Human Rights A Day

Quebec’s Saint Jean Baptiste Day gets its origins. The pagan celebrations of the summer solstice turned into a religious celebration during the reign of King Clovis of France in the 5th century. He decided to mark the birth of John the Baptist, the man who baptized Jesus Christ, on June 24. Given the date’s proximity to the summer solstice, it’s celebrated with bonfires symbolizing lighting up the world. European Catholics, especially in France, celebrate it with vigor, as do Quebecers, who call it the Fête Nationale (National Holiday). In Canada the holiday began on June 24, 1834 when 60 prominent Francophones and Anglophones gathered for a banquet. Two days later Ludger Duvenay, founder of the newspaper La Minerve, wrote in his paper that this day must be celebrated annually. Although it was not always celebrated, Duvenay established the Association Saint-Jean Baptiste in 1843 and became its first president. On June 24, 1880, at an association gathering in Quebec City, those present were the first to hear C

Aboriginal Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper stops controversial Meech Lake Accord. In 1981, the Canadian federal and provincial governments agreed to take control of their own constitution, find a way to amend it, and put into place the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Quebec, however, refused to sign. When Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney came to office in 1984, he promised to include Quebec by amending the constitution. In early June 1987, at Meech Lake, Quebec, the prime minister and all the provincial premiers agreed on a set of amendments that would satisfy Quebec. The Meech Lake Accord would take effect if ratified by all governments by June 23, 1990. Quebec was the first to ratify the accord, but debate raged elsewhere about the provision giving Quebec a “distinct society” status within Canada. Canada’s aboriginal population worried that this would interfere with their own rights. As the deadline loomed, political parties came to agreements and public hearings proliferated in an attempt

Aviator and writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh is born. Anne Morrow – born on June 22, 1906, in Englewood, New Jersey – met the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh while her father was ambassador to Mexico. They married in 1929, just two years after he’d flown his “Spirit of St. Louis” plane from New York to Paris, and one year after she’d graduated from college with two literary awards. Over the next two years, Lindbergh learned to fly, became the first American woman to get her glider’s license and earned her private pilot’s license. The couple spent their early years of marriage flying and charting routes all over the world. In 1934, Lindbergh became the first woman awarded the Hubbard Gold Medal from the National Geographic Society, for logging 40,000 miles over five continents with her husband. In her first book, North to the Orient, Lindbergh told of her single-engine flight from Canada to Japan and China, over uncharted routes. She went on to publish 12 books and five volumes of diaries and letters. Tragedy str

Canada’s governor general proclaims National Aboriginal Day. Canada’s aboriginal population has experienced many hardships, and typically found its own celebrations ignored by most non-aboriginals. Thus, a day that celebrated aboriginal culture and history was in the works for years. First suggested by the National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly of First Nations) in 1982, then recognized by the Quebec legislature in 1990, it finally became reality when Canada’s governor general proclaimed June 21, 1996 as National Aboriginal Day. The event celebrates the cultures of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Metis people. Aboriginals, representing Canada’s fastest-growing population segment, now celebrate their heritage on this official day, which is also the summer solstice. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mayann Francis becomes Nova Scotia’s first black Lieutenant-Governor. Mayann Francis was born in the Whitney Pier district near Sydney on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. As an adult, she received her bachelor of arts from Saint Mary’s University and a masters of public administration from New York University. The daughter of a Cuban archpriest father, in 2003 Francis earned a certificate in theological studies from the Atlantic School of Theology. She worked for the Nova Scotia human rights commission in the 1970s and later moved to Ontario to work for the government in municipal affairs and housing before becoming the Assistant Deputy Minister of the Ontario Women’s Directorate. Back in Nova Scotia, Francis became the first woman to hold the post of ombudsman. She then moved into the top job at her former employer, becoming the chief executive officer of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission for eight years. On June 20, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Francis’s appointment as Nova Scotia’s l

