Today, we were at BC’s 2024 Budget presentation in Victoria on the unceded Coast Salish homelands of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples to hear whether the government will implement our key recommendations. Lawsuit settlement provides some much-need support, but not enough Last week, we announced a historic win as the government settled our lawsuit brought … Read more Budget 2024: Historic legal aid expansion, but lots left to do
Case summary This case is a human rights complaint brought by Nicholas Dinardo (Mx. Dinardo), regarding harassment and discrimination by Correctional Services Canada (CSC) on the grounds of race, colour, national or ethnic origin, religion, gender identity or expression, and disability, contrary to s. 5 and s. 14 of the Canada Human Rights Act (CHRA). … Read more Dinardo v Correctional Services Canada [2023]
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West Coast LEAF, alongside Rise Women’s Legal Centre, has made a submission to the Department of Justice as it considers establishing a new Criminal Code offence for coercive control in the context of intimate relationships. Coercive control is a form of non-physical abuse or violence that uses psychological intimidation, threats, humiliation, financial or property abuse, … Read more Joint submission on the potential criminalization of coercive control
July 10, 2023 – For immediate release Vancouver, unceded Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) homelands – West Coast LEAF and Parents Advocating Collectively for Kin (PACK) are calling on the Ministry of Child and Family Development (MCFD) to end the harmful and discriminatory practice of involuntary drug testing of parents engaged with the … Read more Release: Rights Groups Urge BC Government to End Harmful and Discriminatory Involuntary Drug Testing of Parents
West Coast LEAF and Parents Advocating Collecting for Kin (PACK) are joined by leading BC rights organizations and advocates to call on the BC government to immediately end the harmful and discriminatory practice of involuntarily drug testing parents who are engaged with the family policing system, also known as the child welfare system. Involuntary drug … Read more Open letter calling for an end to harmful involuntary drug testing of parents
June 16, 2023 – For Immediate Release Ottawa, unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory – In today’s ruling on the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) challenge, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with the Asper Centre, LEAF and West Coast LEAF that there must not be a hierarchy of Charter rights in which equality rights occupy a lower tier. … Read more Release: Supreme Court of Canada affirms gender equality rights must not be neglected but fails to strike down the Safe Third Country Agreement
West Coast LEAF, alongside the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE), has made a submission to the Justice Committee at the House of Commons as it deliberates on Bill S-224, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (trafficking in persons). Our submission urges the Committee to consider the danger of conflating sex work … Read more Joint submission with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity on Bill S-224
We offer legal education that is based on our feminist and social justice values. In addition to providing information about law, our approach includes analyzing power and privilege, critiquing the law, and valuing non-legal pathways. Our public legal education programming has been providing people with information about colonial law for more than 20 years. Since then, … Read more Our intentions and values for public legal education and information
For Immediate Release – January 16, 2023 Vancouver, unceded Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) homelands – Today, West Coast LEAF is intervening at the BC Court of Appeal in a case that will impact how parents are surveilled by the family policing system (also known as the child welfare system), T.L. v the Attorney … Read more Release: Case to determine parents’ right to privacy at BC Court of Appeal