Tag Archives: human rights law

The Role of International Social and Economic Rights in the Interpretation of Domestic Law in Canada

By phrc | Published: February 1, 2008

This Law Sheet, produced by the Poverty and Human Rights Centre, is concerned with the role that international human rights law can play in the interpretation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and other laws in Canada. It is intended to assist lawyers in their advocacy work before courts and tribunals. It is […]

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Letter to the Prime Minister and BC Premier on welfare time limits

By phrc | Published: February 5, 2004

A letter written to Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier Gordon Campbell, endorsed by 137 organizations, asking them to act immediately, together and separately, to ensure that legislation which imposes a twenty-four month time limit on eligibility for welfare in B.C. is rescinded before April 1, 2004, and that no similar provision is implemented in B.C. or any other […]

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Moving Forward on Women’s Equality, Brief to the Standing Committee on Finance Pre-Budget Consultation (September 2003)

By phrc | Published: September 29, 2003

The B.C. CEDAW Group submits that the federal government, when considering spending priorities, must take into account 1) the negative impact on women of recent cuts and changes to social programs and services made in the Province of British The B.C. CEDAW Group’s submission to the Standing Committee on Finance, outlining that the federal government, […]

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Majority embraces stereotype of the poor (December 2002)

By phrc | Published: December 1, 2002

Majority Embraces Stereotype of Poor by Shelagh Day The majority decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in last week’s welfare rights case, Gosselin v Quebec, is a disturbing one. Five judges endorsed a Quebec scheme that consigned thousands of 18 to 30 year old welfare recipients to extreme poverty, and found that it did […]

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

By phrc | Published: October 1, 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)

By phrc | Published: September 1, 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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Human rights plunge into the past (April 2002)

By phrc | Published: April 1, 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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