Canada urged to recognize Ukrainian famine of 1932-33 as genocide. In 1932, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin starved millions of Ukrainians to death in his quest to force his farm collectives scheme on peasants, halt Ukraine’s growing independence movement and crush the nationalist spirit of the region’s people. That year, the Soviets increased its quota of grain from the Ukraine by 44 per cent by posting Soviet soldiers and the dreaded NKVD secret police to protect silos from theft by people literally dying of starvation. Stalin’s brutal dictatorship also clamped severe travel restrictions on Ukrainian peasants to prevent them from searching elsewhere for food. Experts believe between 5 and 8 million Ukrainians died as a result. Ukrainians spent years clamoring for international recognition of the genocide. Finally, on June 19, 2003, the Senate of Canada unanimously endorsed Senator Raynell Andreychuk’s motion “to recognize the Ukrainian Famine/Genocide of 1932-33 and to condemn any attempt to deny or distort th

Sally Ride becomes first woman on a space shuttle mission. Sally Ride was born in Los Angeles, California on May 26, 1951. After attaining her bachelor of science, bachelor of arts, masters of science and doctorate of physics from Stanford University, she was chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a candidate for astronaut. A year and a half later, in August 1979, Ride completed her training and evaluation process to become eligible for her first assignment. She worked with space shuttle crews on the ground before getting her first flight in space. On June 18, 1983, Ride and the rest of the crew launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. In her role as mission specialist, Ride became the first woman to be part of a space shuttle crew. Women excited about this “first” cheered, “Ride Sally Ride!” Later, Ride served on a larger space shuttle crew that included Dr. Kathryn Sullivan and Canadian Dr. Marc Garneau. After her missions into space, Ride worked for NASA Headquarte

U.S. Supreme Court outlaws mandatory Bible reading and prayer in public schools. For years, many American public schools held Bible readings and prayer sessions, some of which were mandatory, and some of which allowed students to excuse themselves. By the late 1950s, a growing number of students and parents took exception to these Christian ceremonies. In Pennsylvania, state law required schools to read 10 passages from the Bible each morning, followed by the Lord’s Prayer. Even though the Abington Senior High School allowed for students to be exempted from the religious process, the Schemp family objected to the school having any kind of prayer and Bible reading. Their case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 17, 1963, eight of nine judges ruled that compulsory prayer and Bible reading in public schools violated the 1st and 14th amendments of the constitution. Two cases from other states were part of the Schemp case decision. According to the court, even if Christianity is the dominate religi

152 children killed during peaceful demonstration in Soweto, South Africa. During South Africa’s years of white minority rule under its apartheid system, many people protested the inhumane and discriminatory treatment of the country’s black majority. But when the government forced Afrikaans – the language of the blacks’ oppressors – on black school children, it went a step too far. On June 16, 1976, 10,000 children in the township of Soweto gathered to protest the use of Afrikaans in their schools. When police released tear gas on their peaceful demonstration, students began throwing rocks. Police responded by shooting into the crowd. When the smoke had cleared, 152 children had been killed, and others wounded. The event sent shock waves through the world, and emboldened Soweto’s blacks to fight the government and police not just for the Afrikaans issue, but for atrocities committed. In this second round, more than 700 young people died. It took a year, but the government finally backed down on its language p

Supreme Court hears case to decide if pregnancy discrimination is sex discrimination. Stella Bliss went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada when she was denied benefits under the Unemployment Insurance Act because she was experiencing pregnancy-related health problems. In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled that although only women could get pregnant, any inequality Bliss experienced stemmed from “nature,” not from sex discrimination. In other words, discrimination based on pregnancy was not discrimination based on sex. Years later, Susan Brooks, Patricia Allen and Patricia Dixon were working as part-time cashiers for Safeway Ltd. in Brandon, Manitoba, when they became pregnant. Under the company insurance plan, employees were eligible to receive a portion of their wages in the event of sickness or accident. However, pregnant women were not eligible for this coverage if their disability occurred during the 17 weeks surrounding the expected delivery of their baby. All three women applied for pregnancy-related

