Belongings Matter is a Canada-wide research project that aims to document and explain the systematic confiscation and devaluation of houseless people’s belongings. As part of the Annual Warren Gill Lecture Series, Nick Blomley, a professor of Geography at Simon Fraser University, presented some of the findings from the research project.
Nick Blomley was joined in conversation with research partner and Associate Professor at the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia Alexandra Flynn, and Connie Long, an Indigenous advocate for vulnerable communities with lived experience who organizes in Chilliwack and Abbotsford.
The lecture and following discussion highlighted the ways in which legal and cultural concepts of land ownership and private property contribute to the marginalization of unhoused populations and their belongings.
After the lecture, CJSF was able to interview Nick Blomley and further discuss some of the main takeaways from Belongings Matter.
