Presentation by Dr. Brian Payne Associate Professor, History and Canadian

1. Human Rights in Canadian
History
Brian Payne
Associate Professor of History, Bridgewater State University
Visiting Fulbright Chair, Center for North American Integration, Carleton University
Teaching Canada: A Professional Development Workshop for IBMA Educators Offered by Fairfax County Public
Schools and the National Resource Centers on Canada in the US
November 30, 2016 – Newseum Learning Center, Washington, DC

2. The Peaceable Kingdom?
 Examples in 20th-Century Canadian
History
 The Freedom of Ideology: Suppression
of Radicals Politics
 Nativism, Jingoism, and State Power:
Japanese-Canadian Internment
 Constitutional Rights: The Charter of
Rights and Freedom
 The Right of Cultural Survival: Indian
Residential Schools
 Going Beyond “British Liberties”

3. The Freedom of Ideology:
The Suppression of Radicalism in Canada
 Major Events
 Ontario
 Queen’s Park “Riot”, 1929
 Trial of Eight Communist, 1931
 Section 98
 Oshawa Strike, 1937
 Atlantic Canada
 Estevan Riot, 1931
 West
 Regina Riot, 1938
 Quebec
 Padlock Law, 1937

4. Nativism, Jingoism, and State Power:
Japanese-Canadian Internment
 Anti-Asian Ideology
 As old and entrenched in Canada as it
is in the US
 Reid, “I felt in that room the physical
presence of evil.”
 “Protected Areas”
 20,881
 Deportation
 Cooperative Committee on Japanese
Citizens

5. Constitutional Rights:
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
 Breaking from the Limits of “British
Liberties”
 1960 Bill of Rights
 Constitutional Debate, 1981-82
 Key Characteristics
 General language
 Protects Canadians from the State
 Protects minorities from
Parliamentary majorities
 Provides list of principal rights

6. Constitutional Rights:
Charter of Rights and Freedom
 Key Sections
 Section 1
 “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”
 Section 15
 “every individual is equal”
 “right to the equal protection and equal benefits of the law without discrimination”
 “in particular” race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical
disability
 Section 33
 “notwithstanding” clause

7. The Right of Cultural Survival:
Indian Residential Schools
 A Quick History of “Indian Schools”
 Indian Act of 1876
 Mandatory Attendance after 1894
 1930
 80 Schools across the country
 1969 ended partnership with
churches
 Last school close in 1996

8. Indian Residential Schools Settlement
Agreement (IRSSA), 2007
 Common Experience Payment
 $1.9 billion in reparations
 Independent Assessment Process
 Out-of-Court mechanism
 $1.7 billion in aid
 Aboriginal Health Foundation
 $1.25 million for mental and emotional
heath programs
 Truth and Reconciliation Commission
 $60 million for five-year TRC
 Honouring the Truth: Reconciling for
the Future (2014)

9. Conclusion:
Canada’s Human Rights Progress
 The Legacy of “British Liberties”
 Tory, Elitist, and Deferential
 Turning-Point
 Japanese-Canadian Deportation
 Charter of Rights and Freedoms
 Most Pressing Issue
 Aboriginal Rights