West Coast LEAF is proud to be a legal education partner and contributor to From the Ground Up, a youth anti-violence workshop guide by Girls Action Foundation. This educational resource is designed to spark discussions about how to respond to violence and to inform young women’s about their rights and about the services and resources available to them. The activities … Read more From the Ground Up: A Workshop Guide by Girls Action Foundation
Case summary This case concerns the BC government’s approval of a proposed faculty of law at Trinity Western University (TWU), an evangelical Christian post-secondary institution in Langley. TWU requires all of its students and staff to sign a Community Covenant that includes a promise not to engage in “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a … Read more Trinity Western University and Volkenant v Law Society of BC [2015]
West Coast LEAF provided a written submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee to inform the Committee’s preparation of a General Comment on Article 6 (Right to Life) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). We made this submission in order to ensure that the right to life under the ICCPR reflects … Read more Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee on Article 6 (Right to Life)
We made submissions to the BC’s Ministry of Justice in response to the federal, provincial, and territorial Draft Justice Framework to Address Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Girls. We recommended that the Framework expressly recognize the history of colonization and its impact on Aboriginal people, the extensive research already done resulting in the call for a … Read more Letter on the Justice Framework to Address Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Girls
Read our 2014 Annual Report to learn about West Coast LEAF’s work for gender justice in the 2013/2014 fiscal year. Publications
We wrote to BC’s five Senators calling on them to pass Bill C-279 urgently and without amendment to ensure that the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code offer protection to trans people in Canada. Canada’s trans community faces extreme levels of violence, stigma and discrimination. Bill C-279 offers transgender Canadians protection from hate crimes under the Criminal Code and assured … Read more Letter on Bill C-279: An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canada Human Rights Act (Gender Identity)
Initiated by Justice for Girls, we wrote a joint letter to the Special Committee to Review the Independent Investigations Office describing the need for independent and accountable reviews of police-perpetrated sexual assaults, as well as our concerns that the Independent Investigations Office has not proven itself capable of carrying out these complex and sensitive investigations. … Read more Letter on the Mandate of the Independent Investigations Office
In September 2014, we released a new report entitled Able Mothers: The intersection of parenting, disability, and the law. The report was the result of our project on Mothering with Disabilities. Publications
In June 2014, we released a report entitled #CyberMisogyny: Using and strengthening Canadian legal responses to gendered hate and harassment online. This report was part of our Legal Responses to Cyber Misogyny project. Publications
As part of our work on Cyber Misogyny, we made a submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights regarding Bill C-13, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act. We urged the Committee to recommend splitting the Bill in order to pass the provisions that address hate and misogyny online, while subjecting the majority … Read more Submission on Bill C-13: the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act
