The NIMBY Gauntlet: The Process of Socially Excluding Native Renters in Lethbridge?

Housing options remain limited for Aboriginal people in Lethbridge. Ongoing research shows that NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) may be regularly practiced by landlords, and plays a central role in denying Aboriginal renters access to accommodations. In this presentation, the speaker examines the systemic nature of what can be described as the NIMBY Gauntlet. Lethbridge landlords, under the guise of the NIMBY Gauntlet, arguable use this mechanism to bring about discrimination against potential Native tenants. The NIMBY Gauntlet, as described, perpetuates what one scholar proclaims to be municipal colonialism, which in this case is characterized by landlords systematically filtering out potential Aboriginal tenants. The speaker will outline some possible remedies aimed at ending such discrimination. Speaker: Yale Belanger Dr. Yale D. Belanger (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Native American Studies (NAS) at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta). Trained as a political historian, his doctoral work at Trent University focused on the emergence and evolution of Aboriginal political organizations in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Canada. His current research with Drs. David Gregory and Jo-Anne Fiske focuses on how NIMBY operates to deny Aboriginal people access to rental accommodations, with an emphasis on developing appropriate strategies to eradicate this process.