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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

In June the province of Ontario agreed to 

fund the clean-up of a river system 

contaminated with mercury. In November the 

federal government agreed to provide 

specialized medical care for mercury 

poisoning as long sought by members of the 

Grassy Narrows First Nation.

In July the Supreme Court of Canada, in a 

case brought by the Inuit hamlet of Clyde 

River, ruled that the government has an 

obligation to intervene when regulatory 

agencies fail to protect Indigenous rights.

In August the UN CERD Committee 

expressed concern about Indigenous land 

rights violations and Canada’s failure to 

respect the right of free, prior and informed 

consent. The Committee asked Canada to 

report back within one year on measures to 

address the impacts of the Site C dam. In 

December the provincial government in 

British Columbia announced that 

construction of the Site C dam would 

continue, despite the objections of affected 

First Nations.

In November the government announced 

support for a bill to develop a legislative 

framework for implementing the UN 

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous 

Peoples.

In November, the Supreme Court rejected a 

potentially groundbreaking legal challenge by 

the Ktunaxa Nation in British Columbia which 

sought to apply constitutional protection of 

religious freedom to the preservation of 

Indigenous Peoples’ sacred sites.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

In June, the federal government launched a 

Feminist International Assistance Policy and 

committed to placing women’s rights, gender 

equality and sexual and reproductive rights at 

the core of its foreign policy. In November the 

government released its second National 

Action Plan on women, peace and security.

In June, the federal government released a 

strategy to combat gender-based violence, 

but without a national action plan.

The National Inquiry into Missing and 

Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 

proceeded throughout the year. A growing 

number of relatives of missing and murdered 

women and girls expressed frustration about 

the Inquiry’s slow progress and poor 

communication, and several staff and one of 

five Commissioners resigned. Community 

hearings commenced in June and an interim 

report was issued in November.

In October, Quebec passed the Act to Foster 

Adherence to State Religious Neutrality 

requiring everyone, including Muslim women 

wearing a niqab, to uncover their faces to use 

or provide government services, including on 

public transit and in libraries. A court ruling 

in December suspended application of the 

Act until a constitutional challenge is heard.

RIGHTS OF LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, 

TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX PEOPLE

In June, Parliament passed legislation adding 

gender identity and expression as prohibited 

grounds for discrimination in Canada’s 

Human Rights Act and Criminal Code.

COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY

In January, six worshippers were killed and 

19 others injured when a gunman opened 

fire in a mosque in Quebec City.

In March, parliament adopted a motion 

calling for a committee study to develop a 

new approach for addressing Islamophobia 

and religious discrimination.

In March, Canadian citizens Abdullah 

Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed 

Nureddin received compensation and an 

apology for the role of Canadian officials in 

their unlawful arrest, imprisonment and 

torture in Syria and Egypt between 2001 and 

2004.

In June, national security legal reforms were 

proposed, including improved review and 

oversight of national security agencies. 

Continuing concerns included insufficient 

information-sharing safeguards, inadequate 

appeal provisions for people named on “no-

fly lists”, and expanded mass surveillance 

and data-mining powers.

In June, legislation was passed reversing 

2014 Citizenship Act reforms which had 

allowed dual nationals convicted of terrorism 

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and other offences to be stripped of 

Canadian citizenship.

In July, Canadian citizen Omar Khadr 

received compensation and an apology for 

the role of Canadian officials in violations 

against him at the US detention facility at 

Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for 10 years from 

2002.

In September, revised guidelines 

strengthened safeguards against complicity 

in torture in intelligence sharing with other 

governments, but failed to absolutely prohibit 

the use of information obtained through 

torture by other governments.

JUSTICE SYSTEM

In June, federal legislation was tabled 

proposing to establish a 20-day limit on 

solitary confinement, to be reduced to 15 

days once the law has been in force for 18 

months. The draft law did not prohibit 

holding people suffering from mental illness 

in solitary confinement. A court ruling in 

December declared existing solitary 

confinement provisions to be unconstitutional 

because of inadequate safeguards and 

provided the government with one year to 

adopt new standards.

In October the Journalistic Source 

Protection Act was passed, establishing a 

“shield law” to protect journalists and their 

sources.

REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS

More than 18,000 asylum-seekers irregularly 

crossed from the USA into Canada during the 

year, as conditions for refugees and migrants 

in the USA deteriorated. Asylum-seekers 

crossed irregularly to avoid the ban on 

making claims at official border posts, 

pursuant to the 2004 Canada-US Safe Third 

Country Agreement. A legal challenge to the 

Agreement was launched jointly by civil 

society groups and individual asylum-seekers 

in July.

In August, the CERD Committee pressed 

Canada to set a maximum time frame for 

immigration detention, end the immigration 

detention of minors and provide access to 

essential health care for all people in Canada, 

regardless of immigration status. New 

guidelines released in November required 

that minors only be held in immigration 

detention in “extremely limited 

circumstances”.

Annual government refugee resettlement 

targets declined to pre-2016 levels of 7,500, 

following an increase to 25,000 in 2016 as 

part of the government’s Syrian refugee 

resettlement programme.

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

The British Columbia Conservation Officer 

Service concluded its investigation into the 

2014 Mount Polley Mining Corporation 

(MPMC) tailings pond collapse, without 

bringing charges. A federal level investigation 

for violations of the Fisheries Act was 

ongoing. In April, against the wishes of 

Indigenous and other communities, British 

Columbia authorities approved MPMC’s plan 

to discharge mine waste water that does not 

meet provincial drinking water guidelines into 

Quesnel Lake. In June the UN Working 

Group on Business and Human Rights 

supported British Columbia Auditor General’s 

recommendation to establish a compliance 

and enforcement unit independent of the 

Ministry of Energy and Mines. In August, a 

private prosecution was filed against MPMC. 

Also in August, the CERD Committee called 

on Canada to report within one year on action 

to address the 2014 disaster.

In January the British Columbia Court of 

Appeal ruled that a lawsuit against Tahoe 

Resources regarding the shooting of 

protesters outside its mine in Guatemala 

could be heard in Canada. In November the 

Court upheld a lower court ruling that a 

lawsuit against Nevsun Resources for 

complicity in forced labour at its mine in 

Eritrea could proceed.

In December, the government announced 

plans to establish, in early 2018, a human 

rights Ombudsperson for Canadian 

extractives companies operating abroad.

Negotiations to revise the North American 

Free Trade Agreement between Canada, 

Mexico and the USA, including Canadian 

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