Tolerating Homelessness in Canada's Capital

Gender, Place and Human Rights

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore relational (inclusive) and reductionist (exclusionary) interpretations of ,tolerance’ with regard to homelessness, a prominent example of social and economic inequality. The paper examines these notions through three scalar lenses — a national, statist perspective; a locally situated but neo-liberal perspective based on newspaper reporting; and a locally situated activist orientation — and considers their gendered and human rights implications. Conceptual and theoretical connections are made between neo-liberal globalism, urbanism and tolerance. The paper concludes that tensions exist between relational and reductionist interpretations of tolerance and that there is an onus on citizens to make these choices explicit.