To complete my research on RU-486 and past and present examples of Legal/Political Stonewalling relative to women’s issues and reproductive health rights in Canada, I will be heavily reliant on the scholarship of other academics and on the record keeping of cabinet meetings and other such assemblies or political interviews. I plan to begin by investing five dollars in my research so that I might submit a request to the department of Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy, asking for anything and everything that has been written or produced by the Canadian federal government on RU-486 since January 1st, 1995. I selected this date in particular because it will limit me to include twenty years of information on RU-486 in Canadian politics
Since the 19th Century, women in Canada have fought political, legal, and social battles to find their place in Canadian society. From starting out in small, local organizations, to legal battles in the Supreme Court, Canadian women have come a long way. Unfortunately, it took a long time for many people to adapt to the changing roles of women, which made women still feel unequal compared to men. It is really striking to think that at one point society questioned if women could even be considered persons, just a small sample of the many changes women had to face through the course of history. This paper will analyze these changes experienced by Canadian women in that time period and how it affected their everyday lives.
In 1968 Pierre Trudeau liberalized laws on abortion, homosexuality and public lotteries. Trudeau’s most famous quote came from the legalization of homosexuality and that quote is “there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation”#. Trudeau views people’s lives as personal and their decision to have sexual intercourse, be in a relationship or marry whatever sex they prefer is their own decision and that is why this law is particularly a good one for the gay and lesbian population of Canada. Instead of being punished for liking the same sex they are now able to be with who they want to be with. Pierre Trudeau also brought in the abortion law which allows women to have an abortion granted that they get permission from three doctors who say that the pregnancy will negatively affect them
The first reason that shows that Canada has become a “just society” is the changes to women’s legal rights. Since the 1970s, many women have stepped up to the work of politics. Several instances include Kim Campbell, the first woman to become the prime minister of Canada,1 Kathleen Wynne, the first premier of Canada to be lesbian,2 Beverley McLachlin, the “first female chief of justice of the Supreme Court of Canada,”3 and Catherine Callbeck, the second female provincial premiere and first woman to win
Lately Canada has done a lot with the United Nations in protecting human rights, including communicating with countries and organizations to increase the rights of women and children. There have been many improvements to their rights and conditions; political prisoners have been freed from the trap
The entrenchment of rights in the Canadian Constitution comes after long experience with a system of parliamentary supremacy. The American judicial tradition of treating the written constitution as fundamental law cannot have an instant Canadian counterpart. Thus, it does not follow that the Canadian courts will necessarily claim a role comparable to that of courts in the United States, nor is it clear that the representative bodies in Canada would tolerate such a judicial assertion of power. Opposition by government bodies to the Charter have already occurred in Canada, where the Parti Quebecois government of Quebec invoked the “notwithstanding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” clause for the purpose of protecting their language laws from attack under the charter. This report will attempt to note some of the common and distinctive features of the text of the two constitutions as well as to how they differ.
The purpose of this act is to encourage and monitor the sharing of information between Government of Canada institutions in order to protect Canada against activities that threaten the security of Canada, but this bill not only fails to fix those flaws, it recreates and causes more underlying problems without adding any meaningful safeguards to ensure the expansive powers it grants will not be similarly abused. The bill allows information sharing across 17 government institutions for a wide range of purposes, most of which have nothing to do with terrorism. After the bill was passed, it has raised serious concerns regarding the potential impact is has on the basic civil liberties of all Canadians. The new legislation significantly expands CSIS’
The Special Joint Committee of the House of Commons and the Senate was implemented in 1980 in the wake of the Quebec referendum on independence. The goal of the committee was to hear submissions from the public on amendments to the Constitution. In a three-month consultation period, 914 individuals and groups submitted briefs before the committee (Clément, 2015). Hoping to have a direct impact on the Canadian constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, five organizations
For twelve years Murphy led the fight to have women declared legal "persons" in Canada. When petitions from various women's organizations failed to open in
Pierre Elliot Trudeau was arguably one of the most vivacious and charismatic Prime Ministers Canada has ever seen. He wore capes, dated celebrities and always wore a red rose boutonniere. He looked like a superhero, and often acted like one too. Some of the landmark occurrences in Canadian history all happened during the Trudeau era, such as patriating the constitution, creating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1980 Quebec Referendum. However, it is Trudeau’s 1969 “white paper” and the Calder legal challenge which many consider to be one of his most influential contributions to Canadian history.
(1575)The Contradictions of PROFUNC: An Analysis of the Problem of Human Rights and the Democratic Process in Cold War Canada
The concept of the rights revolution in Canada is one that is thoroughly explored by Michael Ignatieff in The Rights Revolution, 2007. To Michael Ignatieff the rights revolution (the creation of laws surrounding the rights of a diverse Canada) achieved what it set out to accomplish – equal rights for all Canadians, no matter their ethnicity, gender, social status, sexual orientation, or age (Ignatieff, 2007). For modern day Canadian families it is important to recognize that this is not the case. In many cases the laws enacted around family law do not protect the interests of the individual or the group. In divorce court women are often favoured over men, simply because of their gender. Furthermore, there are cases where the race of the child
Although, because of many inspiring and compelling women and their hard work by bringing girls together, and fighting for our future, our rights have drastically changed for the better. From the beginning of the 1900’s and before, women were not allowed to vote in elections, they were not granted to choose who makes decisions for their families and where they live. On January 28th 1916 women in Manitoba, earned the
By studying historical events, we are able to see how individuals in our past have lived. One of the most common themes which we can see from studying Canadian history is that life for many was not easy. One of the groups of individuals who struggled the most, especially in the 20th century were women. During this time period, it was very important that women were to act a certain way. However, with the establishment of the female refuges act, we saw women being charged under this and often being sent away in hopes of them being reformed to fit better in society .
Throughout history, Canada’s identity has changed in many ways and there have been many historical events that have greatly shaped and impacted Canada’s history and identity. The Women’s Movement and women’s contribution in the past and throughout history has had the greatest impact on shaping Canada into what it is today. Among many identifying qualities like being multicultural, bilingual, and world leaders, Canada is also country that has changed immensely in the way of becoming a country that has learned to accept women, move towards providing them with equal opportunities and treating them equally. Through economic, social and political movements and actions, the contribution from women and the women’s movement have increased, changed and improved women’s rights and equality greatly. Women worked to create independence and equality economically through their contributions to war on the homefront in WWI resulting in greater workplace equality, socially through the actions of the Flappers in the 1920’s giving women currently, the confidence and strength that they need to speak up, and politically, through the work of the Suffragists including the Famous 5 to allow women to have the same political rights as men.
She comments that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides not only formative but substantial protection from inequalities. Unlike the U.S., Mackinnon comments that the Canadian system seeks to alter the poor treatment of disadvantaged groups and amend their status.[6] The Court utilized this approach in the case of R v. Butler where it recognized that the “humiliation, degradation, and subordination of women – was harm to society as a whole” as it led to an inequality.[7] In other words, the court recognized the social and communal harm imposed by pornography, that is to say it recognized the “context” under which the pornography occurred. Recognizing not only the harm from pornography but more importantly the inequality that it perpetuates, the Canadian courts ruled in an opposite manner to their U.S counterparts.