Free Public Transit and the Right to the City

In recent years there has been a surge in support for free public transit across Canada. This thesis tracks the rapid changes to the free public transit movement through content analysis and interviewing activists at the centre of the struggle. I find that people come to free public transit organizing to address poverty, reduce emissions, end police violence, and create a safer workspace. With the increase in support for free public transit, it has become a policy supported in one way or another by politicians across the political spectrum. I argue that in order for free public transit to address poverty, reduce emissions, end police violence, and create safer workspaces, free public transit must move beyond demands for free publicly owned transit and move towards demands for free publicly controlled transit under the framework of the right to the city