Conference on Charter of Rights and Labour Law

The University of Western Ontario is organizing a conference on The Charter and Human Rights at Work: 25 Years Later on October 26-27, 2007 in London, Ontario. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, will be the keynote speaker.

The full conference program is available online.

"Human rights and equality have become the leading legal issues in the Canadian workplace. Anti-discrimination clauses in collective agreements, human rights statutes and even the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are regularly litigated in labour and employment law cases. As our society becomes more diverse and more rights-oriented, and as our employment relationships become more transitional, workplace glass ceilings have become more visible and human rights talk has become more evident".

"The workplace, in Canada and elsewhere, is not only a primary source of human rights violations but it is also one of the most obvious social institutions through which to challenge these discriminatory practices through laws and campaigns. Many of the path-breaking human rights and equality rulings in Canada over the past twenty-five years – on disability, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, older workers, and family status issues – have arisen out of the workplace. All of these human rights issues, and more, have been at the centre of developments in modern Canadian labour law and industrial relations".

Earlier Library Boy posts about the 25th anniversary of the Charter include:

• Library and Archives Canada Exhibit for 25th Anniversary of the Charter (November 7, 2006): "Library and Archives Canada has put together an online exhibition Building a Just Society: A Retrospective of Canadian Rights and Freedoms for which it has 'invited a number of individual Canadians to contribute their personal thoughts and thought-provoking commentary on this vital section of our Constitution'."
• Conference on 25th Anniversary of the Charter of Rights (January 2, 2007): "The McGill Institute for the Study of Canada is hosting a conference from February 14 to 16 entitled The Charter @ 25."
• Survey on Canadian Attitudes Regarding Charter of Rights (February 8, 2007): "In conjunction with the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada's conference marking the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Montreal-based Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) asked polling firm SES Research to do a detailed survey of the attitudes of Canadians towards the Charter."
• Charter 25th Anniversary Conferences (February 21, 2007): "There are other conferences this year to mark the 25th anniversary of the Charter. Some of the key ones are: 25th Anniversary of the Charter - A Tribute to Chief Justice R. Roy McMurtry (Law Society of Upper Canada, April 12, 2007, Toronto) ... 25 Years Under the Charter (Association for Canadian Studies, April 16-17, 2007, Ottawa) ... A Living Tree: The Legacy of 1982 in Canada’s Political Evolution (Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy, May 23-25, 2007, Regina)"
• Articles on 25th Anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (April 6, 2007): "There are a number of articles in the most recent issue of Canadian Lawyer about the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ..."
• Top Ten Charter Cases (April 14, 2007): "Last week, there was a symposium organized by the Law Society of Upper Canada in Toronto to mark the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. For the occasion, as noted in the Osgoode Hall blog The Court, a panel of 10 top Supreme Court watchers came up with a list of the 10 most important Charter cases."