Canada wavering on human rights: UN
In its first examination of human rights in Canada in a decade, the United Nations has zeroed in on security legislation while also warning that the country is backsliding in several key areas.
The UN’s human rights committee report, issued Thursday, says federal government amendments to the Security Intelligence Act have handed Canada’s security services “a broad mandate and powers” of surveillance without sufficient legal safeguards.
While accepting Canada’s need to adopt measures to combat terrorism, the UN report also expresses “concern” the federal government has increased information-sharing about individuals among federal agencies without safeguards to ensure that the information is accurate.
“The (human rights) committee is also concerned about the lack of adequate and effective oversight mechanisms to review activities of security and intelligence agencies and the lack of resources and power of existing mechanisms to monitor such activities,” it says.
Security legislation is among numerous concerns raised in the UN committee’s report.
The committee worries about “excessive use of force by law enforcement officers during mass arrests in the context of protests at federal and provincial levels, with particular reference to indigenous landrelated protests, G20 protests in 2010 as well as student protests in Quebec in 2012.”
It expresses concern about gender inequality in Canada and makes several recommendations to improve the lives of aboriginal Canadians.
The report also urges Canada to get a grip on Canadian companies operating abroad — especially mining companies — and introduce an “effective, independent mechanism” to investigate human rights abuses by those companies.
It raps the federal government for what it characterizes as attempts to limit the activities of civil rights groups by revoking their charitable status.
Amnesty International Canada secretary general Alex Neve called the report “a timely set of concerns and recommendations.
“Obviously Canada doesn’t figure among the world’s worst human rights violators and nobody is suggesting that it does,” he said. “But the report makes it very clear that Canada can, and absolutely must, do better. We shouldn’t countenance losing ground and, with respect to many of these issues, it is what we have been doing.”
Johanna Quinney, spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson, did not address the specific issues in the report but said: “Canada is the best country in the world. We are proud of our human rights record at home and abroad.”