Grade 9 Social Studies

A Timeline of Human Rights Development in Canada

Manitoba women become the first in Canada to win the rights to vote and to hold provincial office.

January 28th, 1916

All female citizens aged 21 and over become eligible to vote in Canadian federal elections.

May 24th, 1918

Women in Canada gain the right to hold a seat in the House of Commons

July, 1919

The Dominion Elections Act gives the right to vote in federal elections to all adult

Canadians, male and female (however, the federal vote is not given to First Nations and

Inuit peoples nor to minorities).

1920

Women in Canada gain the right to hold a seat in the Senate.

1929

Manitoba passes a Libel Act that allows action to stop personal attacks based on race or religion that

expose people to hatred, contempt, or ridicule.

1934

Women in Quebec gain the right to vote in provincial elections.

1940

The Second World War ends and the United Nations is founded. Canada is one of the

original members.

September 2nd, 1945

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is signed.

December 10, 1948

The Federal Elections Act is changed so that race is no longer grounds for exclusion from voting in federal

elections.

1948

Equal Pay for Equal Work is adopted in Manitoba, preventing discrimination in salary based on gender.

1956

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker brings in the Canadian Bill of Rights.

August 10, 1960

First Nations people receive the unrestricted right to vote in federal elections.

1960

The last executions take place in Canada.

1962

Laws requiring separate schools for Blacks in Ontario are removed.

1964

The Criminal Code is amended to decriminalize homosexuality.

1968

The Criminal Code makes it a crime to advocate genocide or publicly incite hatred against people because of their race,

colour, religion, or ethnic identity.

1971

Capital punishment is removed as a penalty for crime in Canada.

1976

The federal government passes the Canadian Human Rights Act and sets up the Human Rights Commission.

1977

The Immigration Act removes all restrictive regulations based on ”nationality, citizenship, ethnic group, occupation,

class, or geographical area of origin.”

1977

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms becomes part of Canada’s Constitution.

April 17, 1982

Prime Minister Brian Mulroney acknowledges Canada’s wrongful actions against Japanese Canadians during the Second World War and offers a compensation program.

September 22, 1988

The federal government announces a five-year national plan to help bring persons with disabilities into society’s

mainstream.

1991

Sexual orientation is added as grounds for discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

June 20, 1996

The federal government recognizes and apologizes to those who experienced physical and sexual abuse at Indian residential schools, and acknowledges its role in the development and

administration of residential schools for First Nations children.

January 7, 1998

Canada’s Extradition Act states that Canada will refuse to forcibly return anyone to any country that wants to punish that person in a way that violates their human rights. The territory of Nunavut was

created. As of 2003, most people living here are Inuit.

1999

The federal government introduced its same-sex marriage bill in the House of Commons, setting the stage so that gay

people in Canada may legally marry.

February 1, 2005

The federal government agrees to pay $1.9 billion to former students of residential schools as a compensation for the

abuses and assimilation they suffered.

May 10, 2006

On behalf of the Canadian federal government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offers an apology to all the

survivors of residential schools.

June 11, 2008