🌍💔 OPEN LETTER TO THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD 💔🌍
A Global Call for Emergency Action on Canada’s Housing & Human Rights Crisis — Winter 2025
This morning, my 76-year-old friend walked past a city park bench and saw a young homeless youth curled up in the cold, trying to sleep.
A youth, someone's baby, a child. Alone.
No blanket. No shelter.
Just a frozen bench in a rich Canadian city.
My friend — an elder — stood there heartbroken and helpless.
💔 “How can this be happening here?”
💔 “Where are their parents?”
💔 “Why is Canada letting youth live like this?”
This is not an isolated tragedy.
This is what Canada looks like right now.
The Reality on the Ground
- Encampments in North Cowichan torn down
- More than 80 recent overdoses
- Abbotsford pushing people out of rest areas and shutting off water
- A hotel shelter closed — residents left with nowhere to go
- People scattered into the cold
- Winter already here
Meanwhile, like thousands of others, my own housing ends in days.
I’m bouncing between short stays, unsafe situations, and temporary roofs — praying I don’t fall through the cracks completely.
This is not poverty.
This is abandonment.
This is a humanitarian emergency in one of the richest countries in the world.
🏛️⛔ A COMPLETE FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT — CITY, PROVINCE, AND FEDERAL
This crisis exists because all three levels of government refuse to cooperate, passing responsibility back and forth while people die.
🏙️ Municipal Failure — Vancouver & Mayor Ken Sim
Under Mayor Ken Sim, the City of Vancouver has failed:
- Encampments cleared with no real alternatives
- Vulnerable people displaced instead of supported
- Zero coordinated winter emergency plan
- No compassion, no urgency, no dignity
This is not leadership. This is abandonment.
🏞️ Provincial Failure — British Columbia
The Province of BC has allowed:
- A collapsing shelter system
- Social assistance rates that guarantee homelessness
- No emergency winter housing
- Overdose numbers exploding
- Mental health + housing operating in silos
🇨🇦 Federal Failure — Government of Canada
The federal government has:
- A failed National Housing Strategy
- Allowed housing to become a speculative investment casino
- Not enforced housing as a human right
- Refused to declare a national emergency
- Ignored years of community warnings
This is not one government failing.
This is every level of government failing at the same time.
While they argue, people freeze, overdose, suffer, and disappear.
🌐 THE WORLD MUST INTERVENE — NOW
To the Netherlands,
To the United Nations,
To all countries that believe in human rights:
Canada is in a life-and-death crisis and is refusing to protect its own citizens.
We need the international community to act immediately.
🚨 WHAT MUST HAPPEN NOW
1. Issue an International Condemnation — NOW
Canada is violating the rights of its unhoused people through displacement, destruction of shelters, and denial of basic necessities.
2. Demand Canada Declare a National Housing Emergency — NOW
People need protection immediately.
Winter is deadly. Bureaucracy kills.
3. Require Emergency Winter Housing & Shelters to Open — NOW
Not planned.
Not “in development.”
Opened TONIGHT.
4. Deploy International Human Rights Observers — NOW
To document encampment removals, overdose spikes, and denial of services.
5. Pressure & Sanction Housing Financialization — NOW
Housing cannot remain a commodity while humans sleep on benches.
This is life and death.
Action must be immediate.
🌍 DO NOT LOOK AWAY
A youth sleeping on a bench.
A 76-year-old elder heartbroken.
A wealthy nation pretending everything is fine.
This is not a Canadian issue —
This is a global human rights emergency.
We ask for solidarity.
We ask for outrage.
We ask for immediate global action.
Housing is a human right.
Safety is a human right.
Dignity is a human right.
LIFE is a human right.
Signed,
Tina Winterlik (Zipolita)
A Canadian Citizen Pleading for Urgent International Action
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