Canada's Rights Revolution is a site dedicated to the history of the human rights movement in Canada.  Although the site has sections on various aspects of the 'rights revolution', it is primarily designed to highlight the activities of social movement organizations (non-governmental organizations). The project began in 1999 as a history of Igor Gouzenko's defection in Ottawa in 1945, and the subsequent federal royal commission on espionage. The commission was responsible for some of the most extensive abuses of civil liberties in Canadian history. Today, the site has a broader mandate and the Gouzenko Affair is only one part of the site.

You will find four primary uses for this site:

• First, the site explores several key events in the history of the human rights movement such as the Gouzenko Affair, the October Crisis of 1970, the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution (1980-1) and many others.

• Second, the site has been designed as a teaching and research tool. The site will only introduce you to the issues. You will find a vast array of primary documents available on this site to do research, as well as links to other websites where you can find additional primary documents.

• Third, this site is a forum for promoting the work of historians and to encourage collaboration in the field of human rights. The links on the top of each page include information on recent publications, scholarships and research grants, a list of scholars and their research interests, and other important information.

• Fourth, the site is a useful reference tool. For instance, the biography page has biographical data on most of the individuals listed in this site, and the NGO page has background data dozens of social movement organizations.

To begin, click on one of the following:

The 'Gouzenko Affair' stands-out even today as one of the most blatant abuses of fundamental freedoms perpetrated by the Canadian state against its own citizens. This section provides an overview of the history of the Gouzenko Affair, and includes a wide array of primary materials on the espionage commission. In addition, you will find useful information such as a chronology of important events, a list of key figures, further reading and the results of the subsequent spy trials.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Ligue des droits et libertés: such groups are mainstays of our local and international community in the 21st century. This section provides an overview of the emergence of the first civil liberties groups in Canadian history, and is a portal for conducting research on human rights activists and human rights campaigns.

After a period of inactivity in the late 1950s, a new generation of rights associations (human rights associations and civil liberties associations) emerged in Canada. This section explores the history of the second generation of rights associations and topics such as police violence, religion in public schools, censorship and the October Crisis of 1970.

This section will introduce you to several key human rights debates in the literature on Canadian history, as well as some primary sources associated with these topics.

This section includes a list of many of the individuals referenced in this site. In most cases you will find biographical data and links to further reading (e.g.., biographies and auto-biographies). This is an extremely useful reference tool for some background information on key human rights activists, and abusers, in Canadian history.

A comprehensive list of most of the civil liberties and human rights associations in Canadian history and information on their origins and activities. Where possible, there are references to reading materials or primary sources for further research.

The stories presented on this site represent only a small part of its potential as a research tool. In addition to the biography and NGO sections, there is an extensive collective of primary materials you can access on this site. Some of the documents are linked to the sections above; other primary materials can only be found by going directly to this section. This section offers a complete list of of all the primary materials located on this site.

This site is designed to be a collective endeavour by marshalling the knowledge of people around the world interested in the history of the human rights movement. Unlike encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, however, any information submitted to www.HistoryOfRights.com is referenced and double-checked by the webmaster. If you have any information or electronic copies of primary documents that would be useful for visitors to this site, please use this form to submit the material to the webmaster.

This site is only the beginning. A vast literature is available for further reading on many of these topics. Click here to discover some of the key texts are on these issues.

A list of useful links including sites for historical research, other history portals similar to this site, a list of human rights organizations, and much more.