Human Rights Law Commons^™

A Conflict By Any Other Name Would Smell As Foul: A Comment On The Appointment Of A Vice-President Of Pfizer To The Cihr Governing Council, Jocelyn Downie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

If one had to pick the pharmaceutical company most associated with unethical and illegal conduct this past year, it would likely be Pfizer. So it seems reasonable to respond with disbelief and outrage to the federal government’s October 5, 2009 appointment of Dr. Bernard Prigent – Vice President, Medical Director and registered lobbyist for Pfizer Canada – to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Governing Council (CIHR GC). This is the body that sets the strategic direction for most federally funded health research in Canada. A senior executive from a for-profit pharmaceutical company should not be given a seat at …

Tackling Disability Discrimination At Work: Toward A Systematic Approach, Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier Collection

Approaching disability discrimination in systemic terms is the most fundamental challenge that disability human rights law currently faces. Achieving fundamental change in relation to disability at work necessitates challenging able-bodied norms. To that end, a social construction of disability entails adapting the environment to meet the needs of those with a variety of dis-abilities. Tackling disability discrimination requires contesting what is deemed “normal” be­cause it is the way most able-bodied persons function, necessitating a thorough understanding of adverse effects discrimination, which looks behind purportedly neutral practices to uncover detrimental effects on those who do not function “normally”.

The fact that …

Precarious Pathways: Evaluating The Provincial Nominee Programs In Canada, Jamie Baxter

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Temporary foreign workers in Canada experience substandard employment relationships, are explicitly denied many formal rights and are practically excluded from most employment protections. Led by a growing emphasis on workers’ temporary status as a root cause of their employment-related vulnerabilities, some advocates, as well as elected officials, are now calling on governments to improve opportunities for workers to attain permanent residency in Canada, primarily for those in lower-skilled occupations. The central aim of this paper is to evaluate whether Provincial Nominee Programs are likely to address the real insecurities faced by vulnerable lower-skilled temporary foreign workers. Given that there are …

Watch Your Language: A Review Of The Use Of Stigmatizing Language By Canadian Judges, Jocelyn Downie, Michelle Black

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Despite ongoing advances in understanding the causes and prevalence of mental health issues, stigmatizing language is still often directed at people who have mental illness. Such language is regularly used by parties, such as the media, who have great influence on public opinion and attitudes. Since the decisions from Canadian courtrooms can also have a strong impact on societal views, we asked whether judges use stigmatizing language in their decisions. To answer this question, we conducted a qualitative study by searching through modern Canadian case law using search terms that were indicative of stigmatizing language. We found that, although judges …

Conceptualizing The Home State Duty To Protect Human Rights, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights (SRSG) has identified the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by non-State actors, including business, as one of the fundamental pillars of the Framework for Business and Human Rights [Framework].1 The Framework “rests on differentiated but complementary responsibilities”, and is comprised of three “core principles”: the State duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and the need for more effective access to remedies.2 However, the jurisdictional scope of the State duty to protect is disputed. According to the SRSG, international law provides that …

R. V. Munyaneza: Pondering Canada's First Core Crimes Conviction, Robert Currie, Ion Stancu

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canada recently completed its first genocide trial, which resulted in the conviction of the Rwandan accused, Desiré Munyaneza, for crimes committed during the Rwandan genocide. While the case is still under appeal, it represents a significant success for Canada’s relatively new core crimes legislation, the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and was the first prosecution undertaken pursuant to that law. Drawing upon the Munyaneza case, the authors analyze the legislation and evaluate its effectiveness. They conclude that the model is an effective one that both bodes well for Canada’s future participation in the battle against impunity, and provides …

Enforcing Idealism: The Implementation Of Complementary International Protection In Canadian Refugee Law, Zofia Przybytkowski

LLM Theses

This thesis evaluates Canadas compliance with human rights-based complementary international protection. Through an analysis of the roots of international refugee protection, it first links the evolution of the latter with the development of human rights law instruments. It then defines complementary protection as the corpus of legal bases for asylum claims outside of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It uses various human rights instruments to outline international protection obligations, which take three different forms of complementary protection. The first one consists in independent protection mechanisms outside of the Refugee Convention, the most important being the formulation of …

Domestic Violence And Gender-Based Persecution: How Refugee Adjudicators Judge Women Seeking Refuge From Spousal Violence – And Why Reform Is Needed, Constance Macintosh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This report is an effort to address information gaps regarding how gendered claims are addressed by adjudicators at Canada’s Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (the RPD). It looks at one specific type of gendered claim: persecution through domestic or intimate violence. The study considers all the RPD decisions from 2004 to 2009 and judicial reviews from 2005 to 2009 that were reported in the Quicklaw LexisNexis service. These decisions are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively.

