In Canada, racial profiling also exists and directly and negatively impacts the lives of individuals across the nation. Racial profiling not only unjustly violates the right to be equal before and under the law and other rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, racial profiling also undermines trust between communities and police. And such trust is vital if effective policing is to thrive in a democratic nation like Canada.

UPDATE Our post and letter to the premier and health minister, referenced our views based on information we had received from the local community that proposed legislation was reportedly due to be tabled shortly by the government. We have since learned from the Department of Health that this matter is still in the project phase, and […]

CCLA welcomes Bill C-16, which expands Canada’s equality law to explicitly protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression. It also ensures that offences against trans people on this basis are treated as hate crimes. By amending the Canadian Human Rights Act, Bill C-16 clarifies that discrimination against trans people will not […]

Ontario’s new regulation on carding, announced today, provides new and stronger protections against arbitrary police stops, while not adequately protecting youth, as well as racialized and other marginalized people, who are stopped and questioned by police. In addition, significant concerns remain with respect to data collection and retention. Since last summer, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) […]

Update – 03/23/16 Yesterday, the federal government announced new funding to promote access to justice in Canada, addressing a number of needs CCLA has directly, or indirectly, advocated for through the UN Committee process and other channels. Funding includes: $88 million devoted to legal aid (spread over the next five years); Nearly $8 million for the Courts Administrative […]

This week, Canada appeared before the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and CCLA was there in Geneva to present key concerns as part of the country’s sixth periodic review. The Committee is the independent body of experts that oversees state parties’ compliance with the UN Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Every […]

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) welcomes the tabling of Bill C-6, which seeks to remove amendments to the Citizenship Act made two years ago by BIll C-24 regarding the revocation of citizenship. Prior to Bill C-24, citizenship could only be revoked if a naturalized citizen had been proved to have committed fraud in their citizenship […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Legal groups, community advocates, academics and the Ontario Human Rights Commission call for tougher regulation on ”carding” A broad network of community advocates, human rights and legal experts, academics and concerned and affected individuals is calling on the Province to ensure that its Draft Regulation on police street checks – or “carding” […]

CCLA welcomes today’s decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada concerning assistance to refugees entering the country. The Court held that the term “human smuggling” does not, and should not, refer to a person who helps her child or spouse enter Canada, in their collective flight to safety. Nor does it refer to acts of […]