Tag: Canadian Politics, Human Rights,

United Nations General Assembly hall in New York City. Photo by Patrick Gruban/Wikimedia Commons. On November 7, the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) convened to vote on 12 draft resolutions, nine of which were presented by Cuba. The Third Committee deals with pressing social, humanitarian, and

Premier Wab Kinew led the Manitoba New Democratic Party to a majority government on October 3, 2023. He did so with a disciplined campaign focused on highlighting the governing Progressive Conservatives’ deficiencies in health care and talking almost every day about proposals to better the system under the slogan of

A painting by artist Richard Rudnick of Black Refugees arriving in Halifax from the United States in 1814. The image is included in the Lord Dalhousie Panel’s scholarly report. Image courtesy of Dalhousie University. Canada has always had a hard time providing support for Black and African refugees. So it

The fate of Dr. Hassan Diab is being determined by scapegoating and by an absolutist moral belief that law is engraved in stone. This undeveloped form of morality reduces justice to rules in which the state’s role is limited to examining compliance with the law. In Dr. Diab’s case, appeals

Former Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer tours the Roxham Road crossing in 2018. Photo from Flickr. Joe Biden paid an official visit to Canada in late March. While he was here, the United States and Canada struck a new deal on Roxham Road that will allow both countries to turn

A child having their teeth cleaned by a dental therapist in a school-based dental clinic in Saskatchewan. “Here is the tool that removes the bugs. It sounds like an airplane and washes the bugs from your teeth.” Photo by Leslie Topola. The following is an excerpt from the forthcoming book,

An old friend of ours recently confessed to using a private clinic for her cataract surgery. She said that, while she felt guilty, she nonetheless received wonderful care and paid with her health card. When we asked the name of the clinic, she said the Kensington Eye Institute (located on

Photo by The Javorac/Flickr When Justice Emmett Hall released his iconic 1964 report that paved the way for medicare, he envisaged that after universal coverage for doctors, the next step would be prescription drugs, but that next step got delayed and we are still waiting. In 2018, things looked promising

On Tuesday, January 24, hundreds gathered outside Toronto City Hall to protest John Tory’s proposed $48.3 million police budget increase. Photo by Phillip Dwight Morgan. If you follow the Toronto news cycle, you’ve undoubtedly heard about an increase in violent incidents on the TTC. Both commuters and transit employees have

Photo courtesy the Winnipeg Police Service K9 Unit/Facebook On December 14, a five-year-old elementary student at Samuel Burland School was bitten in the face by a Winnipeg Police Service dog while the K-9 unit was visiting the school. The injury sustained by the child required stitching by a plastic surgeon

Regina, Saskatchewan skyline as seen from Wascana Hill. Photo by Daniel Paquet/Wikimedia Commons. A Regina city councillor is taking his own municipality to court. It is not quite a man-bites-dog story but neither is it something that happens every day. In 2018, Regina made a commitment to end homelessness. It

Canadian civil rights lawyer and activist Clayton Ruby passed away on August 2. He was 80-years-old. Photo courtesy the Toronto Star archives/Toronto Public Library. Who you gonna call? Clay Ruby. That’s who. For over half-a-century Clay answered the call. From victims of injustice and of human rights abuses, to animal

The Ontario Health Coalition is warning against unprecedented health care privatization and is calling for it to be a key election issue. Photo by International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent/Unsplash. As the writ was dropped for the June 2 provincial election, the Ontario Health Coalition warned against

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s announces the release of a report by an advisory council on improving health care and ending hallway medicine, January 2019. Photo from Twitter. In Ontario, real GDP per capita hit its historic high in 2019. According to Randy Robinson, Ontario Director for the Canadian Centre for

The gated entrance of the Sachsenhausen Nazi death camp with the phrase ‘Arbeit macht frei’ (work sets you free) in Oranienburg, Germany. Photo by Thamara Salvagni. The federal government has just introduced an initiative to make “condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust” a criminal offence. This is a very bad

Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole, in an undated image posted on his Twitter account, released his party’s costed election platform on September 8. Photo from Twitter. When the Conservative Party of Canada released a costed version of its budget on September 8, leader Erin O’Toole confirmed that the party will

By not providing enough public services, we are pushing those who can afford it into paying for for-profit care. This is yet another reason why we need a new national health strategy. Photo by Luis Melendez/Unsplash. It is no accident that health care is Canada’s best-loved social program, even though

Former Israeli President Reuven Rivlin salutes members of the Israel Defense Forces during the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the country. Photo from Twitter. Funding other countries’ militaries is not a charitable activity according to Canadian tax law. Yet some organizations granted charitable status by the Canada Revenue Agency

Despite the effectiveness of supervised consumption sites, since taking office the Government of Alberta has been actively curbing access. Photo from Shutterstock. Harm reduction works. After a number of 2018 federal-level policy decisions, the accessibility of harm reduction measures like safe consumption sites (SCS) for people who use drugs (PWUD)

Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole. Photo from Flickr. At the beginning of this year’s Pride Month, the Conservative Party of Canada released a video of its leader, Erin O’Toole, reinforcing his commitment to the LGBTQ2 community. “I want you to know that I have been, and will continue to be