Kellie Leitch is one of the candidates seeking the leadership of Canada’s Conservative party, and she attracted much attention with her proposal for “screening immigrants, refugees, and visitors, for anti-Canadian values”. There are two parts…
View More Yes, “Canadian Values” Contradict Some Religious Beliefs
With mere weeks remaining before the U.S. presidential election, which could see the victory of a candidate who has vowed to implement “extreme vetting” for immigrants, Independent Sen. Ratna Omidvar, long an advocate for diversity…
View More The Senate’s Champion of Diversity
One year ago, as Sochi geared up to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, Canadians united in condemnation of Russia’s anti-gay laws. Now, in preparation for hosting the Pan Am Games this summer, the city of…
View More A Teachable Moment: Alberta’s Gay-Straight Alliance Debacle
Speaking Out on Human Rights is a powerful response to the right-wing backlash against human rights commissions and tribunals. In this readable book, lawyer and McGill University lecturer Pearl Eliadis details the positive contributions these commissions…
View More Why Human Rights Tribunals are Still Relevant
Peel Region has always been my home. Born in Waterloo, I moved to the City of Brampton with my mother and younger sister when I was seven years old and have collected all of my…
View More Diversity Charter Takes Root in Peel Region
An alarming idea has recently been circulating in human resources circles in Canada: when it comes to competing human rights, maybe there should be a “hierarchy of rights,” with the rights of some groups trumping…
View More No Hierarchy of Human Rights
There has been much talk about York University’s decision to accommodate the religion-based request of a male online student to not engage in group meeting work with female students. Most of the “news” pieces I’ve…
View More It’s not about sex — it’s about the law
I grew up in Québec. We saw nuns in full habit everywhere: in schools, driving cars, the shopping centre. That Québec … steeped in religion, where penitents mounted the stairs to Montréal’s Oratoire St. Joseph…
View More Québec’s very problematic Charter proposal
David Carment (Religious Freedom? This office is about ethnic votes, Feb. 21) has theorized in the Globe and Mail that the federal government’s interest in the establishment of the Office of Religious Freedom is being…
View More This Office is about much more than ethnic votes