One of the ways CPJ is continuing our advocacy for the right to housing is by making a submission to the National Housing Council’s review of “the Financialization of Purpose-Built Rental Housing.” The Federal Housing Advocate called for the review and will look at “the growing dominance of financial actors…
Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) has presented its pre-budget submission for August 2023, emphasizing Canada’s commitment to human rights, sustainable development, and international climate obligations. Key recommendations include: Canada’s dedication to the Sustainable Development Goals is evident, with Prime Minister Trudeau’s role as Co-Chair of the SDG Advocates group. CPJ…
Before European contact in 1835, the population of the Haida Nation was upwards of 9000 strong. Fifty years later, disease brought by foreign merchants decimated the people, and there were less than 1500. Let that sink in. Over 80% of your community… gone. It’s an apocalypse. And yet the Haida’s…
The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), effective since 2004, mandates that refugees must claim asylum in the first safe country they reach—either the U.S. or Canada—making many asylum seekers ineligible if they enter Canada at land or water borders. The agreement has been criticized for inaccurately designating the U.S. as a safe country, given its record of human rights violations and inadequate protections for women facing gender-based violence.
Collectively, we have lost our way. Across the world, greenhouse gas emissions are rising to levels that threaten other species, biodiversity, and ourselves. We have failed to understand how polluting industries and constant economic growth cannot coexist with sustainable living if profit and materialism remain the focus. We have failed…
In the face of the climate crisis and growing inequities, all hands are needed on deck to place justice at the top of the agenda. Polls repeatedly show that concern for inequities and climate catastrophe is on the rise. Meanwhile, opportunities to make a life out of activism are more…
Since the launch of the #WelcometoCanada campaign in 2022, CPJ has partnered with Human Rights Watch to call for an end to immigration detention in Canada. Since then, eight provinces have cancelled their immigration detention contracts with Canada Border Services Agency. However, some provinces have been transferring detainees to other…
In June, 2000, the city of Windsor, Ontario hosted the Organization of American States General Assembly. I had just started my first full-time public policy job and was excited to attend such a high-profile event. Rallies and protests were already familiar spaces to me and I considered them important opportunities…
From calling on a papal apology for residential school abuse to ending poverty in Canada, online petitions have been increasingly present in digital space. But do they actually bring about change? Our own Socio-economic Policy Analyst, Natalie Appleyard, was one of the panellists on “The Agenda,” aired on TVO Today…
I was still living in the refugee camp in Swaziland when, on the night of October 8, 2014, I woke up to high pitched screams and hysterical, distressed cries of three women—two of whom I would soon learn were my teen peers. It was around 4.30 a.m. I seemed to…
