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‘This Is Our Country, These Are Our Rights’: Minorities and the Origins of Ontario's Human Rights Campaigns

2001; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 82; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/chr.82.1.1

1710-1093

Carmela Patrias, Ruth A. Frager,

Australian History and Society

This article examines the social origins of the campaigns for human rights in Ontario, focusing on the period from the Second World War to the early 1950s. A wide variety of organizations eventually supported the human rights activists’ struggles for legislation that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of race,’ religion, ancestry, and national origin in employment, the provision of services and housing, and the sale of property. Yet Eurocentric and racist attitudes often continued to influence even the views of those Anglo-Canadian individuals and groups who joined these campaigns. To reveal the forms and extent of prejudice and discrimination in Canada and to mobilize interested groups to fight for legal safeguards for human rights, the intervention of minority groups was necessary. Although many non-Anglo-Protestant groups suffered from discrimination in Canada, not all were involved in the fight to eliminate it. In Ontario the most active groups were Japanese Canadians, African Canadians, and especially Jews, who drummed up support not only from a broad range of community groups but also from key elements in the labour movement. The activists in these campaigns drew from the experiences of American human rights struggles, while taking care to adapt their strategies to distinctively Canadian conditions. This article emphasizes the ways in which the human rights activists helped reform ideas about the nature of Canadian society and assisted in making its institutions more responsive to, and reflective of, the diversity of Canada’s people. Abstract: Cet article se penche sur les origines sociales des campagnes pour les droits de la personne menees en Ontario, en particulier durant la periode allant de la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale au debut des annees 50. De multiples organismes en vinrent a appuyer la lutte des defenseurs des droits de la personne pour etablir des lois interdisant la discrimination fondee sur la « race », la religion, les antecedents familiaux et la nationalite ďorigine, en ce qui concernait ľemploi, ľoffre de services et de logements ainsi que la vente de proprietes. Neanmoins, des attitudes eurocentristes et racistes continuerent souvent a influencer jusqu’aux opinions de ces memes individus et groupes anglo-canadiens qui se joignaient aux campagnes. Il fallut ľintervention de groupes minoritaires pour reveler la forme et la portee des prejuges et de la discrimination qui avaient cours au Canada, ainsi que pour mobiliser des groupes interesses a lutter pour etablir des lois qui protegeraient les droits de la personne. Meme si bien des groupes non anglo-protestants souffraient de discrimination au Canada, ils ne participaient pas tous a la lutte pour ľeliminer. En Ontario, les groupes les plus actifs etaient les Canadiens japonais, les Afro-Canadiens et surtout les Juifs, qui recueillirent le soutien non seulement ďun large eventail de groupes communautaires mais aussi ďelements cles du mouvement ouvrier en particulier. Les activistes participant a ces campagnes s’inspiraient de ľexperience de la lutte americaine pour les droits de la personne tout en prenant soin ďadapter leurs strategies aux conditions specifiquement canadiennes. Le present article souligne les diverses facons dont les defenseurs des droits de la personne contribuerent a la refonte des idees sur la nature de la societe canadienne et aiderent a rendre les institutions plus aptes a reagir a la diversite du peuple canadien et a mieux la refleter.