Embassy of the United States Ottawa, Canada

Section 6 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons

The law provides for equal benefits and protection of the law regardless of race, gender, national or ethnic origin, age, language, social status, or disability; the government effectively enforced these provisions.

Women

Although prohibited by law, rape and violence against women, including spousal rape and abuse, occurred. The government's statistical office reported there were 63 sexual assaults per 100,000 persons in 2008, down from 65 in 2007, as well as 491 reported cases of aggravated sexual assault and assault with a weapon causing bodily harm.

The law prohibits domestic violence. Although the criminal code does not define specific domestic violence offenses, an abuser can be charged with an applicable offense, such as assault, aggravated assault, intimidation, mischief, or sexual assault. Persons convicted of assault may be penalized with up to five years in prison. Assaults involving weapons, threats, injuries, or endangerment of life carry prison sentences up to 14 years. Sexual abuse may be penalized with up to 10 years in prison. Aggravated sexual assaults involving weapons, and committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with, a criminal organization carry sentences between four years and life imprisonment. Studies indicated that victims of domestic violence and spousal abuse underreported incidents.

Indigenous (Aboriginal) people were more than three times more likely to be victims of spousal violence than nonindigenous persons.

The federal statistical agency reported that there were approximately 569 shelters for abused women; the shelters provided emergency care, transition housing, and long-term assistance. Shelters admitted more than 101,000 women and children in 2008, of whom approximately three-quarters had fled abusive situations. The government's family violence initiative involved 12 departments and a cabinet ministry--Status of Women Canada. These entities worked to eliminate systemic violence against women and advance women's human rights.

On August 26, the Manitoba government, RCMP, and Winnipeg Police Service established the Manitoba Integrated Task Force for Missing and Murdered Women to review unsolved homicide cases and missing-persons files of female victims in the province. At least 75 women, almost all Aboriginal, have disappeared in the province over the last two decades, according to Aboriginal groups.

Adult prostitution is not illegal, but the law prohibits pimping (benefiting from the earnings of prostitution of another); operating, being found in, or working in a brothel; and communicating in a public place for the purpose of engaging in prostitution. Prostitution exists throughout the country, particularly in major urban centers.

The law does not contain a specific offense of "sexual harassment" but criminalizes harassment (stalking), punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment, and sexual assault, with penalties ranging from 10 years for nonaggravated sexual assault to life imprisonment for aggravated sexual assault. The government generally enforced these prohibitions. Most harassment cases were settled out of court.

Couples and individuals freely exercised their reproductive rights. The publicly funded medical system provided access to contraceptive services and information, prenatal care, skilled attendance during childbirth, and essential obstetric and postpartum care. Women had equal access with men to diagnosis and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

Women were well represented in the labor force, including business and the professions, and did not experience economic discrimination. Status of Women Canada, headed by a cabinet-level minister, promoted the legal rights of women. According to the federal statistical agency, 62.8 percent of women age 15 and older were employed in the workforce in 2008. Employment equity laws and regulations cover federal employees in all but the security and defense services. Women have marriage and property rights, as well as rights in the judicial system, equal to those of men. However, Aboriginal women living on reserves (where land is held communally) lack matrimonial property rights.

Children

The country provided universal birth registration, and citizenship was derived both by birth within the country's territory and from one's parents.

The country was a destination for child sex tourism. Under penalties for child prostitution, persons convicted of pimping a child under age 18 face between two and 14 years' imprisonment; Persons who aid, counsel, compel, use, or threaten to use, violence, intimidation or coercion in relation to a child under age 18 to engage in prostitution face between five and 14 years' imprisonment. Persons who solicit or obtain the sexual services of a child under age 18 face between six months' and five years' imprisonment.

The minimum age of consensual sex is 16 years. The country does not have a statutory rape law but prosecutes a range of sexual offenses against children, including sexual interference, sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching, and sexual exploitation. Penalties for each offense range from 14 days to 10 years' imprisonment.

