The Ontario legislature is debating a private member's bill designed to help shut down crack houses and brothels.

The proposed safer communities and neighbourhood act lowers the burden of proof required for the courts to act against drug dealing or running a brothel.

Neighbours would be able to give anonymous testimony, and if a judge is persuaded that a property is most likely being used for crime, the occupants could be evicted. A judge would also be able close a property for up to 90 days.

"Innocent people are being targeted by those who are engaged in illicit drug trade and … the sole purpose behind this legislation is to ensure that we protect the vulnerable," said the author of the bill, Liberal Yasir Naqvi.

The bill passed second reading in October, and is now being considered by a legislative committee.

Cheri DiNovo, the NDP member for Toronto's Parkdale-High Park riding, is vowing to stop the bill, which she says violates tenants' rights and unfairly targets the most vulnerable.

'Criminals don't target rich neighbourhoods'

But Naqvi, who represents the Ottawa Centre riding, disagrees, saying the bill protects the disadvantaged.

"Criminals don't target rich neighbourhoods, they operate in poor neighbourhoods, and those poor people also have the right to live in a safe and healthy community and that's what this legislation is trying to do," he said.

Patricia Gora lives on a street with a reputed crack house in DiNovo's Parkdale riding.

"If there's a supposed crack house here and those people are found and they're thrown out of their homes, well, where will they go next?" she said.

Else-Marie Knudsen, a spokeswoman for the John Howard Society of Toronto, a group that advocates for the rights of those in trouble with the law, dismisses the bill as being ineffective at preventing crime.

"The crime is simply displaced. It moves on to another street, another neighbourhood, another community, for someone else to deal with," she said.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta already have similar laws. Supporters of the bill in Manitoba have credited it with cleaning up parts of Winnipeg.