Category Archive

Last Spring Sotheby’s auction house sold off a copy of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale for 130,000 USD. The special edition wasn’t an original manuscript. It didn’t even come with the author’s autograph. But it had a different unique feature. This version of the book was “unburnable” – handcrafted with fireproof materials. The auction of this single fireproof edition was a clever fundraiser for PEN America to “raise awareness about the proliferating book banning and educational gag orders in American schools nationwide…” As the online auction page noted, the primary targets of these measures have …

A majority of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. McGregor opted not to address the extraterritorial application of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, finding that the issue was not squarely before the Court since it was only addressed by interveners. In this case, the Court had to consider whether the Charter applies to the actions of law enforcement agencies when they are pursuing an investigation outside of Canada. The CCLA had intervened to argue that the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Hape (and the Court Martial Appeal Court’s reliance on …

February 17, 2023 Cara Zwibel, Director of Fundamental Freedoms for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), made the following statement: While we disagree with the Commissioner’s conclusion that the legal threshold for invoking the Act was met, we want to thank Justice Rouleau and all of the Commission’s staff for their work. The Commission process contributed to greater transparency and understanding of what occurred in February of 2022 for all Canadians. The inquiry is one of many accountability mechanisms. We launched a judicial review precisely because we believed that would be the best venue to …

Click here to go to Dropbox to download the .epub and .mobi files. About the Canadian Civil Liberties Association The CCLA is an independent, non-profit organization with supporters from across the country. Founded in 1964, the CCLA is a national human rights organization committed to defending the rights, dignity, safety, and freedoms of all people in Canada. For the Media For further comments, please contact us at media@ccla.org. For Live Updates Please keep referring to this page and to our social media platforms. We are on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The post CCLA releases Ebook: Civil Liberties & the Emergencies Act …

February 14, 2023 Toronto, ON — The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is announcing a new legal victory on the first anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act. “The government had tools other than the Emergencies Act. We are arguing in court that it did not meet the high legal threshold to invoke the act. There was a blockade in Ottawa that needed to be addressed, but the Government did not need new tools to do so.” “And certainly, it did not need to infringe on the civil liberties of all Canadians to solve …

MONTREAL — The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is demanding the release of all video footage related to the death of Nicous D’Andre Spring. It does so in support of Mr. Spring’s family who are also seeking the release of all video footage that we understand exists. Mr. Spring, a 21 year-old black man, died violently while illegally detained at the Bordeaux Prison last month. The organization recognizes that this video is deeply disturbing and could be traumatizing and even dehumanizing if shared and viewed indiscriminately. However careful viewing for the critical purposes of transparency, accountability, and providing …

How does Canada’s bail system operate? Are we doing a good job protecting public safety? When individuals are arrested, are decisions about bail and pre-trial detention made in a fair, equitable manner that respects Charter rights? These questions have been at the forefront of public discourse in recent months. In mid-January, the Premiers of all thirteen provinces and territories sent a letter to the Prime Minister and the federal Minister of Justice, calling for amendments to the Criminal Code. While many commentators have suggested that our bail system is unduly lenient, such arguments run counter to decades of research. The …

The CCLA welcomes the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in R v. Hills and R. v. Hilbach, both of which consider the constitutionality of mandatory minimum sentences. The mandatory minimum at issue in Hills was struck down as a violation of section 12 of the Charter, while a majority of the Court upheld the mandatory minimum sentences that were at issue in Hilbach. Although not relevant to the Court’s decisions, it is worth noting that the mandatory minimum sentences at issue in both of these cases have been repealed by Parliament.   When these cases were …