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The issue of racial profiling has finally begun to attract the attention of the Canadian media; courts; human rights commission; the Canadian Bar Association; and, the academy. The focus has been on racial profiling defined as the use of racialized stereotypes of the usual suspect as the basis for suspect selection. Less attention,however, has been given to cases where race forms part of the description of a suspect provided by the victim or witness. Through the use of narrative, the article examines how race-based suspect descriptions have been misused by the police in Canada. The narratives also reveal the devastating collateral damage when the police use race in any manner in suspect selection. This damage includes widespread harassment, intimidation, false arrests, violence, death, stigmatization and an engendering of mistrust. Given the misuse, the article recommends including suspect descriptions in the racial profiling prohibition where race is used as the dominant characteristic. After considering whether there should be a complete prohibition on using race in suspect descriptions, the article examines current constitutional standards to protect against misuse and proposes a new dominant feature constitutional test.

This paper compares and contrasts American and Canadian efforts to regulate debit cards. The paper begins by outlining significant differences between the two approaches arguing that Canadians do not enjoy the same level of protection as do their American counterparts with respect to its provisions governing unauthorized transactions, dispute resolution and its enforcement mechanisms.

In the recent case of Syndicat Northcrest v. Amselem, the Supreme Court of Canada held that a condominium association’s refusal to permit Orthodox Jewish unit-owners (the appellants) to construct succahs on their balconies, as part of the Jewish festival of Succot, breached their freedom of religion under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. Because the restriction of religious practice was imposed by a non-state actor, the Canadian Charter of Rights was not applicable. However, the majority judgment of Iaccobucci J. was clear that “the principles … applicable in cases where an individual alleges that his or her freedom of religion is infringed under the Quebec Charter” are also applicable to a claim under section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This chapter will focus on the protection of housing and property rights of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Georgia.1 Georgia suffered two ethnic conflicts shortly following its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 — one in Abkhazia in western Georgia and one in South Ossetia on the Russian border. Both conflicts produced large numbers of displaced persons and left the regions administered by secessionist governments; however this chapter will focus mainly on the South Ossetian context.

This book evaluates the strength of the rule of law in the South Caucasus, a volatile and strategically important region of the former Soviet Union. Contributors - all of whom who have lived and worked in Armenia, Azerbaijan or Georgia - tackle this question from the perspectives of both law and politics. A wide range of specific issues are addressed, including corruption in the justice system, forced migration, telecommunications and environmental protection.

Beverly Jacobs is a Mohawk lawyer from Six Nations Grand River. She was a consultant to Amnesty International's report "Stolen Sisters: Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada." She spoke in Fredericton, NB on October 21st, 2004

Background: Separate lines of research have demonstrated strong associations linking alcohol misuse with major depression on the one hand, and anxiety disorders on the other. In the current study we examined the possible confounding and/or additive effects of co-morbid depression/anxiety in understanding these relationships. Methods: A total of 7195 individuals in Ontario, aged 15–64, were interviewed using the CIDI. Based on lifetime diagnoses, we compared rates of alcohol abuse/dependence in four groups consisting of normal controls, individuals with unipolar major depression but no anxiety disorders, individuals with one or more anxiety disorders without depression, and individuals with co-morbid major depression and anxiety. Age of onset of alcoholism in the four study groups was also compared. Results: In both genders, there were significantly higher rates of alcoholism in all three psychiatric groups relative to controls. In females only, there was also a significantly higher rate of alcoholism in the depressed/anxious group than in the pure anxious group. The age of onset of alcoholism was the same across all four study groups. Limitations: Due to limitations related to sample size, we combined subjects with various anxiety disorders into a single anxiety group and concurrent and sequential co-morbidity were not distinguished. Conclusions: Both gender effects and depression/anxiety co-morbidity may be important considerations in the design and interpretation of studies on alcohol misuse. This may be particularly relevant when considering the strength of the association between alcoholism and anxiety disorders in women. Depression and anxiety do not appear to influence the age of onset of alcoholism. Furthermore, no single temporal pattern of onset was identified in individuals with all three disorders, suggesting no obvious cause-effect relationship among them.

This report examines the role of discrimination in acts of violence carried out against Indigenous women in Canadian towns and cities. Discrimination takes the form both of overt cultural prejudice and of implicit or systemic biases in the policies and actions of government officials and agencies, or of society as a whole. Discrimination has played […]

Data available from a recent planning project provided an opportunity to examine impairment and service needs of individuals with schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses living in a large board-and-care program. When first implemented, this minimum-support custodial program was assumed to be adequate for discharged long-term inpatients with schizophrenia and other chronic mental illnesses. However, the needs assessments indicated considerable heterogeneity in resident level of impairment. When a validated planning template was applied to assign residents to an appropriate level of care, almost one-quarter were assigned to independent living with minimal support, one-third to community living with intensive support, and 40 percent to residential or inpatient treatment. The authors conclude that this program is not able to meet the varying needs of residents. Despite a common diagnosis, many can function in more independent settings, while others need more treatment and rehabilitation than they are currently provided.