This report finds adjudicators consistently identify domestic violence as a form of gendered persecution that can form a nexus …

Balancing Necessity And Individual Rights In The Fight Against Transnational Terrorism: 'Targeted Killings' And International Law, Karinne Lantz

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article explores the restraints international human rights law and international humanitarian law place on a State’s use of lethal force against suspected terrorists. Although the law restricts the ability to target suspected terrorists, it is argued that these limits should be respected in order to protect innocent civilians from undue harm. Under IHRL, it is argued that the right to life as a peremptory norm restricts extra-territorial targeted attacks of suspected terrorists. Accordingly, such action should only be considered lawful when it is necessary to protect the State’s population from a known threat and lesser force would not suffice. …

Social And Economic Rights In Canada: What Are They And Who Can Best Protect Them?, A. Wayne Mackay

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article examines the development and current status of positive social and economic rights in Canada. Exploring the comparative competence of legislatures, courts and human rights tribunals, Wayne MacKay suggests that courts should depart, with caution, from their traditional deferential role to legislators. Due to their flexibility and accessibility, HR Tribunals should supplement the role of the courts and legislatures in giving effect to social and economic rights, which should form part of a holistic package of human rights in Canada.

Adding Social Condition To The Canadian Human Rights Act, A. Wayne Mackay, Natasha Kim

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Almost a decade ago, in June 2000, the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel conducted a comprehensive review of the Canadian Human Rights Act [CHRA] and recommended that “social condition” be added as a prohibited ground of discrimination. Since then, no action has been taken to implement this recommendation, despite calls for action from international bodies, political actors, human rights agencies and organizations, and academic commentators to provide protections from discrimination for those suffering from social and economic disadvantage. The authors analyze the experiences at the provincial level with socio-economic grounds of discrimination, jurisprudential developments under the Canadian Charter of …

Unilateral Home State Regulation: Imperialism Or Tool For Subaltern Resistance?, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Home state reluctance to engage in the regulation of international corporate activities in the human rights context is sometimes expressed as a concern that it would constitute an imperialistic infringement of host state sovereignty. This concern may be explicit, or it may be implicit in an expressed desire to avoid conflict with the sovereignty of foreign states. Yet, in the absence of a multilateral treaty directly addressing business and human rights, a role for home states in regulating so as to prevent and remedy human rights harms is increasingly being suggested. The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical …

Bridging The Gap Between Truth And Reconciliation: Restorative Justice And The Indian Residential School Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Jennifer Llewellyn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As suggested by the title Bridging the Gap between Truth and Reconciliation: Restorative Justice and the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this essay examines the potential gap between truth and reconciliation and suggests that the principles underlying restorative justice provide the necessary bridge. With respect to the goal of reconciling relationships, the author makes it clear that she is speaking of social relationships, not personal relationships. Restorative justice “is not about getting parties to hug and make up; rather, it strives to create the conditions of social relationships in which all parties might achieve meaningful, just, and peaceful …

Home State Obligations For The Prevention And Remediation Of Transnational Harm: Canada, Global Mining And Local Communities, Sara Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Canadian mining companies, stock exchanges, mining professionals, and the Canadian government itself, play a significant role in global mining. This unpublished PhD dissertation, completed in January 2008, explores whether Canada has a legal obligation to regulate to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental harm associated with Canadian mining companies operating abroad. Canada and global mining serve as a case study to explore the broader question of whether home states have obligations under international environmental and human rights law. The key claims examined in this dissertation are as follows. First, the exercise of unilateral home state jurisdiction over transnational corporate …

Judicial Reasoning About Pregnancy And Choice, Jocelyn Downie, Chris Kaposy

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Women in Canada are at risk of abortion becoming increasingly difficult to access. In its landmark 1988 ruling, R. v. Morgentaler, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the prohibition of abortion in section 251 of the Criminal Code on the grounds that it violated a section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees, among other things, "security of the person". However, all of the justices who ruled that section 25 unconstitutional nonetheless claimed that protecting the fetus is a valid objective of federal legislation, leaving open the possibility that a different and carefully crafted law against abortion …

