Reading Time: 6 minutes Canada severing ties with the Royal Family requires amending the Constitution and reviewing treaties signed with Indigenous Peoples. In 1931, Canada became part of the British Commonwealth. It remains one of 54 Commonwealth nations to this day. Canada is a constitutional monarchy, which means it is headed either by a King or Queen. The patriation […]
COVID-19 | Can Private Businesses Ask for Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Some employers and businesses may require vaccines for employers and customers. The federal and provincial governments in Canada have decided not to mandate COVID-19 vaccines. This decision comes despite high rates of vaccine hesitancy and even though the majority of people need to be vaccinated to return to normal life. The federal government has refused […]
Transgender Inmates in Canada
Reading Time: 6 minutes How do federal, provincial and territorial laws or policies protect transgender inmates? Individuals may identify with a gender that goes along with their sex given at birth, they may identify with a gender that is different from their sex given at birth, or they may identify with a non-traditional notion of gender. “Transgender” characterizes those […]
Good Behaviour and Tenure of Supreme Court Justices in Canada and the United States
Reading Time: 6 minutes The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in September 2020 at the age of 87, and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court of the United States, where she can serve for decades, prompted me to write this article. The Supreme Courts of Canada and the U.S. are the courts of […]
Freedom of Movement during COVID-19
Reading Time: 6 minutes On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 – an infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus – a global pandemic. With no vaccines or treatments to control the disease, the WHO asked governments “to take urgent and aggressive action to stop the spread of the virus”. Freedom of movement is a […]
The Right to Housing as a Human Right
Reading Time: 6 minutes International human rights law acknowledges everyone’s right to an adequate standard of living, which includes the right to adequate housing. Many international legal instruments protect the right to adequate housing, including: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 11); the Convention on the Rights […]
Do Books Relieve Children’s Pain During Divorce?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Families are no longer as secure as they used to be. The process of divorce and separation can deeply affect children, as can exposure to new types of family structures. Children may feel stressed, frustrated and confused. When parents separate or divorce, children may: have difficulties accepting the situation; struggle to accept that their parents […]
Do Natural Objects Have Legal Rights?
Reading Time: 5 minutes In 1972, Christopher D. Stone wrote an article entitled “Should Trees Have Standing? – Towards Legal Rights for Natural Objects”. This article is still, even today, mentioned every time there is a discussion on legal rights and natural objects. In his article, Stone suggested that we give legal rights to natural objects such as forests, […]
The Impact of Brexit on the Free Movement of Persons
Reading Time: 7 minutes Citizens of the European Union (EU) are allowed to live and work, without special formalities, in the European Economic Area (EEA). The EEA includes the EU’s 28 Member States as well as Switzerland and three non-EU countries – Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. This is what we call “free movement of persons”. The 1957 Treaty of […]
Why is Canada a Bilingual Country?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Canada has two official languages: French and English. We always wonder why. Canada’s two colonizing peoples are the French and the British. They controlled land and built colonies alongside Indigenous peoples, who had been living there for millennia. They had two different languages and cultures. The French spoke French, practiced Catholicism, and had their own […]
