Ethnicity And Human Rights In Canada

Examines minority rights issues central to the concerns of Canada's three major ethnic constituencies: self-determination of aboriginal peoples; anti-racism strategies and multiculturalism; and the national sovereignty of the Quebecois. Analyses and evaluates the comparative strength of legal protection for the human rights of ethnic groups. Includes texts of the following documents: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Declaration of the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities; the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Constitution Act, 1982, Part I); and the Rights of the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada (Constitution Act, 1982, Part II).

This book examines key issues surrounding ethnicity and human rights in Canada. It reveals the ways in which human rights violations, by way of discrimination on the bases of race and ethnicity, create and sustain the marginalized status of diverse racial ethnic groups in Canada.

Human rights, equality, and social justice are at the forefront of public concern and political debate in Canada. Global events--especially the "war on terrorism"―have fostered further interest in the abuse of human rights, especially when sanctioned or perpetuated by democratic governments. This groundbreaking contributed volume seeks to shed light on this topic by uniting original essays that examine the history of human rights in Canada. Contributors explore a variety of themes integral to the post-confederation period, including immigration and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, disability, state formation, and provincial-federal relations. Three key issues emerge throughout: incidents of discrimination in both government and society, the efforts of human rights and civil liberties activists to create a more open and tolerant society, and the implementation of state legislation designed to protect or enhance civil rights.

In the first major study of postwar social movement organizations in Canada, Dominique Clément provides a history of the human rights movement as seen through the eyes of two generations of activists. Drawing on newly acquired archival sources, extensive interviews, and materials released through access to information applications, Clément explores the history of four organizations that emerged in the sixties and evolved into powerful lobbies for human rights despite bitter internal disputes and intense rivalries. This book offers a unique perspective on infamous human rights controversies and argues that the idea of human rights has historically been highly statist while grassroots activism has been at the heart of the most profound human rights advances.

A collection of new essays by a leading Canadian sociologist, this text covers a broad range of subjects on race and ethnicity in Canada: a demographic overview; human rights; policies on native people; multiculturalism; the politics of culture and language; ethnic identity and survival; the political economy of race and ethnicity; and gender and class.

Immigration, Racial and Ethnic Studies in 150 Years of Canada: Retrospects and Prospects provides a wide-ranging overview of immigration and contested racial and ethnic relations in Canada since confederation with a core theme being one of enduring racial and ethnic conflict.

Historically Canadians have considered themselves to be more or less free of racial prejudice. Although this conception has been challenged in recent years, it has not been completely dispelled. In Colour-Coded, Constance Backhouse illustrates the tenacious hold that white supremacy had on our legal system in the first half of this century, and underscores the damaging legacy of inequality that continues today. Backhouse presents detailed narratives of six court cases, each giving evidence of blatant racism created and enforced through law. The cases focus on Aboriginal, Inuit, Chinese-Canadian, and African-Canadian individuals, taking us from the criminal prosecution of traditional Aboriginal dance to the trial of members of the 'Ku Klux Klan of Kanada.' From thousands of possibilities, Backhouse has selected studies that constitute central moments in the legal history of race in Canada. Her selection also considers a wide range of legal forums, including administrative rulings by municipal councils, criminal trials before police magistrates, and criminal and civil cases heard by the highest courts in the provinces and by the Supreme Court of Canada. The extensive and detailed documentation presented here leaves no doubt that the Canadian legal system played a dominant role in creating and preserving racial discrimination. A central message of this book is that racism is deeply embedded in Canadian history despite Canada's reputation as a raceless society. Winner of the Joseph Brant Award, presented by the Ontario Historical Society