Ligue des droits de l'homme

CANADA'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT: A HISTORY

No specific event triggered the creation of the Ligue des droits de l’homme. Its origins can be traced to several leading intellectuals in Quebec in 1963 who envisioned a modern rights association to serve Quebec and possibly the nation as a whole. It was an initiative of Father Gérard Labrosse, a French speaking Jesuit priest, who recruited Pierre Elliot Trudeau (law professor at l’Université de Montréal), Jacques Hébert (a publisher) and J.Z. Léone Patenaud to help form a provisional committee alongside 19 others. Included in this collection of prominent figures was Frank Scott, famous for his defeat of the Padlock Act and a renowned constitutional scholar, and Thérèse Casgrain who was notable in the women’s movement and a key figure in the successful drive in 1940 to grant women the vote in the province. Labrosse drafted the constitution and the provisional committee compiled a list of potential members to form the administrative council, the association’s governing body. By May 1963 the provisional committee had recruited 54 individual members and four group members, one of which was the Fédération des travailleurs du Québec. A general assembly met on 29 May 1963 with Frank Scott presiding. During the meeting the constitution was voted on and accepted, and a Montreal lawyer, Alban Flamand, was elected the first president. Originally, it had been dubbed the Ligue des droits de l’homme de la Province de Québec but Trudeau, determined to have the group play a national role, suggested the provincial reference be eliminated. Thus was born the Ligue des droits de l’homme/Civil Liberties Union. In 1978, the group changed its name to the Ligue des droits et libertés (the English name, Civil Liberties Union, remained unchanged) after the newly established women’s committee raised concerns about the gendered connotations of the original name.

Over the next forty years the Ligue established itself as one of the most influential advocacy groups in the province of Quebec. Between 1963 and 1972 the group’s primary interest revolved around legal reform, and it was a key player in revising regulations dealing with Coroner’s investigations and the treatment of prisoners and the mentally ill. It was also successful in convincing the provincial government to launch a widespread investigation into the province’s statutes that led to major revision to better protect individual rights. Many of the LDH’s founders were members of Canada’s political elite. Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister in 1968 and appointed Gérard Pelletier to his cabinet while Thérèrese Casgrain entered the Senate in 1970 (the same year she left the LDH). Trudeau also offered Frank Scott positions in the Senate and the Supreme Court of Canada (which he turned down), although Jacques Hébert accepted positions on the CRTC and the Senate. Meanwhile, Claude Forget became Minister of Social Affairs under Robert Bourassa’s Liberal government and Jacques-Yvan Morin would serve as leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly for the Parti québécois.

After 1972, the leadership of the Ligue changed hands and the group became more radical and nationalist. It took stands on issues such as language rights and self-determination, and succeeded in its campaign to have the provincial government enact a bill of rights (1975). The Ligue was a leading player in the Federation and was active on numerous fronts through the 1970s and 1980s on issues such as the Olympics, children’s rights, the needs of the elderly, and illegal acts perpetrated by the RCMP in the seventies. It’s prisoner’s rights committee was one of the leading advocates for the rights of prisoners in Canada and succeeded in getting prisoners’ the right to vote provincially in 1980. Although the organization almost collapsed in the early 1980s as a result of internal divisions and poor management, the group bounced back and continued to be active today.