Bruce Porter

Bruce Porter is a leading advocate for social and economic rights in Canada and internationally. He has directed the Social Rights Advocacy Centre since 2002.

• Leading Canadian and international expert on the right to housing, committed to collaborative work with people living in poverty and homelessness.
• Worked with Canadian government and civil society to help develop the content of the National Housing Strategy (NHS) Act.
• Published 40+ articles and book chapters.
• Retained by the UN to research and assist in drafting 11 thematic reports for the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing submitted to the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly.
• Founded and directed CERA, Canada's only charitable organization focused on human rights in housing.
• Served as Ontario Human Rights Commissioner (2016-2019).
• Helped establish the OP-ICESCR Coalition and participated in negotiating the ESC rights complaints mechanism.
• Co-represented claimants in critical human rights cases on the intersection of poverty and equality rights.
• Co-ordinated interventions in 14 cases at the Supreme Court of Canada raising poverty and social rights issues.
• Resides and raised a family in rural north/central Ontario, with experience across rural and urban housing and poverty issues.

Education

• M.A. Intellectual History, University of Sussex, U.K., 1975.
• B.A. Honours (First Class) History, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, 1970-74.

Employment & Experience

Executive Director, Social Rights Advocacy Centre (October 2002 to present)

• Initiate and support community-led test cases on systemic housing and poverty issues, including Tanudjaja v Canada (challenging absence of a national housing strategy), Canada without Poverty v Canada (challenging restrictions on charities), and Nell Toussaint v Canada (challenging denial of healthcare to irregular migrants).
• Developed and co-directed two very successful 5-year, $1 million research projects on social rights funded by SSHRC.
• Worked with Canadian Heritage co-chairing cross-Canada consultations on systemic human rights issues for UN Periodic Reviews of Canada.
• Initiated a joint research project with the Population Health Improvement Research Network on social determinants of health, publishing papers on rights-based housing strategies.
• Member of the International Social and Economic Rights Project.
• Founding and active member of ESCR-Net and member of ESCR-Net Steering Committee on Strategic Litigation.

Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing (2014 – present)

• Oversee research, consultation and drafting of annual thematic reports to the UN Human Rights Council and to the UN General Assembly.
• Assist the Special Rapporteur in promoting and monitoring compliance with the right to housing world-wide.

Maytree Fellow (2019 - present)

• Appointed as one of four Maytree fellows to advise and work with the Maytree Foundation on developing rights-based frameworks for housing and social policy.

Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) (2016-2019)

• Reviewed and made decisions on all areas of policy and litigation, with particular focus on developing strategic priority of addressing poverty as a human rights issue.

Co-ordinator Charter Committee on Poverty Issues (CCPI) (1994- present)

• Co-ordinated CCPI's litigation on systemic issues and interventions in 14 cases at the Supreme Court of Canada, including Gosselin v Quebec, Eldridge v British Columbia, Mavis Baker v Canada, J.G. v New Brunswick and Chaoulli v Quebec.

Executive Director, Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA) (1987–2002)

• Conducted leading research and advocacy in the right to housing.
• Took major systemic cases to human rights tribunals, including the precedent-setting Kearney v Bramalea.
• Played a central role internationally promoting access to hearings and adjudication of social rights.

Publications

A list of co-edited books, articles and book chapters with links to text where possible is available at /publications.htm.