The law prohibits child pornography, including the production, distribution, accessing, and possession of child pornography. Police services reported 464 incidents of child-luring over the Internet between 2006 and 2007, an increase of 31 percent over the previous year, although the national statistical agency estimated the number of reported cases to represent only 10 percent of actual cases. Maximum penalties range from 18 months' imprisonment for summary offenses to 10 years' imprisonment for indictable offenses. On December 4, the Supreme Court broadened the legal interpretation of child-luring over the Internet, ruling that defendants do not have to meet, or intend to meet, the victim to commit the offense.

Trafficking in Persons

The law prohibits trafficking in persons for all purposes; however, the country was a source, transit point, and destination for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.

NGOs estimated that 2,000 persons were trafficked into the country annually, while the RCMP estimated 600 to 800 persons, with an additional 1,500 to 2,200 persons trafficked through the country into the United States. Many victims were Asians and Eastern Europeans, but a significant number also came from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Women and children were trafficked for sexual exploitation; on a lesser scale, men, women, and children were trafficked for forced labor. Some girls and women, most of whom were Aboriginal, were trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation.

Traffickers tended to be members of larger criminal organizations, members of small criminal groups, or individual criminals. Organized crime groups were involved in transnational trafficking to varying degrees.

Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto served as hubs for organized crime groups trafficking in persons, including for prostitution. East Asian crime groups targeted the country, Vancouver in particular, to exploit immigration laws, benefits available to immigrants, and the proximity to the U.S. border.

The law criminalizes trafficking in persons and prohibits global and internal trafficking in persons, benefiting economically from trafficking in persons, and withholding or destroying documents to facilitate trafficking in persons. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act establishes criminal penalties of up to life in prison and fines of up to one million Canadian dollars ($953,000) for convicted cross-border traffickers. The government prosecutes all forms of human trafficking, including forced labor, in addition to trafficking-related acts such as kidnapping, forcible confinement, uttering threats, sexual assault, prostitution-related crimes, and extortion. The law also permits domestic prosecution of citizens and residents who engage in illegal sexual activity with children overseas.

Twenty-four antitrafficking prosecutions were pending before provincial courts, involving 15 accused offenders at year's end. There were no trafficking convictions during the year.

The government has an interdepartmental working group consisting of 17 departments and agencies and cochaired by senior officials from the Departments of Justice and Public Safety to combat trafficking in persons. The RCMP has six regional human trafficking awareness coordinators who conduct law enforcement training programs to sensitize officers to trafficking realties, train officers to identify potential victims, and provide information on the trafficking sections of the criminal code. The Canadian Border Services Agency has 56 specially trained migration integrity officers who collect and report intelligence information on organized human trafficking.

During the year the government's interdepartmental working group on trafficking coordinated with British Columbia's Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons, the Vancouver Police, and the Vancouver Olympic Committee to incorporate antitrafficking measures into the Olympics’ broader security plan.

The government, in conjunction with nongovernmental organizations, supports a 24-hour tipline for the public anonymously to report suspected cases of human trafficking.

On December 1, the Salvation Army opened a 10-bed facility in Vancouver for female victims of sex trafficking.

Through agencies such as Interpol, the government assisted other countries with criminal investigations of trafficking cases and cooperated with law enforcement authorities in neighboring and source countries.

Officials may grant a temporary residence permit (TRP) of 180 days (or longer, in special meritorious cases) to provide a reflection period for the victim and an investigative window for law enforcement to determine whether there is enough evidence to pursue a trafficking case. During this 180-day period, immigration officials determine whether a longer residency period of up to three years may be warranted. Victims of trafficking who receive a TRP are eligible for health-care benefits and trauma counseling and may also apply for a work permit. Victims of trafficking are not required to testify against their trafficker to gain temporary or permanent resident status. In addition to legal status under a TRP, trafficking victims may also apply for assistance from victim assistance funds maintained by provincial governments.

