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October 06, 2026
Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY) Book Club: The Bylaw State
This October, join authors Dr Alexandra Flynn and Dr Joe Hermer at RaY – 125 Sherbrook to dive into their new publication The Bylaw State – Fernwood Publishing. The book club will meet at 7:30 pm on October 6, October 13, October 20, October 27, November 10, November 17, November 24, and December 1.
Each Tuesday, join thinkers and workers active on matters of homelessness, policy, and planning in Winnipeg to consider a chapter of the book and discuss together.
This is open to everyone! All levels of reading, education, and issue-based participation are welcome!
RSVP through the link below. Email info@rayinc.ca if you have any questions.
Get your book now! Books are available from RaY directly for $25. When registering, let RaY know if you would like to purchase and pick up the book from us at 125 Sherbrook St. Or order from Prairie Sky or your favorite local bookstore!
This book club was organized with the support of Resource Assistance for Youth, Centre for Human Rights Research, Prairie Sky, Organic Planet, Hildegard’s Bakery & Next Door.
About the Book
Anti-encampment bylaws raise the question of what legal and moral rights unhoused people have to live in public space. The Bylaw State shows that bylaws are powerful municipal instruments. Far from being innocuous laws enforced by municipal workers, bylaws have quietly emerged over the last two decades as the method of governing homelessness in Canada. Case studies in Prince George and Vancouver demonstrate the extraordinary expansion of municipal bylaws and the place of courts in defending the legal rights of homeless people to take up public space. Legal scholar Alexandra Flynn and sociologist Joe Hermer explain how municipalities create an exclusionary ideal of public space through evictions and banishment, and they make a powerful case for a more inclusive approach that protects people not just spaces.
About the Authors
Professor Alexandra Flynn’s teaching and research focus on municipal law and governance, administrative law, and property law. She has published numerous peer-reviewed papers, public reports, and edited books on Indigenous municipal legal relationships, housing and homelessness, and the constitutional status of cities. She is the Director of the Housing Research Collaborative, which comprises CMHC and SSHRC-funded projects focused on Canada’s housing crisis: the Housing Assessment Resource Tools project, which helps communities to measure and address their housing need; and the Balanced Supply of Housing Node, which brings together academic and non-profit community organizations to research responsive land use practices and the financialization of housing. She is also working on several projects related to precariously housed people in Canadian cities, including the governance of personal property of precariously housed people, and human rights and tent encampments.
Professor Flynn has a long history working in law and policy. Prior to entering academia, she practiced banking and securities law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York, where she was the recipient of several Legal Aid awards. She also practiced Aboriginal Law at Ratcliff & Company in Vancouver, representing First Nations, and worked in a senior policy role at the City of Toronto focused on intergovernmental relationships.
Professor Flynn is a past TEDx speaker and a frequent media commentator. She has a long history of volunteer work in the areas of homelessness and access to justice.
Joe Hermer is a criminologist and an associate professor in and chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He does research in the areas of policing, regulation, and state power, with a particular interest in vulnerable and street-involved populations. His recent work has focused on how municipal governments police homeless encampments and unhoused people in public space. He advises NGOs, charities, and legal advocates on anti-criminalization strategies and legal interventions. His recent work includes Policing Compassion: Begging, Law and Power in Public Spaces.
