In the news...

• Op-ed column: Edmonton Journal, 27 August 2008: How Will Canada Handle 2010 Protests?
• British Columbia's controversial freedom of information policy: Vancouver Sun, 28 November 2007.
  • Gary Mitchell, Provincial Archivist of British Columbia, responds: Vancouver Sun, 4 December 2007.
• The Summer of Love in 1967 and social protest in the Sixties: Vancouver Sun, 14 August 2007.
• The legacy of the baby boom generation in Canada: Globe and Mail, 1 June 2007.
• Race and human rights in: "The rising recognition of ‘white privilege’ in Western academia": Ubysee, 29 January 2007.
• Thomas Walkom and the Gouzanko Affair. Toronto Star, 2006.

Areas of Study

• Human Rights (law and activism)
• Social Movements
• Women’s History
• Law and Society
• Labour studies

Research Interests

My primary research focus is on social and political change in Canada, and the ability of powerless and marginalized people to challenge state power and the hegemony of law.  In particular, I am interested in the impact of rights discourse on social movements.  In my recent book titled Canada’s Rights Revolution: Social Movements and Social Change, 1937-1982, I explored the emergence of human rights and civil liberties associations in Canada and examined issues such as the impact of the baby boom generation on social movements, state funding of social movements, ideologies of rights and the failure to create a national rights association. The book also details numerous human rights controversies in Canadian history, notably national security regulations, denominational education, narcotics, the creation of civilian review boards for police, censorship, welfare regulations and other topics.  I am currently writing two books: a study of the British Columbia Human Rights Commission and a history of the women's movement in Canada.  In addition, I am working on projects that deal with single mothers on welfare in Ontario and British Columbia since WWII; the history of the Jewish Labour Committee as a case study in the institutionalization of the labour movement; policing in Toronto; and the impact of local conditions on provincial human rights commissions in Canada. Finally, I have also begun work on a study of the relationship between international human rights institutions and Canadian law, social movements and foreign policy.