Pivot Legal Society, Community Legal Assistance Society, BC Civil Liberties Association, and West Coast LEAF are calling on the provincial government to implement significant changes to BC’s justice and legal systems in order to support marginalized and Indigenous communities in the province, and to improve the delivery of justice to all British Columbians. The organizations … Read more Release: #JusticeReformBC – Broad coalition of legal organizations calling for significant reform to BC’s justice system
VANCOUVER – Today, an historic legal challenge to the use of solitary confinement in Canada’s federal prisons goes to trial at the BC Supreme Court. The equality rights organization West Coast LEAF (Women’s Legal Education & Action Fund) will be in Court to argue that solitary confinement causes specific and severe harms to women inmates. The case … Read more Release: Women’s equality experts intervene in lawsuit over solitary confinement
Read our 2016 Annual Report. to learn about West Coast LEAF’s work for gender justice in the 2015/2016 fiscal year. Publications
Case summary This case is a Charter challenge to the use of solitary confinement in Canadian federal prisons. Under the regime challenged in this case, federally incarcerated persons can be placed in a type of solitary confinement called administrative segregation for a variety of vague and general reasons, such as belief on the part of prison administrators … Read more BC Civil Liberties Association and the John Howard Society of Canada v Canada [2017]
Canada is a signatory to a number of international declarations and conventions that commit our governments to advancing the equality rights of women in BC. One such international treaty is the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW provides a comprehensive code of what women’s equality means in marriage, … Read more 2016 CEDAW Shadow Report
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