Chinese police announce recovery of hundreds of slaves. In the communist regime of China, where dissent is given short shrift and freedom of the press is anything but, the internet has proven to be very effective in getting government authorities to take some action. For years there had been reports of Chinese children, youths and adults working as literal slaves in brick kiln camps that fuel the enormous construction growth in China’s economy. Most of those reports fell on deaf ears as the authorities denied any wrongdoing. However, when 400 fathers took their pleas onto the internet, pleading with the public and the police to find their boys, the police realized they had better respond. On June 14, 2007, police in central China announced they had rescued hundreds of slaves (numbers varied from 217 to 450) from some 7,500 brick producing kilns hidden away in the Shanxi and Henan provinces. Some 35,000 police were part of the days-long raid. The kilns were not just about bad working conditions – these workers

Henry Vlug called to the bar, becoming Canada’s first deaf lawyer. Henry Vlug was born in 1944 in Nieuwer Amstel, Netherlands. He moved to Powell River, B.C. in 1952. He became deaf just before grade two, and after public and private schools, graduated from the Jericho Hill School for the Deaf in Vancouver. His post-secondary education led him to a teaching career for ten years before he pursued law school at the University of British Columbia in 1982. After articling, on June 13, 1986, Vlug was called to the bar in British Columbia, becoming Canada’s first deaf lawyer. He opened his own practice. In October 1995, he found himself watching the fifth in a series of baseball games on television. The program had no captioning, even though captioning had been offered for the previous four games. Vlug began noticing other gaps in captioning by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), so he complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. In November 2000, this resulted in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

Ontario Premier William Davis announces full funding for Catholic schools. While Canada’s constitution has long allowed for some public schools to serve Quebec’s Protestant and Ontario’s Catholic children, Ontario’s public funding for its Catholic schools extended only to grade 10. In 1968, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) made it a priority to change that. For 16 years, the OECTA helped organize teachers, administrators, parents and students to address the imbalance of public funding. They did so through letter writing, workshops, meetings with members of the provincial Parliament, and even an annual booth at the Toronto National Exhibition. Politicians were divided over extending the funding. During the 1971 provincial election campaign, Progressive Conservative Premier William Davis spoke forcefully against any such funding. But unexpectedly, Davis publicly reversed his stance on June 12, 1984 with an announcement that his government would extend public funding of Catholic schools

Canada holds first Special Olympics to inspire fitness and competition amongst mentally disabled. Research in the early 1960s showed that mentally disabled children were only half as fit as non-disabled children. Dr. Frank Hayden of London, Ontario challenged the idea that this stemmed from their mental disability. With his research pointing a finger at their sedentary lifestyle rather than an inability to exercise, Hayden sought to create Canada-wide sports programs for the mentally challenged. When Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the Kennedy Foundation in Washington, D.C. heard about Hayden’s goals, they organized the first Special Olympics in Soldiers’ Field, Chicago in 1968. Over 1,000 athletes from 26 states and Canada competed in track and field, floor hockey and aquatic events. A year later, on June 11, 1969, Canada’s first Special Olympics took place in Toronto. Today, the Special Olympics allows thousands of mentally disabled Canadians of all ages to take part in sporting events, including skiing, skating

Douglas Jung becomes Canada’s first Chinese Canadian member of Parliament. Douglas Jung was born in Victoria, British Columbia on February 24, 1924. Following World War II service in the Pacific Command Security Intelligence, Jung returned to Canada to pursue his education at the University of British Columbia. The first Chinese Canadian veteran to receive a university education through Veteran’s Affairs, he graduated with both arts and law degrees before being called to the bar in 1954. As a young lawyer, Jung was the first Chinese Canadian to appear before the B.C. Court of Appeal. Soon, his interests turned to politics and the Progressive Conservative Party. He was elected national president of the Young Conservatives of Canada before moving on to elected office. On June 10, 1957, Jung broke barriers again when, as a member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre, he became Canada’s first Chinese Canadian to sit in the House of Commons. He was re-elected the following year in the Diefenbaker sweep, but defeated

