Winner of the 2009 John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book AwardIn the first major study of postwar social movement organizations in Canada, Dominique Clement provides a history of the human rights movement as seen through the eyes of two generations of activists. Drawing on newly acquired archival sources, extensive interviews, and materials released through access to information applications, Clement explores the history of four organizations – the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Ligue des droits de l'homme, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and Newfoundland-Labrador Human Rights Association – that emerged in the sixties and evolved into powerful lobbies for human rights despite bitter internal disputes and intense rivalries.In addition to offering a unique perspective on some of the most infamous human rights controversies of the period – including the Gastown riot, the campaign to counteract police violence in Toronto, compulsory treatment of drug addicts, the October crisis of 1970, and the rights of prisoners and welfare recipients – Canada's Rights Revolution argues that the idea of human rights has historically been highly statist while grass roots activism has been at the heart of the most profound human rights advances.

Product Description: This book shows how human rights became the primary language for social change in Canada and how a single decade became the locus for that emergence. The author argues that the 1970s was a critical moment in human rights history―one that transformed political culture, social movements, law, and foreign policy...read more