A PLATFORM TO UNIFY STRUGGLES FOR ALL HUMAN RIGHTS

• Anti-discrimination laws at national level

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  National level: Canadian Human Rights Act

  -Guarantees equal opportunity to individuals regardless of sex, sexual orientation, race, marital status, creed, age, color, disability, political and religious beliefs, and gender identity or expression

  -Law applies to federally regulated activities throughout Canada

  -Creation of Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to investigate and judge claims of discrimination

  For non-federally regulated activities, territory/provincial anti-discrimination laws apply.  Each of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories has a human rights act or code that enumerates the protections offered to its citizens.

  -Alberta Human Rights Act

  -Human Rights Code of British Columbia

  -Human Rights Act of Newfoundland and Labrador

  -Human Rights Act of Nova Scotia

  -Human Rights Code of Ontario

  -Human Rights Act of Prince Edward Island

  -Human Rights Code of Manitoba

  -Human Rights Act of Norwest Territories

  -Human Rights Code of Saskatchewan

  -Human Rights Act of New Brunswick

  -Human Rights Acts of Nunavut Territory

  -Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms of Quebec

  -Human Rights Act of Yukon Territory

  -While Canada has a relatively good human rights record, the government’s treatment of the indigenous groups remains a contentious issue

  -For many decades, indigenous people in Canada did not have full human rights protections, due largely in part to section 67 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA):

  “Nothing in this Act affects any provision of the Indian Act or any provision made under or pursuant to that Act.”

  This section was repealed in 2008, and indigenous groups are now legally entitled to full human rights protections.

  -Despite this, there have been claims of discrimination from police and courts in the form of racism and racial profiling, which has arguably led to very high incarceration rates relative to the rest of the population

  -The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has pointed to social exclusion as the root cause of many indigenous peoples’ struggles with substance abuse and domestic violence

  (http://www.canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1448633333977)

  (https://unchronicle.un.org/article/discrimination-aboriginals-native-lan...)

• Stunting

  
  Stunting prevalence in children under 5 Read more
  N/A
• Political Participation

  
  Rating on consensus building and civil society participation Read more
  N/A
• To what extent are rural communities shrinking

  
  % of population living in rural areas Read more

  1960: 31%

  2015: 18%
• Child marriage

  
  Rates of child marriage Read more

  No data

• Are there Intellectual Property Rights on seeds?

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  -Farmers can only buy certified, registered, or catalogued seeds
• Laws protecting industrial seeds

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  Farmers may not harvest and sow again / gift / exchange / sell privatized or patented seeds

  -Legislation increasing corporate control of seeds and restricting farmers’ ability to control the selling, reproducing, conditioning, and stocking processes is constantly being introduced, with strong push-back from farmers
• Pesticide use by volume and by expenditure

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  Fungicides and Bactericides: 7,546.8 tonnes; relatively constant in past decade and a half

  Herbicides: 58,197.6 tonnes; significant increase

  Insecticides: 3,773.4 tonnes; relatively constant

  (2012)

Participation is one of the fundamental human rights principles, requiring that everyone has the right to participate in making decisions that affect them. In order to ensure that those most affected by violations to the right to food and nutrition participate in political processes, it is essential to have the legal and policy infrastructure within national frameworks, as well as the participatory spaces that give meaningful space for participation.

• National Food Security Policy

  
  Is there a national food security policy with implementation/action? Read more

  No information online regarding national food security policy or action plan, although it is part of their foreign policy:

  http://www.international.gc.ca/development-developpement/priorities-priorites/cfss-scsa.aspx?lang=eng

  -Plan spearheaded in the 1990s seemingly no longer in action

  -Civil society advocacy groups filling food security gap

  http://foodsecurecanada.org/
• Existence of multiactor governing or decision making bodies for food policy at national, subnational and/or local level with diverse participation of civil society organizations

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  Civil society advocacy groups filling in food security policy gap:

  http://foodsecurecanada.org/

  Participatory spaces at Local level:

  Canada has a strong history of local food policy governance, and a high rate of local food policy councils: http://tfpc.to/canadian-food-policy-initiatives   Of particular importance is the Toronto FPC: http://tfpc.to/