For the 8th year in a row, West Coast LEAF has issued our CEDAW Report Card which grades BC’s progress in nine key areas in women’s rights, including access to justice, economic security, affordable housing and child care, and women’s health and safety. BC’s actions and inactions are assessed against the obligations set out in the UN Convention … Read more 2016 CEDAW Report Card
VANCOUVER – Today, West Coast LEAF released its eighth annual report card on women’s rights in BC. While there have been minor improvements in some of the nine key areas this year, the overwhelmingly low grades reveal that BC has once again failed to deliver on its responsibilities towards women. In particular, the Province has … Read more Release: BC gets low marks on report card assessing women’s equality
In October 2016, West Coast LEAF wrote to the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services to call for women’s equality to be made a priority for BC’s 2017 budget. We made particular recommendations to reduce poverty, improve women’s access to justice, and address the unacceptable treatment of women in prison, including the over-incarceration of Indigenous women. Read our submission. (PDF, … Read more Submission on 2017 Budget Consultations
VANCOUVER – Today, West Coast LEAF in coalition with the Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS) is at the BC Court of Appeal (BCCA) in an appeal concerning discrimination against Vancouver’s street homeless population. The appeal, brought by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) and the City of Vancouver (COV), seeks to overturn a finding … Read more Release: Discrimination case against street homeless puts equal protection to the test
VANCOUVER – In a ground-breaking judgment, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that mandatory minimum sentencing for certain drug offences violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This case challenged a section of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which creates a mandatory minimum one year jail term for drug possession in certain situations. West Coast LEAF … Read more Release: Supreme Court of Canada strikes down mandatory minimum sentence for drug offence
Every year, West Coast LEAF issues our CEDAW Report Card on how BC is measuring up when it comes to international obligations under the UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Learn more about this project or download the 2015 CEDAW Report Card. Publications
Read our 2015 Annual Report to learn about West Coast LEAF’s work for gender justice in the 2014/2015 fiscal year. Publications
Tomorrow we release our 10th annual CEDAW Report Card. A lot has changed in BC since our last election in April 2017. A lot of promises have been made, and a lot of words spoken. This year, we are measuring whether all this talk has trickled down to make a real impact in the lives of women. … Read more Why a Report Card? CEDAW as a Tool for Accountability
Case summary The case challenged the constitutionality of section 5(3)(a)(i)(D) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which created a mandatory minimum jail sentence of one year for drug trafficking in certain situations. In particular, the case looked at the impacts of mandatory one-year jail sentence on a variety of offenders to determine whether the sentence … Read more Lloyd v R. [2015]
VANCOUVER – Today, West Coast LEAF released its seventh annual report card on women’s rights in BC. While the situation for women in BC has seen minor improvements this year, unfortunately for many women, BC continues to fail to deliver on its responsibilities. In particular, BC has not taken action to address the ongoing violence against … Read more RELEASE: Report card finds that BC fails to make the grade in women’s equality