Topocide

Encampment sweeps in Edmonton are yet another example of settler colonialism

Retrieved on: 
星期四, 二月 8, 2024
Justice, Policy, Housing, Homelessness, Second, Human rights, History, Government, City, Family, Plain, United Nations, Federation, York University, Eviction, Rights, Indigenous peoples, Colonialism, Topocide, Rest, Amputation, Edmonton City Council, Clearing the Plains, Coalition, Camp, Oil

It feels like housing is at a tipping point in the city of Edmonton. There have been four main events highlighting the situation: These events should be understood within ongoing settler colonialism and a housing crisis endemic in Canada’s broader housing system.Housing in Canada The state of housing both in Canada and globally is worsening, but the housing crisis is not new.

Key Points: 


It feels like housing is at a tipping point in the city of Edmonton. There have been four main events highlighting the situation:
These events should be understood within ongoing settler colonialism and a housing crisis endemic in Canada’s broader housing system.

Housing in Canada

  • The state of housing both in Canada and globally is worsening, but the housing crisis is not new.
  • Read more:
    Two-thirds of Canadian and American renters are in unaffordable housing situations

    While affordable housing policies in Canada emerged following the Second World War, colonialism is foundational to housing policy, evidenced by the high rates of housing vulnerability that Indigenous Peoples face.

Encampment sweeps violate human rights

  • This isn’t happening, apparently, when it comes to encampments, which are both a site of human rights violations and of human rights claims.
  • The coalition argued human rights were violated during encampment sweeps.
  • Domicide is applicable to the encampment sweeps in Edmonton, the historical domicide that enabled the settlement of Edmonton in the first place, and the laws that governed the unsuccessful lawsuit launched by the Coalition for Justice and Human Rights.

Coming together in colonialism

  • When authorities make reference to “public safety” concerns about encampment, unhoused people are positioned as dangerous.
  • The destruction of those encampments simply drives people who are unhoused further to the margins.
  • But punitive approaches like encampment sweeps perpetuate settler colonialism and prioritize the perceptions and preferences of the ruling class.


Katie MacDonald receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Domicide: the destruction of homes in Gaza reminds me of what happened to my city, Homs

Retrieved on: 
星期五, 十月 27, 2023
People, Grief, Hamas, Housing, Government, Refugee, History, Architecture, News, Public works, University, Research, Dignity, Trauma, Ministry, Interview, Asad, Topocide, Environment, Ministry of Public Works and Housing (Indonesia), City, Genocide, Hospital, Culture, Pain, UN, Occupation, Nightclub, Video game, Tourism, Hunting, Mobile phone

The Israeli bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 has forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes.

Key Points: 
  • The Israeli bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 has forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians out of their homes.
  • At least 43% of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been either destroyed or damaged since the start of the hostilities, according to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza.
  • Israel says that 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas attack on Israel and more than 220 taken hostage.
  • Domicide refers to the deliberate destruction of home, or the killing of the city or home.

The destruction of Homs

  • My home city of Homs, Syria, which I focus on in my research, has been completely transformed since the 2011 uprising against the government of Bashar al Assad.
  • Over 50% of the neighbourhoods have been heavily destroyed, and over a quarter partially destroyed.
  • In Homs, for example, whole neighbourhoods that opposed the Assad regime were targeted and razed to the ground.

Domicide in Gaza

  • There is no need to compare Homs and Gaza, as each place has its own context and struggle.
  • Gaza has been described as an open prison and people in that open prison have been pushed away from their homes.
  • Raz Segal, an Israeli historian, wrote: “Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is quite explicit, open, and unashamed.” Others argue vehemently against any moral equivalence with the Hamas attacks.

Catastrophe for Palestinians

  • It’s not the first time that Palestinians in Gaza have had their homes destroyed.
  • Many of the Palestinians who live in Gaza are people who have been displaced before.
  • This is why many academics, activists, journalists and even Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, call for context, for situating the Palestinian struggle within a history of suffering, dispossession and forced displacement since the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948.


Ammar Azzouz receives funding from British Academy for his research fellowship at the university.