CANS 200:

Understanding Canada
Instructor: Dr Jodey Nurse

McGill Institute for the Study of Canada

Lecture:
The Rights Revolution and the
Response from the Far Right
Monday, October 21, 2024
 Office Hours on Wednesday
Cancelled! Office hours moved to
Thursday this week only between
12-1pm or by appointment.
FINAL EXAM
CANS 200 final exam has been scheduled for December 20th at 9:00am.
CANS 200 001 Understanding Canada
IN-PERSON - FORMAL EXAM - D.T. CAMPUS
(specific building location will be announced later in the semester)
20-Dec-2024 at 9:00 AM to 20-Dec-2024 at 12:00 PM
As noted in the course syllabus, this is an in-person exam that is administered by the exam
office; instructors are not permitted to make special arrangements for final exams and there
is no makeup exam in this course. Therefore, you MUST attend.
NOTE: I did not create the exam schedule, and I cannot change it.
FINAL EXAM: 3 Parts
PART A: Identify and state the significance of four selected terms, people, events,
groups, ideas, etc. from course material (TOTAL: 20 points)
PART B: You will complete two short answer questions (you will have a choice). You
must draw on specific ideas and examples from the course lectures and assigned
readings to provide evidence for your argument. (TOTAL: 20 points)
PART C: You will complete one final short answer question (no choice). (TOTAL: 10
points)
Tips for studying
• Review your class notes and focus on
• important themes and ideas that are repeated across lectures and
conference readings
• important terms, people, events, groups, movements, etc.
• When reviewing your notes, also make sure that you are
confident with the main ideas of specific lectures and the main
arguments of specific readings
Identify and state the significance:
• Clearly address the “who, what, when, how, and why”
• Make sure to address the why; why is this significant
• Provide specific examples for showcasing significance
Short Answer Questions:
Types of Questions: (Memory vs Analytical)

Describe, define, identify, outline, list …

VS (but often plus)
Explain, compare, discuss, give reasons for …

• Answer the question directly (rather than write about the topic)
• Provide a concise, yet thorough, written answer to the question, using complete
sentences
• Typically, you need 2 pages (double-spaced) to properly answer a 10-mark question
• Demonstrate your understanding, not just your memory
Example Short Answer Questions
(not for this course):

1. Explain why applying a transnational lens in Canadian history is

important.
2. Compare first-wave and second-wave feminism and provide specific
examples that demonstrate each.
3. Discuss the challenges associated with industrialization and urbanization
in nineteenth-century America.
 Writing Assignment Advice

(Slides posted to the course

website under the Assignment
Instructions module).
Today’s Lecture:
The Rights Revolution and the
Response from the Far Right
 What was the
“Rights Revolution”?
Rights Revolution
Dominique Clément, Canada’s Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social
Change, 1937-82 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008):
• Clément argues that the Rights Revolution was the period between the Second
World War and the signing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in
1982 when awareness of and support for human rights increased
• Entailed an important change in the role of the state; “governments became
active agents in protecting and enforcing a new rights regime.” (19)
• Four central developments:
• Challenges to parliamentary supremacy
• The expanding role of the state and innovations in public policy
• The explosion of social movement activity in the sixties
• Changing attitudes towards freedom and equality
Contemporary issue:
• What is the role of the state in protecting citizens’ rights?
• What does the rise of far-right extremism represent?
This class, you will learn about:
• Human rights history in Canada
• The development of the welfare state
• The changing role of the state in protecting and ensuring citizens’ rights
• Rights activism in Canada
• Some reasons for the rise of the far right
Canadian Human Rights History
Jennifer Tunnicliffe, “Canada and the Human Rights Framework:
Historiographical Trends,” History Compass 12, no. 10 (2014):
807-817.
• Argues that these studies “reveal how dominant groups within society
have historically marginalized and discriminated against vulnerable groups
or individuals, and how this dominance has been challenged over time.”
• Support for human rights is an increasingly important element of Canadian
identity → Historians have challenged this notion of our identity based on
Canada’s past discriminatory practices
• The importance of human rights and corresponding institutional support
more recent
Ideas of Human Rights
Mobilization
for Human
Rights
• The Great Depression
in the 1930s
The Second
World War
and Post-
War Period
Declaration of Human Rights
Eleanor Roosevelt holding the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, Lake Success, 1949. Canadian John Humphrey
was the principal author.
 • New language of ‘human rights’ from the
United Nations
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• 1944: Ontario’s Racial Discrimination Act
Important • 1947 Saskatchewan Bill of Rights

