Search Results for: Canadian Human Rights Act

A coalition of over 60 Canadian rights groups denounced on Friday the rushed enactment of the Combatting Hate Act in Parliament. The groups criticized the law for its vagueness and potential unintended chilling effect on the right to peaceful assembly. The statement described the act as combating hate at the expense of the fundamental rights [...]

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand announced the introduction of a new legislation in the federal parliament that would further strengthen the existing legal framework to prevent goods made with forced labor from entering the Canadian market. Bill C-35, titled “An Act respecting the prohibition of the importation of goods produced by forced labour” [...]

The Supreme Court of British Columbia (BC) ruled on Friday that the city of Victoria can enact bylaws to vacate encampments within its authority. This ruling does not prevent the court from reviewing the bylaws’ constitutionality if the petitioners decide to make that challenge. Justice Jacqueline Hughes found that the BC Community Charter authorizes municipalities [...]

The Canadian federal government introduced a bill on Wednesday to regulate social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The bill seeks to require tech companies to act responsibly, regulating online harmful content. It also calls for establishment of a digital safety commission to oversee the measure’s implementation. Tabled at the House of Commons on Monday, [...]

The upper house of the Canadian parliament passed Bill S-228 on Monday to amend the Criminal Code (the Code) to explicitly criminalize forced and coerced sterilization. Specifically, the bill amends § 268(1) of the Code and prohibits the performance of a sterilization procedure without a patient’s voluntary consent as an act that wounds or maims [...]

The upper house of the Canadian parliament on Thursday adopted the Combatting Hate Act, by a vote of 45-13. The Senate adopted a last-minute amendment to outlaw the display of a noose. The act outlaws the “wilful promotion of hatred” such as display of the Nazi hakenkreuz and symbols of listed terrorist entities, among other [...]

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation on Tuesday called on governments to engage in meaningful labor negotiations and refrain from invoking the “notwithstanding clause.” The statement urged all governments to respect teachers’ labor rights, including the right to association, collective bargaining and strike. The group called on the government to engage in good-faith negotiations with education workers [...]

The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) on Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Graves in Canada released its preliminary statement on Sunday, finding that acts committed by Canada constitute genocide, and that Canada has failed to comply with its international legal obligations to investigate and punish these crimes. The PPT found that the pattern of [...]

Appointed to the Senate of Canada in November 2016, the Honourable Yuen Pau Woo sits as an independent senator representing the province of British Columbia. A longtime public policy expert on Canada-Asia relations and former President and CEO of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, Senator Woo serves on the Senate Standing Committees on Foreign [...]

Canadian Bill C-12, the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act, received royal assent on Thursday. Following its passing, 28 domestic and international refugee and migrant rights groups released a joint statement that denounced the bill as an attack on refugee and migrant rights. Bill C-12 is a modified version of Bill C-2, which itself [...]