Rights in Canada; germination to fruition

It could be argued that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms only came about as a result of the UN, and, by extension, the Second World War. However, the human rights movement began in Canada long before World War Two began. It was after World War One that Canada joined the League of Nations, which included policies in its Covenant concerning minority, religious, labor, and women’s rights. It was due to the First World War that women initially began gaining status in Canada, as they took up characteristically masculine jobs while the men were away fighting. This led to women gaining suffrage in 1918. Later, in the famous Persons Case, Edwards v. Canada, five women campaigned for the right to be considered persons under Canadian law. The Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council, then the highest court of appeal in Canada, declared that the term “persons” in the British North America Act did in fact encompass women. This major progress towards gender equality took place in 1929; and in 1930, the first ever woman was appointed to the Supreme Court. In Manitoba in 1934, a Libel Act was passed which allowed legal action to stop attacks based on race or hatred. Clearly, Canada was not a land without human rights pre-World War Two. The Second World War did not cause a decisive advancement in Canadian human rights legislature; there were already improvements being made before it.