Category Archives: Publications

An Assessment of the Implementation of the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) from a B.C. Perspective (October 2002)

concerns that SUFA has not, to date, been implemented in a way that improves social conditions and social protections for Canadians, or provides meaningful dialogue between citizens1 and governments about the social union. The current situation of the poorest and most vulnerable people in B.C. reveals the harm of this failure. The purpose of this […]

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The Right to Housing under International Human Rights Law (October 2002)

Not everyone may realize that governments in Canada are obligated to ensure that everyone has adequate housing. However, Canada is a signatory to international human rights treaties that oblige governments to address conditions of poverty, and to ensure that everyone has an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing. The central human rights treaty concerning the right to housing […]

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Proposed human rights legislation gets failing grade (September 2002)

For the second time in twenty years, the Government of British Columbia has decided to abolish its Human Rights Commission. If the draft legislation set out in Bill 53 passes, the Commission will be erased again, this time in the name of providing British Columbians with a new, more efficient “direct access” model of human […]

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Beyond the Social and Economic Rights Debate: Substantive Equality Speaks to Poverty (2002)

An emerging issue in Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms1 jurisprudence is the defeat of poverty-related challenges based on their characterization as ‘social and economic’ rights claims. In a variety of cases, governments have argued, with some success in lower courts, that the Charter is a negative rights instrument—a document of civil and political rights rather than of social […]

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Rolling Back Human Rights in B.C.: An Analysis of Bill 53 (September 2002)

On May 30, 2002, the Government of British Columbia tabled Bill 53, which, if passed will amend the current Human Rights Code. The implications of this bill are extremely serious for the administration and protection of human rights in the province, and for all residents who may need protection from discrimination in the future. The Government proposes to […]

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What Do Rights Have To Do With It? (May 2002)

What is the point of talking about human rights in relation to cuts to social programs? This is a moment in Canadian political history when government commitment to social programs is at a low ebb. Frequently, governments defend their decision-making in the area of social programs on the basis of cost saving. Among progressives, one common mode of […]

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Human rights plunge into the past (April 2002)

Human rights in British Columbia may be about to plunge backwards by twenty years. In 1983 Bill Bennett abolished the Human Rights Commission, fired all the Commissioners and staff, and narrowed human rights legislation in one sweeping assault. Though a little slower off the mark, the current government seems poised to substantially weaken the province’s […]

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Submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (February 2002)

Submission to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, prepared by the Poverty and Human Rights Project, endorsed by anti-poverty groups and groups representing Aboriginal people, people with disabilities, seniors, children, and women, notifying the treaty body of planned cuts to social assistance and legal aid in British Columbia. Submission to the […]

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Poverty is a Human Rights Violation (December 2001)

This paper is about obstacles to an understanding that poverty is a human rights violation.

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Recommendations to Heritage Canada regarding information that should be included in Canada’s 4th report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (October 2001)

A letter from the Poverty and Human Rights Project to Heritage Canada on four issues which are of critical importance to the overall approach taken by Canada as a State Party to the implementation of economic and social rights in response to a request for input from non-governmental organizations into Canada’s fourth report on its compliance with the International Covenant on […]

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