Human Rights in Canadian HistoryBrian PayneAssociate Professor of History, Bridgewater State University

Visiting Fulbright Chair, Center for North American Integration, Carleton UniversityTeaching Canada: A Professional Development Workshop for IBMA Educators Offered by Fairfax County Public Schools and the National Resource Centers on Canada in the USNovember 30, 2016 – Newseum Learning Center, Washington, DC

The Peaceable Kingdom?

Examples in 20th-Century Canadian History The Freedom of Ideology:

Suppression of Radicals Politics Nativism, Jingoism, and State

Power: Japanese-Canadian Internment

Constitutional Rights: The Charter of Rights and Freedom

The Right of Cultural Survival: Indian Residential Schools

Going Beyond “British Liberties”

The Freedom of Ideology:The Suppression of Radicalism in Canada

Major Events Ontario

Queen’s Park “Riot”, 1929 Trial of Eight Communist, 1931

Section 98 Oshawa Strike, 1937

Atlantic Canada Estevan Riot, 1931

West Regina Riot, 1938

Quebec Padlock Law, 1937

Nativism, Jingoism, and State Power:Japanese-Canadian Internment Anti-Asian Ideology

As old and entrenched in Canada as it is in the US

Reid, “I felt in that room the physical presence of evil.”

“Protected Areas” 20,881

Deportation Cooperative Committee on

Japanese Citizens

Constitutional Rights:Charter of Rights and Freedoms Breaking from the Limits of

“British Liberties” 1960 Bill of Rights Constitutional Debate, 1981-82

Key Characteristics General language Protects Canadians from the

State Protects minorities from

Parliamentary majorities Provides list of principal rights

Constitutional Rights:Charter of Rights and Freedom Key Sections

Section 1 “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”

Section 15 “every individual is equal” “right to the equal protection and equal benefits of the law without discrimination” “in particular” race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or

physical disability Section 33

“notwithstanding” clause

The Right of Cultural Survival:Indian Residential Schools A Quick History of “Indian

Schools” Indian Act of 1876 Mandatory Attendance after

1894 1930

80 Schools across the country 1969 ended partnership with

churches Last school close in 1996

Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), 2007 Common Experience Payment

$1.9 billion in reparations Independent Assessment Process

Out-of-Court mechanism $1.7 billion in aid

Aboriginal Health Foundation $1.25 million for mental and

emotional heath programs Truth and Reconciliation

Commission $60 million for five-year TRC Honouring the Truth: Reconciling for

the Future (2014)

Conclusion:Canada’s Human Rights Progress The Legacy of “British Liberties”

Tory, Elitist, and Deferential Turning-Point

Japanese-Canadian Deportation Charter of Rights and Freedoms

Most Pressing Issue Aboriginal Rights