Bridging The Gap Between Truth And Reconciliation: Restorative Justice And The Indian Residential School Truth And Reconciliation Commission, Jennifer Llewellyn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As suggested by the title Bridging the Gap between Truth and Reconciliation: Restorative Justice and the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this essay examines the potential gap between truth and reconciliation and suggests that the principles underlying restorative justice provide the necessary bridge. With respect to the goal of reconciling relationships, the author makes it clear that she is speaking of social relationships, not personal relationships. Restorative justice “is not about getting parties to hug and make up; rather, it strives to create the conditions of social relationships in which all parties might achieve meaningful, just, and peaceful …

Protecting Civilians During The Fight Against Transnational Terrorism: Applying International Humanitarian Law To Transnational Armed Conflicts, Karinne Lantz

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article will explore the ability of international law- particularly international humanitarian law (IHL)-- to protect innocent civilians from harm in the context of the fight against transnational terrorism. To achieve the goal of allowing states to protect their populations from the threat of terrorism, while at the same time respecting the rule of law and the rights of innocent civilians, it is argued that, while IHL must remain applicable only to armed conflicts, it must also evolve so that it clearly applies to "transnational" armed conflicts.

Home State Responsibility And Local Communities: The Case Of Global Mining, Sara L. Seck

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Home states that are actively engaged in global mining have considered and rejected calls to regulate the conduct of transnational mining corporations so as to prevent and remedy human rights and environmental harms. This reluctance to regulate is often expressed as a concern that extraterritorial regulation will conflict with the sovereignty of foreign states. This paper argues that the public international law of jurisdiction is permissive of home state regulation that can be justified under the nationality or territoriality principles, provided that there is no true conflict with an exercise of host state jurisdiction. In the human rights and environment …

Transphobia And The Relational Production Of Gender, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Knowing one's place in the social order, whether that place is one of relative privilege or not, serves two psychologically ameliorative functions. It relieves one from the “anxiety of [gender] identity interrogation” and it helps to inform one as to the socially agreed upon, acceptable conduct for interpersonal exchanges--the episteme of social interaction. This Paper will demonstrate that gender identity is produced through relational, contextually influenced, interpretative processes. Because gender is constructed in societies which strongly embrace static, binary conceptions of gender, and in which social, familial, occupational, and sexual *139 interactions are heavily influenced by gendered social scripts, gender …

Family As Status In Doe V Canada: Constituting Family Under Section 15 Of The Charter, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released a decision rejecting a constitutional challenge to the Processing and Distribution of Semen for Assisted Conception Regulations. In this paper I argue that the Court's reasoning in Doe v. Canada is flawed and that certain provisions of the Semen Regulations constitute an unjustified infringement of section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I also argue that the claimants in this case would have been better served by the jurisprudence of section 15 of the Charter had they premised their argument on the assertion that they were discriminated against on the …

Respecting Adolescents' Confidentiality And Reproductive And Sexual Choices, Rebecca J. Cook, Joanna Erdman, Bernard M. Dickens

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Adolescents, defined as between 10 and 19 years old, present a growing challenge to reproductive health. Adolescent sexual intercourse contributes to worldwide burdens of unplanned pregnancy, abortion, spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, and maternal mortality and morbidity. A barrier to contraceptive care and termination of adolescent pregnancy is the belief that in law minors intellectually mature enough to give consent also require consent of, or at least prior information to, their parental guardians. Adolescents may avoid parental disclosure by forgoing desirable reproductive health care. Recent judicial decisions, however, give effect to internationally established human rights to confidentiality, …

Transphobia And The Relational Production Of Gender, Elaine Craig

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Knowing one's place in the social order, whether that place is one of relative privilege or not, serves two psychologically ameliorative functions. It relieves one from the “anxiety of [gender] identity interrogation” and it helps to inform one as to the socially agreed upon, acceptable conduct for interpersonal exchanges--the episteme of social interaction. This Paper will demonstrate that gender identity is produced through relational, contextually influenced, interpretative processes. Because gender is constructed in societies which strongly embrace static, binary conceptions of gender, and in which social, familial, occupational, and sexual *139 interactions are heavily influenced by gendered social scripts, gender …

In The Back Alleys Of Health Care: Abortion, Equality And Community In Canada, Joanna Erdman

