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The courts have interpreted and applied sections 1 and 2 of the Charter, including in the case of Occupy Toronto in 2011. In recent days, the word 'freedom' has been [...]

Reading Time: 6 minutes When regulating the Internet, Canada struggles with it being borderless and how to uphold freedom of expression. In the past months, we have seen increased concern [...]

In Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Vioience Society v Canada (Attorney General), 2012 SCC 45 (DESW), the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) adapted the rule on public interest standing. [...]

Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) are groups formed in schools and run by students with teacher support or sponsorship. The purpose of a GSA is to create welcoming, caring, respectful and safe [...]

A recent Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) case, R v Slatter, 2020 SCC 36, provided a strong statement about the treatment of evidence provided by witnesses who have intellectual or [...]

September 1, 2020By Linda McKay-Panos Recently, anti-racism has received extensive media coverage. Instead of addressing what can be done about it, there has been much discussion about whether racism--particularly systemic [...]

For the past few decades, there has been growing publicity about the over-representation of Indigenous and other minority children in our child welfare systems across Canada. The 2015 findings of [...]

There has been a great deal of attention in the media lately about allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace. The current '#MeToo Movement' was thought to [...]

Human rights legislation across Canada has similarities and differences. Most legislation covers discrimination in specific contexts (such as services customarily available to the public) and membership in professional associations or [...]

Many Canadians are living in poverty, and people from certain groups are overrepresented in those who are suffering poverty's adverse effects, no matter how we measure or define 'poverty'. For [...]

The Accessible Canada Act and similar legislation in four provinces address systemic barriers of accessibility. According to Statistics Canada (2017), 22% of Canadians over the age of 15 live with [...]

In Carter v Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruled that Criminal Code sections 241 and 14 deprived adults of their right to life, liberty and security [...]

When is Reinstatement Possible for Employment Discrimination? A worker experiencing discrimination must choose the legal avenue that will give them the result they want. For example, if pursuing the matter [...]

Recently, Ontario's Premier Doug Ford passed a new policy that Ontario universities should adopt free-speech policies, or face receiving less money from the Government. The policies must meet 'a minimum [...]

Recently, Quebec Premier Francois Legault's government introduced Bill 21 (An Act Respecting the Laicity [Secularism] of the State). Among other things, the Act prohibits public workers in positions of authority [...]

Recently, extradition has been front and centre in our news cycle (see: CBC, January 22, 2019 'China accuses U.S., Canada of abusing extradition in Huawei case'). There are very important [...]

In 1899, Treaty 8 was negotiated with several First Nations groups in Northern Alberta--North East Saskatchewan, Southwest parts of the Northwest Territories and later Eastern British Columbia--resulting in land surrender [...]

Alberta will be amending its Alberta Human Rights Act RSA 2000, c A-25.5 ('Act'), to expand protections for age discrimination and include improved program protections. Bill 23, which introduced amendments [...]

There is a long-standing concern about the under-representation of women (and minorities) in our political system. There are several theories about why these groups are not reflected in politics in [...]

From time to time, concerns are expressed about the length of time human rights complaints take to resolve. There are some circumstances where resolution of these cases does seem to [...]

In late January, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (Tribunal) ruled that children living on First Nations reserves have been discriminated against because of underfunding of education and child welfare. [...]

A few months ago, this human rights column was about the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision in R v Kokopenace, 2013 ONCA. The major issues in Kokopenace were the scope [...]

This is a continuation of an earlier column about the Report on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada which was issued in December 2014 by the Inter-American [...]

On November 21, 2014, in R v Kokopenace, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal a case from the Ontario Court of Appeal (2013 ONCA 389). The case [...]

The Law Commission of Ontario defines vulnerable workers as 'those engaged in precarious work'. 'Precarious work' includes: * those jobs where one has low wages and at least two of [...]

On October 4, 2017, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, announced that the House of Commons passed a Bill that originated in the Senate: the Justice for Victims of Corrupt [...]

Canadian courts, even though they are not litigants, third parties may have an interest in intervening in court proceedings because the court's judgment may affect them or others whom they [...]

Various provincial and federal jurisdictions choose to protect people from discrimination on various grounds in areas such as employment, services customarily available to the public and tenancy. In some cases, [...]

Whenever I teach undergrad students about gender discrimination, they are often quite shocked to discover that as recently as the 1970s, there was a Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruling [...]

There have been several recent news stories about harassment issues in Canadian workplaces. For example, a 2013 review of the Calgary Police Services workplace was recently released, containing detailed allegations [...]

Mahatma Ghandi once said: 'A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.' Canada has used solitary confinement for prisoners for decades. In the past several years, [...]

With many recent advances in technology, testing can disclose information about people's health that was not available even a few years ago. For example, genetic testing can reveal that a [...]

Across Canada we have seen many developments in GLBT rights in the past few years. With the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, we might have thought that true equality for [...]

Note: a portion of this article is reproduced with permission from Ahlawg.ca 'Accommodation for Family Status Required by Federal Human Rights Tribunal for Three Alberta Women' --Ablawg December 22, 2010 [...]

Standing is a legal principle that addresses who is entitled to bring a case before the court for a decision. Although standing (in a legal sense) may sound like a [...]

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Charter has had a significant impact on our governments and courts and it is a [...]

Recent developments in Canadian prostitution law prompt an examination of some very important legal, moral and philosophical issues. For many years, the act of selling sex has not been illegal [...]

The law has always been quite complex about whether (or when) the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter) applies to universities. Recently, there have been several cases involving freedom of [...]

One of the first human rights cases I worked on while articling at the Alberta courts involved mandatory retirement. In 1992, Dr. Olive Dickason unsuccessfully challenged the University of Alberta's [...]

It may come as a surprise, but in Canada we have significant numbers of people who suffer from food insecurity. According to Health Canada, in 2007 to 2008, 7.7% (961,000) [...]

In a recent interview with the CBC, Prime Minister Harper indicated that the federal government will be re-introducing anti-terrorism measures, such as preventive arrest and the ability to force individuals [...]

In 2008, I wrote a column for LAWNOW entitled 'What's Going On With Human Rights Commissions?' In it, I summarized the debate surrounding the call for abolishment of Human Rights [...]

Canada has long been regarded as a safe haven for those escaping persecution. In fact, Canada signed and ratified the international Refugee Convention and its protocol, which indicates that signatories [...]

There are currently no laws in Canada that force a person to retire. The federal and most provincial governments prohibit age discrimination in their human rights legislation. Nevertheless, mandatory retirement [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada recently released R v Caron, 2011 SCC 5, which brings together issues of access to justice, language rights and the public interest. The subject matter [...]

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is one of the most widely ratified international documents. While Somalia and the United States have not ratified the [...]

Homelessness is an issue in Canada. When special events occur, such as the Winter Olympics, the G-8, or G-20, laws, by-laws, and policies are instituted in the name of security [...]

In the past few years, in response to 9/11, the Canadian government has been using security certificates to detain non-citizens who are suspected terrorists. In reality, the process of issuing [...]