After an inspiring, challenging and eventful week at the Federal Court in Toronto, it is worth taking a moment for some final reflections on the court challenge to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) which took place from November 4-8, 2019.
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November 08, 2019
Amnesty International is inviting you to help change lives on December 10, International Human Rights Day, with the world's biggest grassroots event for human rights: Write for Rights!
Last year we sent 5.9 million letters and messages for human rights from more than 200 countries. Here's a list of 10 ways you can get involved:
1. Start with the simple stuffSign up at Writeathon.ca! From here you can take action online, watch videos about cases, download materials for letter writing, and stay in the loop on cases to be featured on December 10th.
Posted in: Write for Rights
November 08, 2019
Jaya Bordeleau-Cass and André Capretti are the 2019-2020 Public Interest Articling Fellows at Amnesty International Canada. They will be posting updates about the Safe Third Country Agreement hearing throughout the week.
The brief and frustrating answer: it’s unclear what it takes.
Submissions in the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) challenge continued to be delivered from November 4-8th at the Federal Court in Toronto. Earlier this week, counsel for the applicants – representing Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Council of Churches, and other individual litigants – provided a general overview of the requirements for a safe third country designation, why it is unlawful, and why the operation of the agreement violates the security and equality rights of STCA returnees.
Posted in: Refugees and Migrants, Canada, USA
November 06, 2019
Jaya Bordeleau-Cass and André Capretti are the 2019-2020 Public Interest Articling Fellows at Amnesty International Canada. They will be posting updates about the Safe Third Country Agreement hearing throughout the week.
Shame. Frustration. Rage. Disappointment.
Court hearings can be dry, but when we listen to the facts and stories presented over the past two days in the challenge to the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), it is hard not to have an emotional reaction.
On the second day of the hearings in Toronto, counsel for the applicants – Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches and individual refugee claimants – continued to present their legal arguments and reviewed how the STCA violates equality rights under section 15 of the Canadian Charter, and the rights to liberty and security of the person under section 7.
Posted in: Refugees and Migrants, Canada, USA
November 05, 2019
Today marked the first day of a week-long hearing, in which the applicants - Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches, and individual refugee claimants - are challenging the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement (the STCA) in Federal Court before Justice Ann Marie McDonald.
“Year after year, month after month, Canada willfully turns its back on refugee claimants at the border.”
The applicants’ opening remarks, delivered by Mr. Andrew Brouwer, set the stage for the day’s arguments, which reviewed the facts, the evidence and administrative law issues.
Posted in: Refugees and Migrants, Canada, USA
October 31, 2019
From October 22th to 26th, Amnesty Canada's Alex Neve joined a global Amnesty delegation to monitor the impact of anti-asylum policies at the US-Mexico border. They met with the consul general of Mexico in San Diego, the National Commission of Human Rights in Tijuana, visited shelters in Tijuana and San Diego, met with NGOs and UN agencies on both sides of the border, and met with legal aid providers and toured a shelter for unaccompanied children in Brownsville, TX. On their last day, the group crossed the border into Matamoros, Mexico to speak with families and others who have been affected by the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy.
Matamoros, Mexico
“Some days we cry. Some days we laugh. And we are here to lift each other up when we are down.”
Posted in: Refugees and Migrants, Mexico, USA
October 28, 2019
The past few months have seen a seemingly massive surge in protests globally. From the streets of Hong Kong to La Paz, Quito, Barcelona, Beirut and Santiago, we have witnessed a huge wave of people taking to the streets to exercise their right to protest and demand change from those in power.
Sadly, a common thread throughout these protests has been an extremely harsh response from the state, which in many instances have amounted to gross violations of human rights.
Posted in: Freedom of Expression
October 24, 2019
Each year, the world’s biggest human rights event just gets bigger. Write for Rights 2018 was no exception, with people writing millions of messages that transformed the lives of women activists worldwide.
They came in their dozens, hundreds, even thousands. They were students, parents, teachers, friends – ordinary people who took a moment to tweet, type, draw or write a message of support for someone they’d never met. They did this an astonishing 5,911,113 times as part of Amnesty’s 2018 Write for Rights – an annual letter-writing marathon on or around International Human Rights Day (December 10th) that has become the world’s biggest human rights event.
Sign up for Write for Rights 2019 >>
Posted in: Write for Rights
October 22, 2019
October 18, 2019
The Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (which Amnesty Canada is a member of) asked all federal political parties to detail their commitments aimed at ensuring a greater respect for human rights by Canadian companies operating abroad. In a questionnaire, we asked parties to outline their positions on three key measures to increase corporate accountability:
1. Will your party support comprehensive mandatory human rights due diligence legislation? Such legislation requires companies to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights abuses and provides for liability when companies cause harm in their global operations (subsidiaries and supply chains).
2. Will you make the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) independent and provide it with the power to compel documents and testimony so it can effectively investigate human rights abuse allegations linked to Canadian corporations operating overseas?
Posted in: Canada
