by Pearl Eliadis, Aude Exertier, Mirja Trilschand Cory Verbauwhede Background Obtaining health care for persons with precarious immigration status in Quebec has been a longstanding social struggle that has played out in several phases. Until 2021, for example, the government of Quebec… Read More ›
SUBMISSION ON BILL 96, An act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec PRESENTED TO THE QUEBEC COMMUNITY GROUPS NETWORK (please note that this is a slightly updated version and in the event of any discrepancy, this is… Read More ›
10 March 2021 “The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society.” – Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Principles of Reconciliation, Principle #… Read More ›
Pearl Eliadis • Special to Montreal Gazette Publishing date:Oct 13, 2020 • Last Updated 1 month ago • 3 minute read Quebec-born Psalm is only one of many children living in this province who are unjustly being denied coverage because of parents’ status. Little Psalm lives… Read More ›
New report finding racism at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights was shocking — but predictable A recent report on discrimination and harassment at the CMHR is a wake-up call for the museum’s management and board of trustees. THE CANADIAN… Read More ›
Government-controlled University of Buea has dismissed renowned human rights activist, barrister, and educator Felix Ngonho in a broad campaign of harassment against Anglophone activists
An elderly woman looks out from Maison Herron, a long-term care home in the Montréal suburb of Dorval on April 12, 2020. Isolating people in facilities where they are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 is a violation of their… Read More ›
Originally published by the PKI Global Justice Journal February 19, 2020 Kevin Kolben and The Consumer Imaginary: Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Citizen-Consumers in the Global Supply Chain: Commentary and Analysis By: Pearl Eliadis, Visiting Scholar, with commentary from Alyssa King, Assistant Professor… Read More ›
On June 3, 2019, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (Cameroon) and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (Canada) launched a groundbreaking report on Cameroon’s crisis in the Anglophone regions, now widely recognized as one of the most… Read More ›
Human rights commissions require an enabling environment, a concept that focuses on those external factors that permit institutions to thrive and to do their work freely and without undue pressure or interference. We need to reframe the role of human rights commissions as not only administrative bodies charged with preventing discrimination, but also as norms-brokers that can and must engage with a variety of different norms and systems in order to do their work properly.
Summary: This case comment focuses on the types of reparations and their calculations that have been accepted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Trial Chamber II (“the Chamber”) of the ICC ordered both individual and collective reparations to the… Read More ›
Bill 62, which is now law, has three central functions: it affirms the religious neutrality of the state, prohibits people from covering their faces when giving or receiving public services, and creates a legal framework for accommodating religious minorities. Its… Read More ›
Employers are frequently asked about whether they are required to provide flexible working hours. Generally speaking, accommodation requests based on things like health status (for persons with disabilities), family status (for example, four children or elderly parents who require care)… Read More ›
Global Principles for the Capacity Assessment of the NHRIs National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are central to strong national systems for protection and promotion of human rights. These institutions, operating in a variety of contexts, can be instrumental in supporting… Read More ›
More than 500 women have signed the public statement below to protest the politics of division being practised in Canada today. I am very proud to stand in such distinguished company. The original statement and the 500+ and counting signatories… Read More ›
Like about half the provinces in Canada, Quebec used to oblige transgendered people (“trans people”) to undergo sexual reassignment surgery before permitting a change to their civil status (i.e. birth certificate).[1] In December 2013, the government Quebec amended the Civil… Read More ›
On February 6, 2015 a unanimous Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in a much-awaited case dealing with physician-assisted death called Carter v. Canada. The Court declared void the criminal prohibition in s. 241 (b) of the Criminal Code… Read More ›
This blog post was contributed for Human Rights Day, observed on December 10. This text is drawn from the introductory pages of Speaking Out on Human Rights: Debating Canada’s Human Rights System (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014). There is a broad consensus… Read More ›
The federal government has said that it would introduce legislation on four main fronts to counter terrorism: providing anonymity to CSIS informants; expanding CSIS’ powers in terms of its ability to undertake investigations overseas; enhancing powers of preventative detention, and… Read More ›
Recent media reports say that prominent organizations PEN Canada and Oxfam Canada are under fire from the charities directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). There was already a large number of organizations under review, and the number of those… Read More ›
LAWYERS RIGHTS WATCH CANADA NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Promoting human rights by protecting those who defend them http://www.lrwc.org – lrwc@portal.ca – Tel: +1 604 736 1175 – Fax: +1… Read More ›
Voices-Voix recently released a video by UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai on the narrowing space for dissent in Canada and the need for an assessment of democratic rights. During an academic visit to Canada in 2013, Mr. Kiai noted with… Read More ›
The latest in the Voices-Voix series of videos on silencing dissent in Canada features Edgar Schmidt, a former senior human rights lawyer at the federal Department of Justice and a defender of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Schmidt… Read More ›
The first of a series of Voices’ videos on the silencing of dissent was launched yesterday. It features John Bennett, Program Director of Sierra Club Canada Foundation, one of Canada’s leading environmental charitable organizations. Bennett describes the attack launched by… Read More ›
The first of a series of videos on the silencing of dissent was launched yesterday. It features Cindy Blackstock, Aboriginal child rights advocate and head of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. Blackstock’s organization, along with the Assembly… Read More ›
The Parti Quebecois government has come and gone, and people may remember the March 31 announcement that Pauline Marois planned to invoke the notwithstanding clause as merely one more political ploy gone bad in a disastrous campaign. That would be… Read More ›
This morning, Québec’s human rights commission released a communiqué and a twenty-seven page legal analysis, setting out its concerns about the proposed Charter of Values. The Commission, which has consistently upheld minority rights, rights of religious minorities, and equality rights… Read More ›
There are two sentences that, when put together, signal danger in any society. The first is, “our country is for us” and the second is “our own culture and heritage come first”. I have heard them used to justify female… Read More ›
This blog discusses the 2021 Ward v Quebec Supreme Court decision and its implications for human rights protections in Quebec. While freedom of speech is a central tenet of Western liberal democracies, the Court’s decision to raise the legal threshold of many… Read More ›
In a carefully measured decision of 245 paragraphs, Mr. Justice Bernard Synnott of the Quebec Superior Court on Friday dismissed the City of Montreal’s case against Mayor Sue Montgomery. (Full disclosure: I know Sue Montgomery. I do not know her… Read More ›
Montreal, November 19th, 2020 Dear Prime Minister, Dear Minister of Health and Social Services, Dear Members of the National Assembly, On the eve of World Children’s Day, we, the undersigned organizations, health care professionals, human rights advocates, and academics are… Read More ›
Montréal, le 19 novembre 2020 Monsieur le Premier ministre, Monsieur le Ministre, Mesdames, Messieurs les député.e.s, À la veille de la journée mondiale de l’enfance, des familles, des organisations et des professionnels de la santé et des droits de la… Read More ›
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