displacement, community organizing, public housing redevelopment, and the politics of social mix. She is an alumnus of the University of Winnipeg and the University of Toronto, holding degrees in Physics (BSc), Urban Studies (BA), and Urban Planning (M.Sc.Pl., PhD). Her current research examines the financialization of rental housing and seniors housing and the ways that inclusionary zoning paradoxically promotes displacement. At Waterloo she teaches “Planning for Social Justice in the Capitalist City.” Martine is a former Trudeau Foundation Scholar, and past recipient of the Urban Affairs Association Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award. She has worked as a housing policy advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, in the Housing Policy Branch and Homelessness Secretariat.
