The sixties has been characterized by one of Canada’s leading scholars of social movements as “the climax of a period of social movement activism in Canada.” Never before, nor since, has the country experienced such a explosion of activism. Social movement organizations were integral to these movements: groups dedicated to realizing the goals of a particular movement. Gay men in Vancouver and Toronto met in their homes to form the country’s first gay rights groups; women came together in community centres to develop a program of action to raise awareness of such issues as abortion and equal pay; students congregated outside classrooms in universities to organize campus demonstrations to demand a say in the governance of the university; and in Vancouver, men and women concerned about the impact of nuclear testing on the environment united to form what would become one of the most recognized advocacy groups in the world.
Organizations dedicated to realizing the rights of homosexuals (e.g. Gay Alliance Towards Equality), women (e.g. National Action Committee on the Status of Women) or African-Canadians (e.g. Urban Alliance on Race Relations) were among the many different kinds of social movement organizations which emerged during this period. Another unique collection of social movement organizations, called rights associations, were self-identified ‘civil liberties’ or ‘human rights’ associations (e.g., Alberta Human Rights Association or the Nova Scotia Civil Liberties Association). Unlike organizations dedicated to defending women or homosexuals (or children, prisoners, African-Canadians, etc...), rights associations do not claim to speak on behalf of a specific constituency but seek to defend the rights of all citizens. Each one was fervently non-partisan; the preservation of human rights, and not political power, is their only goal. Prior to the sixties, there had only been a sprinkling of such organizations across Canada, barely a dozen groups active at one point in time. However, by the 1980s, more than forty rights associations had emerged.
You will find below a brief description of various social movement organizations, suggestions for further reading and, where possible, a reference to an archives if their materials have been deposited for research.
Phase I is now complete. Phase I was a list of 'rights associations' which were active from the 1930s to the 1980s. Phase II is a long-term project. It will involved periodically adding information on other social movement organizations (not limited to rights associations) over time. This section of the site, alongside sections on biography and primary sources , is regularly updated with new material, and visitors are encouraged to collaborate by submitting any material to the webmaster that would be relevant to this site.
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