Canada’s Human Rights History

Canada’s Human Rights History is a site dedicated to documenting the history of human rights in Canada. It includes sections on social movements, foreign policy, and legal history. There are also sections on several key events in the history of human rights in Canada, including the Gouzenko Affair (1945-46), the October Crisis (1970), and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982). There is an immense digital archive for researchers that includes materials relating to human rights activism, law, international treaties, domestic legal statutes, the October Crisis, the Gouzenko Affair, and organizations such as the Jewish Labour Committee and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms‘ archive is the only comprehensive digital archive of every submission to the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution in 1981-2, which led to the final version of the Charter. There is also a complementary site, State Funding for Social Movements, that provides an archive and searchable database of grants to non-governmental organizations (including human rights organizations) in Canada since the 1960s.

The site includes sections on main events, biographies, social movements, and further reading relating to the history of human rights in Canada. There are lists of human rights historians in Canada as well as recent publications. The site also provides regular updates on research funding and scholarships, conferences, publications, new resources, research centres, and institutions such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Canada’s Human Rights History is unique: it is regularly maintained and updated as the author’s scholarship evolves. Unlike other historical websites, this portal is constantly expanding. New material is added every year.