The following section is a portal to the entire collection of primary documents on this site, most of which are saved as PDF files.
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Canadian Civil Liberties Association
The following collection of position papers were produced by the Canadian Civil Liberties between 1968 and 1998. Click here for the original archival index of submissions (incomplete). Click here for a list/index of letters written by the CCLA between 1968 and 2000 (with two samples…
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Gouzenko
Documents relating to the defection of Igor Gouzenko, the RCMP investigation, the espionage commission, the spy trials, and the public response to the defection. In 1945 a young, frightened Russian cipher clerk working in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa left one night with several top-secret…
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Historic Statutes and Declarations
Major federal and provincial human rights statutes and international declarations. This section provides links to past legislation dealing with human rights, anti-discrimination, equal pay, fair employment practices and fair accommodation practices (also, see below for international declarations on human rights and other important legislation). The…
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Human Rights Activism
Documents relating to Canadian human rights and civil liberties groups that were active from the 1930s to the 1980s. Civil liberties and human rights organizations are dedicated to realizing the aspirations of the modern human rights movement. Unlike groups representing specific constituencies (e.g., women or…
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Human Rights in International Treaties
A list of international human rights treaties, including a list of those rights listed in some of the key treaties. For a more detailed list of UN Human Rights Treaties as well as a valuable resource on Canada’s international human rights obligations, visit Canada’s Human Rights Commitments.
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Human Rights Law
Landmark court cases in Canada’s human rights history, including early human rights decisions in British Columbia to accompany the book Equality Deferred. The Canadian Human Rights Reporter publishes decisions dating from 1980 for all jurisdictions in Canada. Further Reading The following is a survey of the Canadian Bar…
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Jewish Labour Committee
Few social movement organizations can equal the impact of the Jewish Labour Committee (JLC) in fighting discrimination. Such was its success that Frank Scott commented that he knew “of no single body in the whole of Canada doing as much continuous and consistent work for…
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Montreal Olympics Archive
The RCMP’s archival record on the security plan for the Montreal Olympics is approximately 50,000 pages. The following sample from these records focus on key aspects of the security plan: budgets, threat planning, personnel and resource allocation.
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October Crisis
Documents regarding the federal government’s use of the War Measures Act in 1970. It also gives materials relating to the response from human rights activists as well as an array of external links to documents concerning the crisis. The October Crisis was one of the…
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Special Joint Committee on the Constitution
The Special Joint Committee on the Constitution (1980-81) solicited feedback from Canadians about the government’s proposal to patriate the Constitution and entrench a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The committee heard from over nine hundred individuals and organizations, many of whom had a direct impact…
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State Funding
The State Funding for Social Movements project is a five-year study that examines (a) the history of state funding for social movements in Canada; and (b) how the relationship between state funding and social movements differs across movements, regions, and time periods. The research for…