Human Rights Flashcards
What are Human Rights?
Rights that protect people from unfair treatment by other individuals and governments
What is Discrimination?
Treating individuals unfairly because of race, gender, sexual orientations, religion, age, or challenge
What is Suffrage?
The right to vote
What is a Feminist?
A person who believes in the social, economic and political s equality if the sexes
What were Women’s Rights before change?
At the time of Confederation, women in Canada did not have the same rights as men and were not treated equally
Women could not vote
Near the end of the 19th century, attitudes began to change slowly as small groups of feminists fought for suffrage (the right to vote)
What is the Evolution of Women’s Rights?
World War 1 - thousands of Canadian women work, at the end of WWI, all women had gained the right to vote in federal elections
Persons Case (1929) - women finally gained legal recognition as “persons” in Canada
World War 2 - more than 1 million women enter the workforce to help with the war effort and nearly 50,000 women join the military
Canadian Bill of Rights (1960) - stated that it was illegal to discriminate based on gender
Charter of Rights and Freedom (1982) - equal rights for women now a constitutional right
What are Current Women’s Issues?
Sexual Harassment - unwelcome actions of sexual nature toward another person
Employment Equity - treating employees based on their ability to perform the job
What are Indigenous Rights?
From 1867-1921, Indigenous peoples were forced onto reserves, ‘assimilate’ them into European-Canadian culture, no indigenous self-government, no indigenous methods of justice
What are important Legal Decisions?
1973 - The Supreme Court ruled that Aboriginal peoples could claim “title”over land that they had occupied
1997 - The Supreme Court established a test – if indigenous people could prove that they occupied land before Britain’s invasion, they had the right to claim title – it helped indigenous people with demands in treaty negotiations
What are Indigenous Issues Today?
Poverty - a widespread problem along with generally poor education
Outstanding land claims - settling these claims could be very costly for federal and provincial governments
Desire for self-government - a traditional right of Indigenous peoples that was taken away by the Indian Act → Indigenous people have self government and create their own rules and structure of society in their communities
What are general rights violations?
In the early 1880s, Canada’s first national railroad was being built (CPR). Nearly 10,000 labourers came from China to work on the railroad and were paid half as much as white workers
Once the CPR was finished, a head tax of $50 was imposed on any Chinese person entering Canada. The tax was meant to discourage Chinese immigration. British Columbia barred Asian people from certain professions and did not allow them to vote
What is Government Legislation?
1908 - Laurier regulation that immigrants must travel to canada in a ‘direct continuous passage’ (excluded Asia and Africa)
1910 - Immigration Act gave government the power to reject ‘immigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuitable’ for Canada
1914 - The SS Komagata Maru’s 376 passengers were being denied entry into Canada because they were Indian. Canada had exclusionary legislation directed against Indians due to British fears of nationalist insurrection in India
1914 - war Measures Act allowed the borden government to classify Ukrainian-canadians as “enemy aliens” and they were confined
1933 - Jewish baseball players at the Christie Pits Park in Toronto were playing baseball with Italian baseball players, when Nazi sympathizers decided to have a banner that had a swastika. Not long after both the Italian and Jewish baseball players went to take down this banner, a fight and riot ensued
1941 - Pearl Harbor caused Japanese-Canadians to be “enemy aliens”, sent to internment camps, men were separated from their families and their property was auctioned off by the government
WWII - Canada refused entry to thousands of Jewish refugees escaping persecution in Germany
What is immigrating to Canada?
1967 - Pearson’s government introduces the first colour-blind immigration policy
1976 - Trudeau government introduced a new system reviewed an aplicant’s various skills, personal qualities, and level of education
2001 - Chretian government objectives included:
Curbing abuse of the immigration system
Increasing screening to identify suspected criminals
Strengthening obligations of sponsors
What were the rules for Gays and Lesbians
Homosexuality was a crime in Canada until it wad removed from the Criminal Code in 1967 by Pierre Trudeau, who was Justice Minister in the Pearson’s government
“There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nations” - Trudeau
In 1996, the federal government added “sexual orientation” to the Canadian Human Rights Act to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in federal matters
In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the same rights as opposite-sex couples
What were the rules for Same Sex-Marriage?
2002 - same-sex couples successfully argues that they were being denied their equality rights based on their sexual orientations connected to marriage
2005 - Martin government changed the traditional definition of marriage and introduced the Civil Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a union between “two persons”
2020 - Canadian legislations that would ban forcing
