Skip to main content
Menu
Français

Speak Truth
to Power Canada

Defenders for Human Rights

Moments in Time

The term “human rights” is relatively new, but it is not a new idea. Throughout history and across cultures, people have talked about how we should treat one another and what freedoms we ought to have. These important conversations tell the global story of human rights. This list offers 100 selected moments from the advances and setbacks in the human rights journey, with an emphasis on Canada.

English Reflection questions for students: Human Rights Over Time – an ongoing dialogue

1792–1750 BCE
Babylonian King Hammurabi enacts one of the earliest written codes of law to enforce justice and promote the public good.
Around 570 BCE
King Cyrus of Persia draws up a Charter recognizing rights to liberty, security, property, freedom of movement and economic and social rights.
1215
King John I signs the Magna Carta (The Great Charter) which limits royal power and affirms rights to justice and a fair trial.
1500s
Gayanashagowa (The Great Law of Peace) becomes the founding constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and, later, Tuscarora Nations.
1755
British authorities expel the French-speaking colonists of Acadia because they are reluctant to take a British oath of allegiance.
1760
Britain conquers New France changing life conditions for French-speaking inhabitants and indigenous peoples.
1763
Britain issues a Royal Proclamation when it takes control of New France. Certain rights and freedoms are granted to French-speaking inhabitants and indigenous peoples.
1776
The United States Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal” and establishes America’s independence from the British Empire.
1789
The Déclaration des droits de l’Homme et du citoyen (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen) is adopted during the French Revolution which overthrows the monarchy.
1830
The residential school system is set up to assimilate Indigenous children into Canadian society.
1835
Canadian newspaper publisher Joseph Howe defends himself against a libel charge. His acquittal is a major advance for freedom of the press.
1867
The British North America Act provides for the use of English and French in Canada’s Parliament.
1869
The Provisional Governing Council of the Métis Nation draws up a Bill of Rights with conditions for the entry of Manitoba as a province into the Dominion of Canada.
1871
Ontario is the first province in Canada to introduce laws making it compulsory for children to attend school. Children between the ages of 7 and 12 are obliged to attend school at least four months a year.
1871
Eleven Numbered Treaties are negotiated with First Nations between 1871 and 1921 as the Canadian government expands settlement across western and northern Canada.
1872
A Toronto printers’ strike prompts the federal government to pass the Trade Union Act. The Act legalizes unions in Canada.
1873
A group of 46 unions form the Canadian Labour Union, the first national labour federation for workers’ rights.
1876
The Indian Act is enacted, influencing all aspects of the lives of First Nations peoples. It gives the federal government authority over status, land, resources, education and band administration.
1915
The Ottoman Empire attempts to eradicate its Armenian Christian minority. This is later recognized as genocide by Canada’s Parliament.
1916
Manitoba is the first province in Canada to grant women the right to vote in provincial elections.
1920
Canada’s Dominion Elections Act extends the federal franchise to all eligible women and men. Its terms exclude Indigenous peoples and groups of Asian descent.
1929
The Famous Five — a group of women’s rights activists — mount a court challenge to have women recognized as “persons” under the law. After much opposition, they win their case.
1932
Joseph Stalin orchestrates a famine known as the Holodomor in Ukraine. It is later recognized as genocide by Canada’s Parliament.
1933
The Nazis pass laws that discriminate against Jewish people. This persecution escalates into the Holocaust — the annihilation of millions of Jewish people — and targeted attacks against many other groups. This is later recognized as genocide by Canada’s Parliament.
1941
For decades, the Government of Canada required Inuit people to wear an identity disk at all times as proof of identity, denying them the right to a name.
1942
During the Second World War, Canada rounded up thousands of Japanese Canadians from the West Coast, seized their belongings and relocated them to isolated internment camps.
1945
Canada is one of the founding members of the United Nations. The United Nations’ Charter sets forth the UN’s goals, functions and responsibilities — to foster global peace and prevent conflict.
1948
The United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, based on the first draft written by Canadian lawyer John Humphrey.
1949
The Supreme Court of Canada becomes the final court of appeal in the justice system and the highest authority on the protection and interpretation of human rights.
1960
The Bill of Rights is Canada’s first national law to protect human rights.
1960s
The Quiet Revolution ushers in political and social changes in Quebec, leading to the separation between state and church.
1960s
Thousands of Aboriginal children are taken from their families by the Canadian government and adopted out — a practice known as the Sixties Scoop.
1966
The Canadian government enacts the national Medical Care Act, protecting the health and well-being of all Canadians.
1971
Canada is the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism as an official policy. The policy affirmed the dignity of all citizens regardless of their racial or ethnic origins, their language, or their religious affiliation.
1973
The Nisga’a Nation in British Columbia wins a landmark case that becomes the basis for contemporary Aboriginal law in Canada.
1975
Regarded as Canada’s first modern treaties, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the Northeastern Quebec Agreement protect rights and interests of the James Bay Cree, Inuit of Nunavik, and Naskapi Band of Quebec in their traditional territories.
1975
Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms is adopted. The inclusion of important social and economic rights makes it a broad-reaching human rights document.
1977
The Canadian Human Rights Act is passed with the goal of ensuring equal opportunity to groups who may be subject to discrimination.
1981
The Manitoba Metis Federation wins a Supreme Court case acknowledging that Canada failed to implement the land grant for the Manitoba Métis, known as scrip, promised in the Manitoba Act of 1870.
1982
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is enacted as part of the Constitution. It protects human rights for every person in Canada.
1984
The Musqueam Band in British Columbia wins an important case confirming the Canadian government’s obligation to act in the best interests of First Nations.
1985
The Canadian government passes Bill C-31 to abolish discrimination related to the Indian Act of 1876.
1986
The Employment Equity Act requires employers to create workplace equality for women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities.
1989
The International Convention on the Rights of the Child is ratified by the United Nations to recognize children as human beings with their own rights. Canada becomes a signatory in 1990.
1990
Sikh members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police achieve the right to wear their turbans while on active duty.
1990
The Sparrow Case confirms that Aboriginal rights existing at the time of the 1982 Constitution Act cannot be infringed without justification.
1990
During the Oka Crisis, Kanesatake First Nation protesters block access to ancestral land slated for development. The standoff lasts 77 days, drawing global attention to Indigenous land rights.
1995
A referendum is held in Quebec on whether the province should assert its right to self-determination and become an independent nation.
1999
The Marshall decision of the Supreme Court affirms treaty rights of Mi’kmaq to fish commercially.
2007
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations and signed by Canada in 2010.
2008
The Canadian government delivers an apology to Indigenous people who were forced to live in residential schools and establishes the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
2008
First Nations are allowed to file complaints with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In 2011, they receive full protection under the Human Rights Act.
2014
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the only museum in the world solely devoted to human rights awareness and education, opens its doors.