In recent years, the human rights landscape in Ontario has shifted. In 2008, the mandate of the Ontario Human Rights Commission was changed significantly and a new Legal Support Center for individuals filing claims of discrimination was created. The Human Rights Code Amendment Act, 2006 established a new role for the Commission that focuses on preventing discrimination and promoting and advancing human rights in Ontario. At the same time debates continue about the interaction between Canada`s international human rights obligations, rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and domestic statutory human rights. As well, new emerging grounds of discrimination are being considered here and in the United States, some of which challenge our understanding of both “discrimination” and “equality”. This course will examine the nature and extent of domestic human rights protection with reference to the more than thirty international instruments relating to human rights that have been ratified by Canada. This examination will be undertaken with reference to the full range of human rights as envisaged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed in the Vienna Declaration. The legal structure of Canadian human rights protection, its scope and its deficiencies, will be considered at the Constitutional and at the Federal and Provincial statutory levels. In this course, we will consider topics including the following: the evolution of human rights law in Canada and Ontario; the relation between the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada’s international human rights commitments and statutory human rights protection; the meaning of discrimination and equality; the domestic justiciability of human rights; existing and emerging categories of human rights protection; conflicts between rights; and access to international human rights adjudication.3 credits, fall termMs. McHenry