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The decriminalization of abortion in Canada ensured neither its availability nor accessibility as an integrated and publicly funded health service. While Canadian women are increasingly referred to or seek abortion services from single-purpose clinics, their exclusion from public health insurance often render these services inaccessible. This article considers denied funding for clinic abortion services from the perspective of the Canadian constitutional guarantee of sex equality. The article focuses on the 2004 Court of Queen's Bench's judgment in Jane Doe I v. Manitoba, which framed denied public funding for clinic abortion services as a violation of women's equality rights under the …

Turning The Health Professional Carousel: Is Canada Undermining Human Rights In Developing Countries?, Karinne Lantz

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This article will address the issue of health professional migration, with a specific focus on how this migration affects health systems in developing countries. The central question being examined is whether or not states have an obligation to ensure that their policies – or actions by private actors based in their states – do not undermine the delivery of healthcare in other states. After exploring this obligation, this article will analyze how the issue may be effectively addressed by drawing upon the experience of the United Kingdom; how successful has the U.K. been in meeting its obligation? What are the …

Indigenous Self-Determination And Research On Human Genetic Material: A Consideration Of The Relevance Of Debates On Patents And Informed Consent, And The Political Demands On Researchers, Constance Macintosh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Genetic research involving indigenous populations provokes many legal, ethical and cultural issues. Arguably, of these issues, two dominate the literature. The first is whether human genetic materials are or ought to be patentable, which is often argued against on the basis that such patents offend human dignity generally and are culturally offensive to many indigenous peoples. The second is whether researchers must obtain informed consent from representatives of indigenous groups as a whole before attempting to obtain consent for participation from individual members of that group. I argue that there is limited benefit in continuing to debate the patentability of …

Assessing Human Trafficking In Canada Flawed Strategies And The Rhetoric Of Human Rights, Constance Macintosh

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This paper will present the argument that Canada’s rhetoric of protecting the human rights of trafficking victims is at odds with its practice. Trafficking victims are treated essentially the same as any other irregular migrant, and the specter of trafficking is invoked to justify acts which arguably violate Canada’s international human rights obligations. This paper will offer an overview of what little information is available regarding the extent of trafficking in Canada, and then will conduct a close examination of the Canadian approach to trafficking and its victims. In addition to considering the logic and consequences of the Canadian strategy …

Connecting Care And Challenge: Tapping Our Human Potential - Inclusive Education: A Review Of Programming And Services In New Brunswick, A. Wayne Mackay

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Due to the short time frame for this Review, this cannot be considered an exhaustive report. There is however quite a massive volume of information and sources introduced here touching on the particulars required by the Terms of Reference.

In section I we present legal considerations that have an impact on education in various ways, all of which are related to inclusion and the application of equality rights in Canada. Those considerations include accommodation of students with disabilities, the student-teacher relationship, discipline, safe-schools, and a framework for analysis: the new 3 R’s in education: Rights, Responsibilities and Relationships. Included are …

From Hot Air To Action? Climate Change, Compliance, And The Future Of International Environmental Law, Meinhard Doelle

PhD Dissertations

This dissertation considers the evolution, current state, and future prognosis of the global climate change regime under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The focus of the dissertation is on State compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. Compliance is considered from the perspective of the internal compliance regime developed under the Kyoto Protocol as well as a select set of potential external international law influences. The dissertation concludes with an assessment of the level of compliance to be expected and its potential influence on the future of the climate change regime. Implications for international environmental law …

Student Freedom Of Expression: Violent Content And The Safe School Balance, A. Wayne Mackay, Janet Burt-Gerrans

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The authors begin with a discussion of of the duality in how children are viewed in both international and domestic law. Children are viewed as both under the protection and authority of adults, at the same time as being rights bearing individuals. Following recognition of the difficult tension created by this duality, these authors focus on its application in the balancing of the safe school environment with student freedom of expression. In particular these authors examine cases and scenarios that highlight the complex relationships that result when student expression contains violent content. This timely examination gives consideration to the contemporary …

Providing Access To Generic Antiretroviral Drugs To People Living With Hiv/Aids In Developing Countries: An Examination Of Legal Obligations, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe

LLM Theses

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a devastating medical, social and economic problem in many developing countries. Presently, the only therapeutic remedies for the disease are antiretroviral drugs, which do not cure HIV/AIDS but are effective in restoring the health of people living with HIV/AIDS. Unfortunately, these drugs are unavailable to many people living with the disease in developing countries. This has been attributed to the exorbitant prices resulting from the patent rights of multinational pharmaceutical companies over the drugs. Legal literature has therefore focused principally on intellectual property rights as obstacles to access to antiretroviral drugs in developing countries. This thesis, …