Author Archives

Pearl Eliadis is a senior lawyer in private practice based in Montreal. She has successfully led complex, global projects on national human rights institutions, capacity assessment, and women’s rights with institutional and multilateral clients. Pearl has undertaken in-country human rights assessments, and has been retained by institutional and multilateral clients, Canadian human rights institutions, and has worked in China, Ethiopia, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tajikistan and Timor Leste.

She is Associate Professor (professional) at McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy and she also lectures at the Faculty of Law. Pearl is a full member of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, serving on several non-profit and advisory boards. She has been appointed three times as President of the Quebec Bar Association’s Human Rights and Diversity Committee and has published extensively on human rights and governance issues. Her monograph, Speaking Out on Human Rights: Debating Canada’s Human Rights System, was named one of the best books in 2014, winning the Huguenot Society of Canada Award for freedom of expression and conscience. In 2017, she was named a Human Rights Changemaker by Equitas.

• Transrights in Quebec and Canada: Recent Developments

  By Pearl Eliadis on June 13, 2015

  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 ›

• Prayers at municipal council discriminatory: Analysis of the Supreme Court’s decision 

  By Pearl Eliadis on April 15, 2015

  

  April 15,  2015:  For years now, municipal leaders in Quebec have started council meetings with prayers, arguing that although Quebec is a secular society, the religious trappings of crucifixes, sacred heart statues and flashing red votive lights are merely the traditional… Read More ›

• Hijab-wearing Quebecer denied day in court

  By Pearl Eliadis on February 20, 2015

  Updated October 6 2016 In October 2015, Rania El-Alloul,a hijabi woman, came before Madame Justice Eliana Marengo of the provincial court to ask the court to return her seized vehicle.  The judge asked El-Alloul why she was wearing a scarf and, after a… Read More ›

• Rules for Schools: The Legality of Strip Searches

  By Pearl Eliadis on February 19, 2015

  There has been a good deal of interest lately in the legal basis for schools to search students. There is also a good deal of discussion about what the Supreme Court of Canada has said, and what it might mean… Read More ›

• @DavidLametti Ask questions, get audited (or worse) @CanRevAgency @liberal_party

  By Pearl Eliadis on February 17, 2015

  Republished from Voices-Voix  Ask questions, get audited: the case of PEN Canada Dear Voices-Voix supporters, What happens when a champion of free expression asks questions of the Canada Revenue Agency’s audits of charities? Especially if you voice concerns over the apparent… Read More ›

• Euthanasia, Suicide or Just Death? The New Rules In Canada

  By Pearl Eliadis on February 16, 2015

  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 ›

• Executive Override of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

  By Pearl Eliadis on December 10, 2014

  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 ›

• Bill C-44: Will the “Protection of Canada from Terrorists Act” actually protect Canada and #Humanrights? #OttawaShooting #canpoli

  By Pearl Eliadis on October 27, 2014 • ( 1 )

  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 ›

• @iclmg warns new civil liberties & #humanrights restrictions coming #OttawaShooting #canpoli

  By Pearl Eliadis on October 24, 2014

  Enhanced Spying Powers The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group recently warned that Canadian spy agencies will benefit from an expanded spying powers in a bill that will now be expedited, citing a recent Foreign Policy article : The amendments would… Read More ›

• Beware of curbing civil liberties because of #OttawaShooting @jmarianscott #canpoli http://bit.ly/1zmZjFh

  By Pearl Eliadis on October 23, 2014

  A leading human-rights expert warned Thursday that Canada should not use this week’s tragedies in Ottawa and St-Jean-sur-Richelieu to justify curbs on civil rights. “I’m concerned that this is going to be used by the Harper government as an excuse… Read More ›