The Rights Movement of the 1960s

Beginnings of the Rights Movement In the 1960s, many Canadians became

increasingly aware of a gap between the society they lived in and the society they wanted Canada to be.

Canadians watched American’s struggle with racial discrimination and desegregation, fighting against laws that denied black Americans their basic civil rights

Women also sought freedom from traditional social roles

Lester B Pearson During his time as Prime Minister he introduced:

Universal health care Student loans The Canada Pension Plan The Order of Canada The Current Canadian Flag Convened the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and

Biculturalism Abolished the death penalty Kept Canada out of the Vietnam War Organized the United Nations Emergency Force to

resolve the Suez Canal Crisis

Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau In the early 1960s Prime Minister Pearson

believed that Canada’s future required that Quebec be more strongly involved at the federal level

He recruited three prominent Quebecois to run for office, including Pierre Trudeau

When Pearson resigned in 1968, Trudeau made a bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party, and won, becoming the Prime Minister

Pierre Trudeau Within months of winning the Liberal

Leadership, Trudeau called an election and won a Liberal majority, the first in many years

Many found the 48-year old cocky and arrogant; but many others found him charismatic and charming

Trudeaumania was born when the media showed him dancing and dating movie stars and famous musicians, and pulling pranks

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The Ontario Human Rights Code The first province to protect human rights was

Ontario with the Human Rights Code in 1962

This act protects Ontarians from discrimination based on the grounds of ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age and marital status

Other provinces soon followed

Capital Punishment In 1961, the government limited capital

punishment to premeditated murder or the murder of a police officer or prison guard

After two men were hanged in 1962 for killing an FBI informant and a police officer, Pearson’s government blocked further executions in 1966

The death penalty was abolished by Trudeau in 1976

Gay Rights The 1960s saw the first gay rights

organizations and the beginning of opposition to laws that limit the rights of gays and lesbians

In 1967 Trudeau introduced legislation called the Omnibus Bill to update Canada’s Criminal Code. One change eliminated a law banning sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex

No-Fault Divorce Trudeau also passed the 1968 Divorce Act as

part of the Omnibus Bill

This act made it possible for a couple to divorce without proving that one or the other was at fault

Birth Control Under the 1892 Criminal Code it was illegal to

advertise, sell, buy, or promote and medication or device that prevented pregnancy

The federal government approved the sale of the pill in 1961, but doctors were not allowed to prescribe it for birth control, so instead prescribed it for vague therapeutic reasons

In the Omnibus Bill, Trudeau introduced changes that legalized access to birth control methods

Abortion By the 1960s between 35,000 and 120,000

Canadian women were getting illegal and often dangerous abortions every year

In the Omnibus Bill, Trudeau legalized abortion

if a committee at an accredited hospital declared that continuing the pregnancy would endanger the life or health of the woman

This meant that a group of often male doctors would make the decision for the woman

Henry Morgentaler Henry Morgentaler, a Montreal doctor, openly

criticized the law for not doing enough for women’s choice

He set up an abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969 and was jailed in 1973, but went on to set up several more clinics in other provinces and was jailed there as well

Finally in 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the abortion law

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