Upper Canada partially abolishes slavery. Canada, like other Western countries in the 18th century, allowed its citizens to own slaves. In fact, for many Canadians, slave ownership was fashionable, and the Imperial Statute of 1790 required nothing of slave owners but feeding and clothing their slaves. One man who disapproved of slavery, however – Upper Canada’s new Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe – began efforts in 1791 to have it abolished. He was joined by the attorney general for Upper Canada (Ontario), John White, who proposed legislation to outlaw slavery outright, a measure that received insufficient support. As the movement gained momentum, the Parliament of Upper Canada passed the “Anti-Slave Law of Upper Canada” on June 9, 1793. This put limitations on slavery, but did not eliminate it. It allowed those who owned slaves at the time the law was passed to keep them, while stipulating that no new slaves could be brought into Upper Canada for purchase. Also, children born to slaves after 1793 were

Ruling overturned for disgraced aboriginal leader David Ahenakew. David Ahenakew was a distinguished member of the Saskatchewan First Nations community. He’d given years of service at the helm of the Assembly of First Nations and had been recognized for other accomplishments with the prestigious Order of Canada. So onlookers were shocked when on December 13, 2002, at an aboriginal health-care conference, he went into a racist tirade with slurs against Jews, Indo Canadians and other immigrants to Canada. After his speech, Saskatoon Star Phoenix reporter James Parker asked Ahenakew for more comments and clarifications and he continued on his tirade, saying more horrible things about Jews. Media coverage of his comments led to national headlines and condemnation from coast to coast. Ahenakew resigned from all aboriginal leadership positions, as he began the long process of trying to defend himself. On July 8, 2005, Saskatchewan provincial court judge Irwin found Ahenakew guilty of inciting and wilfully promotin

Captain of St. Louis informs Jewish passengers they must return to Europe. In Germany on November 9 and 10, 1938, Nazi troops went on a rampage, killing 91 Jews, arresting 30,000, sending many to concentration camps and destroying thousands of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues. Following this event, known as Kristallnacht, Jews tried desperately to flee Germany. However, very few countries were willing to take more than their allotted quotas. On May 13, 1939, 937 men, women and children – 900 of them Jewish – set sail on the S.S. St. Louis for Cuba. The United States was their ultimate destination, but having obtained only Cuban visas, they were willing to wait until the Americans would let them in. Unfortunately for them, the Cuban administration changed while the boat was still at sea. Fearful of Jews taking precious jobs, and with Nazi propaganda saying the ship was loaded with criminals, 40,000 Cubans demonstrated against Jewish immigrants. When the ship arrived on May 27, the government claimed tha

Shanawdithit, Newfoundland’s last surviving Beothuk aboriginal, dies. Hundreds of years before European settlers arrived, groups of aboriginals crossed the Strait of Belle Isle to live in what became Newfoundland. Known as Beothuk, they were the first indigenous people to meet European settlers in the 1500s, and archaeologists estimate they numbered between 500 and 1,000. The Beothuk tradition of painting their bodies with red ochre prompted settlers to call all aboriginals “reds.” As European settlers arrived in greater numbers and claimed land that the Beothuks used for hunting and fishing, conflict and white diseases – including tuberculosis and influenza – killed many Beothuks. In the 1800s, their survival was further threatened by conflict and intermarriage with the Mi’kmaqs, who traveled to Newfoundland from the mainland. In 1769, having noted the population’s devastation, Newfoundland authorities made killing a Beothuk a capital crime. But as Beothuk numbers continued to decline, authorities tried to

United Nations creates World Environment Day. In response to growing concern about the planet’s sustainability, the United Nations held the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment from June 5 to 16, 1972. The conference concluded with a declaration that urged all nations to work for a better environment. The UN General Assembly also created the United Nations Environment Program, whose mission was “to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.” To commemorate that first conference, the United Nations created World Environment Day on June 5, 1972. Since then, numerous UN conferences on the environment have been held. However, each conference notes with increasing concern that not only has little progress been made, but environmental deterioration is accelerating rapidly. Many scientists believe climate change is the most serious threat