Summary
The appellant Irma Sparks, a single black mother with two children relied on social assistance and had lived in public housing for ten years. She was given one month’s notice that she would be evicted with no reason given. Public housing was exempted from the security of tenure provisions of the Residential Tenancies Act. Sparks alleged the legislation discriminated on the enumerated ground of race and sex and on the “analogous” grounds of marital/family status (single mothers) and poverty/income. Evidence showed public housing residents are poor, a significant proportion of them are Black, and that many are single mothers. The trial judge dismissed the application, finding that Blacks, poor people and single mothers were not singled out for differential treatment.
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal upheld the appeal and struck down the provisions of the Act which excluded public housing tenants from security of tenure protections, thereby extending protections to all residents of public housing. The Court found that the exclusion constituted adverse effect discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, marital status and poverty. It found that poverty is a personal characteristic analogous to those that are enumerated under s.15 of the Canadian Charter, and is a prohibited ground of discrimination.
Keywords: Sparks v. Dartmouth/Halifax County Regional Housing Authority, (1993), 119 N.S.R. (2d) 91, Poverty