DOWNLOAD A PDF OF UA 61/22 UPDATE 1 BELOW Wet’suwet’en land defenders in Canada are at risk of serious human rights violations as the construction of a pipeline is slated to begin in late August 2022. Hereditary chiefs oppose the liquified natural gas pipeline and have not given their consent...

Momin Rahman (he/him) is a Professor of Sociology at Trent University. His current research is on the conflicts between LGBTQ2S identities and Muslim cultures, and the experiences of LGBTQ2S Muslims, including a funded research project on LGBTQ Muslims in Canada. He has presented this work at...

Wet’suwet’en land defenders say they expect work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline to resume in the next few weeks and fear they will face further arrests and human rights violations if the RCMP enforce an injunction to remove people from the construction site. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs...

Rachel Wuttunee is Anishinaabekwe from Kitchenuhmaykoosib in Northwestern Ontario and is from the Bear Clan. Rachel has been an Indigenous and human rights activist for 20 years and holds a Master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia where she...

Jennifer Wickham is a member of Cas Yikh (Grizzly Bear House) in the Gidimt’en (Bear/Wolf) Clan of the Wet’suwet’en people. She currently lives in Gidimt’en yintah in what is now known as northern British Columbia and is the Media Coordinator for the Gidimt’em Checkpoint. Jennifer is...

Lynne Groulx is a Métis woman from the Treaty Three historic Métis community of Rainy River/Lake of the Woods, and is the Chief Executive Officer for the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC). NWAC is a national Indigenous organization representing the political voice of Indigenous women,...

Kimahli Powell (he/him) is the Executive Director of Rainbow Railroad and the Chair of Dignity Network. Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit organization that supports LGTBQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.  Since...

Benjamin Vandorpe (they/them) is a Two Sprit, trans, queer Inuk based in Odawa and is the founder of the non-profit organization, JusticeTrans, whose mission is to improve access to justice for Two Spirit, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming (2STNBGN) communities. JusticeTrans provides free...

Normally, the coming of spring is a welcome reprieve from long, cold, dark, and, if you’re from British Columbia like me, wet winters. But this year’s coming of spring may be tinged with a prickle of anxiety.   Will we get enough rain this spring to replenish our aquifers? Will our rivers run...

January 7th marked an important moment for LGBTQ2S rights in Canada when the federal ban on conversion therapy officially came into effect. After years of advocacy from survivors and activists, Bill C-4 made it illegal to promote, advertise, benefit from, or subject another person to this harmful...

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres was blunt as he spoke at the release of the latest chilling report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on April 4: “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries...

The UN Human Rights Council recently recognized the universal right to a clean, healthy, safe, and sustainable environment. However, this right is far from the reality for racialized or marginalized communities across Canada. Canada has a shameful legacy of environmental racism. For decades,...