In April 2016 West Coast LEAF wrote a letter calling on the Burnaby Board of Education to establish a Sanctuary Schools policy so that all parents, regardless of immigration status, can feel safe sending their children to school without jeopardizing their lives in Canada. Such a policy would also reduce barriers for undocumented women experiencing abuse because … Read more Letter in Support of Sanctuary Schools Burnaby Proposal
Together with members of the Coalition on Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, West Coast LEAF has written Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several key Cabinet Ministers regarding the promised national public inquiry on violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada. In it, we highlight the need for a robust pre-inquiry consultation process … Read more Letter on recommendations to the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
We wrote to the BC Minister of Health to urge the province to immediately eliminate the three-month waiting period for newly arrived migrants to access provincial healthcare coverage. This policy disproportionately affects women, especially those women who require pre-and postnatal care, and contravenes the rights to equality and security of the person guaranteed by the Charter … Read more Letter on eliminating the waiting period for migrant healthcare coverage
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 wrote to TransLink enquiring about their priority seating policy for transit vehicles. In particular, we urged TransLink to consider ensuring that public transit is accessible to all by creating priority seating designation for pregnant passengers. Read the letter. (PDF, 427 KB) Read TransLink’s response. (PDF, 2 MB) Submissions
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
Cities should be inclusive, welcoming places where people’s basic needs are met. Women who are accessing services to deal with the impacts of violence must not have to choose between their safety and their liberty. West Coast LEAF is calling on the City of Vancouver to become a “sanctuary city” in which everyone can access … Read more Letter on the Sanctuary City Policy
On the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention against Torture and other forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, we joined dozens of other human rights organizations, legal groups, women’s equality organizations, ethno-cultural groups and many more calling on the federal government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, … Read more Letter urging Canada to take action on torture
We signed on to this open letter opposing the federal government’s move to allow provinces to restrict access to social assistance for refugee claimants and others who have not yet been granted permanent residence. We believe that to deny social assistance based on immigration status is to cruelly deny the most vulnerable in our society … Read more Letter on Bill C-43 restricting access to Social Assistance for refugee claimants
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)