Report slams Canada’s human rights record
Gender inequality, Bill C-51 and treatment of natives criticized by new UN study
Canada has been harshly criticized by a United Nations committee for a broad range of human rights failures, including an “inadequate’’ response to the problem of missing and murdered aboriginal females, gender inequality and “abuses’’ connected to Canadian firms operating overseas. The new UN human rights committee report examined Canada’s compliance with the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights.
The report, released Thursday, expressed deep concerns about Canada’s new anti-terrorism bill, C-51, saying it doesn’t have enough safeguards to protect civil liberties, and could lead to “mass surveillance and targeting activities’’ by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
The committee’s “concluding observations on Canada’’ report also decries a “lack of adequate and effective’’ oversight mechanisms in the bill to ensure oversight and review of the activities of bodies such as CSIS.
The report devoted much attention to the plight of indigenous people in Canada, and the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Canada has failed to provide adequate responses to the latter, the report says.
While commending Ottawa for implementing an action plan to address domestic violence and violent crimes against aboriginal women — the federal government is devoting $5 million a year to the issue — the report demanded Canada launch a federal inquiry in the matter.
Ottawa has repeatedly said no to that option.
A shocking RCMP report last year concluded there were 1,181 cases of missing or murdered indigenous women and girls from 1980 to 2012, including 1,017 homicides and 164 missing persons. Those figures were updated this year to include 32 new homicides from 2013 to 2014.
Potential extinguishing of indigenous land rights and titles in Canada, disappearing indigenous languages, the lack of access for some indigenous people to basic needs and the overrepresentation of indigenous people in the criminal justice system were also cited by the UN body as areas of concern.
Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, called the report “yet another call to action for Canada to work with First Nations as partners to realize our human rights and our aboriginal and treaty rights.
“All governments in Canada should be seized by this report’s observations and recommendations, and push for action,’’ he added.
The UN report also took aim at reports of excessive use of force by police during protests in Canada, citing police crackdowns during the G20 protest in 2010 in Toronto and student protests in Quebec in 2012.
The committee is troubled by reports that complaints surrounding these events weren’t always promptly investigated, or lenient punishments were doled out.
A leading civil liberties group in Canada said the report shows this country is falling down when it comes to living up to its legal commitments regarding liberty, security of person and due process.
“Canada must take these recommendations seriously as they come from an independent, non-political expert body of international lawyers from around the world who look to see how states like Canada implement their obligations under the legally binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,’’ Sukanya Pillay, executive director and general counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said in a statement Thursday.
But Johanna Quinney, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Nicholson said: “We are proud of our human rights record at home and abroad. Just last week the Reputation Institute found that Canada was the most admired country in the world.”
That study surveyed 48,000 residents in G8 countries asking them to rank the reputations of the world’s 55 wealthiest nations.
The UN committee report, a fiveyear review, also pointed to human rights abuses connected to Canadian companies operating abroad, particularly mining corporations.
The report didn’t name a particular company, but Toronto-based Barrick Gold, for example, has been criticized by human rights groups in the past. Private security officers for Barrick’s Porgera gold mine in New Guinea allegedly committed acts of violence against women in 2009 and 2010.
Barrick fired employees over the assaults and compensated victims.
Canada should consider establishing an independent body with powers to investigate human rights abuses by its companies abroad, the UN committee report says.
On immigration detention, the report said migrants and asylum seekers who enter Canada “irregularly’’ should not be detained for indefinite periods. The human rights committee called on Canada to report back within a year on key issues from the report, including the recommendations on murdered and missing women.