To learn more about the history of human rights in Canada, visit the main events page. For information about individuals and organizations in the human rights movement, visit the section on biographies and social movement organizations. Visit this website’s sections on the Gouzenko Affair and the October Crisis of 1970 to learn more about two of the most controversial moments in Canadian human rights history. There is also a detailed discussion on the history of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms on Canadian law.
The database in the archives section contains all the primary documents on this site. It is a portal to a vast array of original materials, including statutes and laws, documents produced by social movements, briefs presented to the constitutional committee (which led to the patriation of the Constitution), and more. Another section, further reading, is a comprehensive list of books and articles on human rights history, including a list of recent publications.
Further Reading
- Clément, Dominique. Equality Deferred: Sex Discrimination and British Columbia’s Human Rights State, 1953-84. Vancouver: UBC Press/Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 2014.
- Eliadis, Pearl. Speaking Out on Human Rights: Debating Canada’s Human Rights System. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.
- Howe, R. Brian, and David Johnson. Restraining Equality: Human Rights Commissions in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
- Matthew Arkinstall, Dominique Clément, and Howard ramos. “Access to Justice: Comparing Human Rights Models in British Columbia.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society (2026).
- Dominique Clément, Parveen Parmar, Maria Quesada. “Human Rights Institutions: Systemic Underfunding and Policy Reform in Alberta,” Canadian Public Policy 51, 2(2025): 115-42.
- Dominique Clément and Jenna Robinson. “Know Your Rights: The State and Human Rights Education in Canada,” Human Rights Quarterly 47, 3 (2025): 318-337.
- Dominique Clément. “Legally Speaking: Human Rights Law and the City.” Plan Canada (Summer 2017): 10-13.
- Dominique Clément. “Renewing Human Rights Law in Canada.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 54, 3 (2017): 1311-1340.