In March, the federal Liberals and NDP entered into a Supply and Confidence Agreement, Delivering for Canadians Now. The NDP has pledged support for the Liberal minority government through to 2025 in return for promised progress on several important public policy files, including national dental and pharmacare programs, reconciliation, the climate crisis, and affordable housing.

While it focuses on laudable goals, the deal is not explicitly anchored in human rights. Also absent are commitments to address the sorry state of world affairs. That too circles back to human rights.

Perhaps it is not too late? A Human Rights Addendum to the Liberal/NDP agreement would be very welcome.

Events at the Ambassador Bridge, in downtown Ottawa and elsewhere in the province during the self-styled Freedom Convoy have put protest and human rights in the spotlight.

We have been reminded of the fundamental importance of peaceful protest, had debates about the nature and tactics of protest, and come to realize that in exceptional circumstances human rights also allow and, in fact, may require police intervention to curtail harmful conduct.

In response we need thoughtful reflection and reform. Bill 100, currently, does neither. But there is still time to get it right.

But here’s the rub. Will states go further and find universal human rights resolve to call out all countries deserving of condemnation and advance reform agendas wherever needed?

Or will politics, timidity and hypocrisy prevail?

Let us dare to dream. That is what we owe to the people of Ukraine, and to all peoples.

It may feel daunting to imagine what any of us can do for Ukraine. But there is so much we can and must do.

It certainly does not lie in staying silent or giving up. It lies in joining together for human rights, everyone’s human rights.

We must ensure that the legacy of this stunning debacle is, at long last, a truly national embrace of human rights in Canada – not the easy embrace of stirring words, but the meaningful embrace of tough decisions, adequate resources, and coordinated and consistent action.

21 days of the occupation of downtown Ottawa; and now police, long past time, marshal to respond. How could it have come to this? On so many levels it defies belief or understanding.

What is abundantly clear is that the combination of emotions in the air in Ottawa is thick with apprehension, frustration, disappointment, disillusionment, exhaustion, fear and a looming sense of dread.

There are growing signs that a major police operation to dismantle the occupation will soon be underway in the city. Meanwhile, rain pours down, turning streets and sidewalks treacherously slick and a major snowfall is expected later today. That does nothing to smooth the way for an easy end to this (unless bad weather accomplishes what police could not or would not for these past 20 days).

Like many friends and colleagues active in human rights advocacy, I have engaged in the up and down legal and political debates about protest, human rights, public safety and emergencies for three weeks. Debates that we will need to take forward once this crisis phase “ends”, whatever that may entail.

On my mind at this point?

Face à ces graves questions qui ont été mises en lumière par cette occupation et ces manifestations, tous les paliers du gouvernement doivent agir rapidement pour convoquer un Sommet national sur le droit de manifester et sur les droits de la personne.

Nous étalons ci-dessous cinq points essentiels qui devront être explorés

Faced with critical concerns that have been spotlighted by the occupation and protests, governments should move quickly to convene a National Summit on Protest and Human Rights. Here are five core questions that need to be explored.

Let us hold strong and close to each other friends. Let us lift up a Canada in which freedom is grounded in true community, liberates & empowers everyone, acknowledges & strives to reconcile with the shameful chapters of our history, and believes ultimately in human rights for all.

Let that be the Maple Leaf Forever.

I cannot in any conscience tune into the footage from the sealed off Olympic bubble knowing that in other corners of that same country, genocide proceeds against the Uyghurs, repression deepens in Hong Kong, human rights violations against Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners do not relent, the space for human rights defenders, lawyers, independent journalists and democracy campaigners becomes more perilous, more people are executed yearly than in the rest of the world combined, a Canadian citizen, Huseyin Celil, approaches 16 years of unlawful detention and separation from his family in Burlington, Ontario, the IOC continues its dance of pretending all is fine for Peng Shuai, and so much more.

This is not a matter of giving up on human rights by shutting down a protest. This is a matter of upholding human rights by ending an occupation that is a source of fear, menace, hardship and harm. The protest can and must go forward in ways that respect rather than denigrate human rights.

It is time for that to guide the police response.

Guantánamo has achieved absolutely nothing and has added to our world only greater resentment and insecurity, trapped in vicious circles of violence and retribution, on top of mountains of injustice and suffering.

If Guantánamo shows us anything it is quite simply that human rights must never be abandoned.

The year ends. A year begins.

As they mark the fifth anniversary of his death, Soleiman’s family remains trapped in an agonizing limbo of no answers and no accountability. No family should have to endure that. Nothing less than Canada’s international human rights obligations requires full justice.

These five years of justice delayed are a glaring instance of justice denied. It must end now. That is owed to Soleiman and his family, and to all of us.

Impunity undermines all of our rights.  Justice is in our collective interest.

Like many Canadians outside of Quebec I have watched with considerable alarm and outrage over the past several years during the lead up, debate, adoption, legal challenges and continuing aftermath of the pernicious, racist, toxic and rights-violating Bill 21.

2022 is a notable year for human rights in Canada as we mark the 40th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. What better time for Ottawa to start to forge a bold human rights path?

A Human Rights Charter for the city would be a tremendous beginning.

A recent European Court of Justice ruling dealing with Hungary has shone the spotlight on the insidious array of legal measures that a growing number of governments have resorted to in recent years, criminalizing the efforts of individuals and organizations to defend the human rights of refugees and migrants. It is a reminder that more needs to be done to push back against that criminalization, including through legal challenges and public awareness campaigns.

And there it sits. An expert UN Committee, acting under an Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure, engages Canada (and, indirectly, British Columbia) 23 months ago, with respect to three pressing concerns involving violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples. And the response from Canada might best be described as a yawn.

If only I was confident this will appear in some Minister’s upcoming Mandate Letter. It should. More than anyone, the Secwepemc and Wet’suwet’en people, and the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations, deserve nothing less.

No lack of pressing cases, concerns, issues and opportunities face PM Trudeau’s new Cabinet of remaining, shuffled and new Ministers. And so much of it is all about human rights. With advice pouring in from all corners, how could I refrain from offering some of my own…

While not much changed in the election, there must now be real change for Hassan Diab. The next Minister of Justice must be mandated to unflinchingly defend his rights and to fix Canada’s flawed Extradition Act.