Legislation • 1960: The Canadian Bill of Rights

• 1962: Ontario Human Rights Code
• 1975: Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and
Freedoms
• 1982: The Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms
Canadian
Charter of
Rights and
Freedoms
(1982)
Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
The break from parliamentary supremacy:
• The adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of the
Constitution Act (1982) prescribes that “the Constitution of Canada is the
supreme law of Canada” (s.52)
• If Parliament or any provincial legislatures now enact a law which violates a
section of the Charter, a court has the power to strike this legislation down
• However, since s. 33 of the Charter, the notwithstanding clause, allows
Parliament and the provincial legislatures to override certain provisions of
the Charter, therefore Canadian legislatures are still partially supreme
Today: Quebec’s Bill 21 (2019)
• Bill 21: An Act respecting the laicity of the State
• Prohibits state employees such as prosecutors, police officers and teachers from
wearing religious symbols when carrying out their civic duties
• Applies only to new public service hires, exempting existing civil servants from its
provisions.
• Follows similar legislation passed in 2017 that banned the wearing of face coverings by
individuals providing or receiving certain public services
• Legault government used the notwithstanding clause to protect Bill 21 from the courts.
• Matter now before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Development of the Welfare State
• Influenced by Keynesian policies, British connection
• Marsh’s 1943 Report on Social Security for Canada
• 1945 Family Allowance Act; 1951 expansion of Old Age Security; 1965
Canadian Pension Plan (CPP); 1966 Medical Care Act
• After the Second World War, higher taxes went to:
• Infrastructure spending (road and electrical power facilities)
• Building up social capital (schools and hospitals)
Rights
Revolution
The Response from the Far Right

Original Toronto Star caption: :”One of

33 supporters of Scarborough's
Edmund Burke Society marches to
the U.S. Consulate on University Ave.
yesterday during the right-wing
group's Fourth of July anti-Communist
demonstration.”
McKercher:
• Edmund Burke Society as reflection of long-standing strains of
nationalism, racism, anti-statism, anti-communism among the far right in
Canada
• “…EBS serves as a reminder that the 1960s were not all Trudeaumania
and flower power and that societal changes in the later decades of the
century did not go uncontested.” (79)
“Should Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms be amended 40 years later?”
Global News, April 17, 2022.
First Nations
Rights
The White
Paper
“In the Canadian legislature, a policy
paper is called a white paper. For
many First Nations people, the term
ironically implies a reference to racial
politics and the white majority. The
1969 white paper proposing the
abolition of the Indian Act was
formally called the Statement of the
Government of Canada on Indian
Policy.” –– Indigenous Foundations
Section 35 of the Constitution Act
Bill C-31
in 1985
 Section 15 – Equality rights

Hughes: 15. (1) Every individual is equal

before and under the law and has
the right to the equal protection and
equal benefit of the law without
• Egan v. Canada (1995) discrimination and, in particular,
• Case launched against the spousal allowance benefit without discrimination based on
under the Old Age Security Act race, national or ethnic origin,
• Ruling allowed for the redefinition of marriage colour, religion, sex, age or mental
• Serves as an important example of the impact of the or physical disability.
Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the changes in (2) Section (1) does not preclude
Canadian society regarding human rights any law, program or activity that has
• “The changes in law recounted…were largely made as its object the amelioration of
possible because of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. conditions of disadvantaged
Every court case that helped to make all Canadians
equal…referred to section 15 of the document. The individuals or groups including those
Charter…was a document…that would change as Canada that are disadvantaged because of
changed, and, in the process, force Canada to make race, national or ethnic origin,
certain changes even if it did not want to.” (p. 120)
colour, religion, sex, age or mental
or physical disability.
Some Points to Consider
• Canada’s human rights history provides a useful analysis of structures of
power and what historic patterns of discrimination and intolerance reveal
about concepts of citizenship and belonging
• Canada in the postwar years experienced significant social and cultural
change
• The adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) signaled an
important shift Canadian political culture and the state’s responsibilities to
its citizens
• Minority groups defended their interests more vigorously and society was
generally more attentive to social issues, but this shift was not uncontested
• Indigenous rights became important issues and First Nations peoples
returned to the general public’s consciousness; however, much work was
still left to be done to combat inequality and work towards reconciliation
Next Week:

Monday, October 28: Women’s Rights and

Gender Equity

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