Canada, Human Rights 

"Universal human rights are considered to be a fundamental, inalienable aspect of Canadian legal culture, not to mention central to our international positioning. However the reality is that Canada was surprisingly slow to adopt the rights revolution that followed the Second World War, given concerns that existing norms and liberties could conflict with these new universal rights. Moreover, even when Canada did sign up, these rights were not all automatically put into practice. Nor, interestingly, did all groups embrace these rights.Human rights, as we know, did become entrenched. There have been challenges to and changes in the legal framework of citizenship in Canada. But this has followed a long process of transformation, and many groups have faced tremendous struggle to get their rights claims recognized. This collection sheds new lights on the bumpy road toward universal human rights in our diverse and complex country. Topics include sexual rights, children's rights, "race" and multiculturalism, and class. A landmark essay by J.R. Miller explores the rights of Aboriginal peoples from the 1876 Indian Act to the repeal of Section 67 in the Canadian Human Rights Act in 2011. Also considered is the central role of rights activists - often struggling in the face of widespread hostility - to secure protection for their rights. A highly insightful, original foreword by Michael Ignatieff is based on a very well-received public lecture in response to the chapters written for this volume."--Pub. desc. 

Contents:
Introduction / Stephen Heathorn and David Goutor -- Decoding the rights revolution : lessons from the Canadian experience / James W. St. G. Walker -- Where do we begin? : Human rights, public history, and the challenges of conceptualization / Bonny Ibhawoh -- The rights revolution in Canada and Australia : international politics, social movements, and domestic law / Dominique Clément -- "Their equality is my equality" : F. Andrew Brewin and human rights activism, 1940s-1970s / Stephanie Bangarth -- Transnational links and citizens' rights : Canadian Jewish human rights activists and their American allies in the 1940s and 1950s / Ruth A. Frager and Carmela Patrias -- A limited vision : Canadian participation in the adoption of the international covenants on human rights / Jennifer Tunnicliffe -- Children's rights from below : Canadian and transnational actions, beliefs, and discourses, 1900-1989 / Dominique Marshall -- Social movements and human rights : gender, sexuality, and the Charter in English-speaking Canada / Miriam Smith -- Human rights for some : first nations rights in twentieth-century Canada / J.R. Miller -- Afterword. Rights, history, and turning points / William Schabas.