Unit 2 Flashcards
Democratic rights
Definition: the right to vote for Canadian citizens
Charter guarantees the right to vote for those ages 18 and up and guarantees an election to be held every 5 years.
Mobility rights
Definition: the right to enter and leave Canada, and the right to move between the provinces.
Historic barriers to women’s equality
Historic barriers- women couldn’t go to university or professional schools, vote, or run for political office. This resulted in women having to rely on men financially and with political decisions.
Impact of WW1 on women’s rights
Men had to leave Canada and fight on the war, leaving many jobs empty. Women were then needed to fulfill these jobs for that time, though almost all women lost those jobs once the men returned. In 1921 a rule was made that prevented married women from holding jobs in the government unless no support was given from their husband or a man was unable to fill his job.
Suffrage
The right to vote in political elections.
Persons case
In 1927, five feminists asked parliament to define them as “person”. Canada’s constitution wanted to know is “person” included women as no woman had been appointed to the senate until then. 1928 they decided it meant only men and that women were not legal persons and couldn’t hold any appointed office. These women became known as the famous five who appealed the decision to the highest court of the time, the judicial committee of the parliament council in Britain. They fought for women’s rights.
Persons case importance to Canadian history
The Famous five worked together to fight for women’s rights and equality by making their voices heard to the parliament.
Pay equity
Definition- the principle of equal payment for work of equal value, guaranteed under section 11 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Different jobs are compared under pay equity based on skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.
Employment equity
Definition- having all employees receive equal treatment based on their abilities.
Groups protected under employment equity are women, aboriginal peoples, those with disabilities, and visible minorities.
Meech Lake Accord
An agreement of a plan to reform Canada’s constitution.
Elijah Harper opposed it because it didn’t recognize First Nations as equal founding partners to Canada, giving them no part in it.
Calder decision
Indigenous people fought for their rights, saying they had legal rights to their ancestral lands. The Calder decision was recognized by the Trudeau government after going through many judges, reversing the white paper. This was the start of negotiating land claims settlements, resolving land related conflicts moving forward.
Points system for the Immigration Act
1976, a system was made where they look at the qualities of an applicant to decide which immigrants to choose. These qualities include their education, skill, motivation, responsibility, etc.
Canadian Human Rights Act of 1996
The federal government was ordered by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to make changes to extend employment benefits within medical and dental benefits to same-sex couples.
Civil Marriage Act of 2005
Officially legalized same-sex marriage.
Legal disabilities
Brain injury, deafness, epilepsy, mental illness, developmental disability, behaviour problems, physical disability, substance abuse, learning problems, blindness, obesity
Access
Access is when businesses accommodate access for those with disabilities to be at the same advantage.
Businesses are not obligated to provide easy access for those with disabilities.
Sexual harassment
Unwanted actions or conduct toward another person of a sexual nature like repeated sexual jokes.
Poisoned work environment
A workplace where the employer allows inappropriate conduct like racial or sexual insults or jokes.
Accommodation
When an employer accommodates an employee who has a barrier in the workplace environment.
Undue hardship
When an employer can’t accommodate an employee for health safety, financial, or other reasons that put their business in jeopardy.
Ex. If someone is allergic to gasoline and needs subway to move their business to accommodate them, financially subway cannot do that so that accommodation cannot be made.
Canadian Human Rights Act
This act applies to federal government departments and businesses that fall under federal control.
Ex.) postal services, banks, airlines, and rail services.
Limits of freedom of expression from Keegstra case
His freedom of expression was limited because he doesn’t have freedom of hate speech. This protects groups from hate speech.
Limits on freedom of expression from the Butler case
You have freedom of expression, but the “art” he was creating was too obscene, violating Canada’s obscenity laws and therefore being limited.
Capital Punishment
Before 1859 Canada ran under British law. By 1865 only murder, treason, and rape were considered capital offences. Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas were the last of 710 prisoners to be executed in Canada since 1859. In 1967 a government bill to apply mandatory life imprisonment in all murder cases, except when the victim was an on-duty police officer or prison guard was passed by a House of Commons vote. After 1976, the death penalty was permitted only for members of the Armed forces found guilty of cowardice, desertion, unlawful surrender, or spying for the enemy. The federal government completely abolished state executions in 1998.
Service animals
Service providers must allow service animals in almost all public spaces. It also outlines what providers must do to accommodate customers who need to go places where their service animals are excluded by law.
R.v lotozky
Lotozky argued that his rights were violated as he believed his driveway is meant to have privacy and he was no longer driving but on his property.
They allowed the appeal because the officers received a report of an impaired driver, giving them a reason to be in the driveway and were not asked by lotozky to leave his property before telling him the reasons for being arrested.
R.v chaisson
Unreasonable search and seizure (section 8) was violated as the police officer approached the vehicle with little to no evidence. He then proceeded to search the car without warning them or reading him his rights before searching the car. He violated the individual rights of a Canadian citizens.
Section 24 was provided as a remedy