In April the government granted Cdn$100,000 ($95,000) to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs to raise awareness of human trafficking for sexual exploitation of Manitoba First Nations women and children and to undertake resource and strategic development aimed at prevention and protection.

The State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report can be found at www.state.gov/g/tip.

Persons with Disabilities

The law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities in employment, education, access to health care, or the provision of other state services or in other areas, and the government effectively enforced these prohibitions. The government effectively implemented laws mandating access to buildings for persons with disabilities.

The federal, provincial, and territorial governments share responsibility for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. The Office for Disability Issues, the federal government's focal point, funded a range of programs, including programs to enable participation of persons with disabilities in the workforce, to improve physical accessibility infrastructure, to build the capacity of the voluntary sector, and to raise public education and awareness of disability issues.

National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the linguistic and cultural rights of minorities and establishes English and French as the country's two official languages. Despite the federal policy of bilingualism, native English speakers in Quebec (5.7 percent of the province's population in 2006) and French speakers in other parts of the country generally lived and worked in the language of the majority. Provinces may grant French or English the status of an official language, but only New Brunswick has granted the two languages equal status.

The Charter of the French Language in Quebec makes French the official language of the province; requires the use of French in commerce, the workplace, education, and government; and protects minority language rights. The charter also restricts access to publicly funded English-language education to children who have received or are receiving elementary or secondary instruction in English and whose parents are citizens, and to students who are temporary residents in the province or have serious learning disabilities and who have obtained a waiver.

On October 22, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a 2002 Quebec language-protection law that limited access to English-language schools for students. The law closed a legal loophole that allowed parents to send their children to English-language public schools under limited circumstances. The court suspended the effects of its ruling for one year to allow the Quebec government to redraft the legislation.

In a preliminary report following a visit to the country in October, the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues stated that the country's Muslim communities feared "unsubstantiated use" of security certificates, racial profiling, and harassment by police. The Independent Expert also found "uneven and unclear" human rights protections for all minorities due to the independent authority of human rights commissions in each province and lack of federal oversight.

Complainants reported at least three incidents of alleged racially motivated assault and harassment of Asian-Canadian recreational anglers in the Simcoe, Ontario, region during the 2008-09 fishing season. Police increased presence in the area, and launched a public awareness campaign. Authorities included an antiracism message in 2009 fishing regulations. In September one individual pled guilty to assault in a 2007 incident and received a conditional discharge and probation. Police dropped charges in connection with two other alleged racially motivated assaults on Asian fisherman in 2007 and 2008. On December 15, an Ontario court convicted one individual of two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and four individuals of aggravated assault following a 2007 racially motivated attack on recreational fishermen in the Lake Simcoe area.

On May 25, Quebec authorities opened a coroner's inquest into the August 2008 shooting death by Montreal police of a teenage immigrant from Honduras. The inquest continued at year's end.

Indigenous People

The law recognizes three different groups of indigenous (also known as Aboriginal) people: Indians (generally called First Nations), Inuit (formerly called Eskimos), and Metis (persons of mixed Indian-European ancestry). According to the 2006 census, indigenous people constituted approximately 4 percent of the national population and higher percentages in the country's three territories: Yukon, 25 percent; Northwest Territories, 50 percent; and Nunavut, 85 percent. Disputes over land claims, self-government, treaty rights, taxation, duty-free imports, fishing and hunting rights, and alleged harassment by police continued to be sources of tension. Indigenous people remained underrepresented in the workforce, overrepresented on welfare rolls and in prison populations, and more susceptible to suicide, poverty, and sexual violence than other groups. A 2008 review by the federal auditor general reported that authorities placed Aboriginal children in protective public care facilities at a rate eight times higher than children in the general population.

The law recognizes and specifically protects indigenous rights, including those established by historical land claims settlements. Treaties with indigenous groups form the basis for the government's policies in the eastern part of the country, but there were legal challenges to the government's interpretation and implementation of treaty rights. Indigenous groups in the west that never signed treaties continued to claim land and resources, and many continued to seek legal resolution of outstanding issues. As a result the evolution of the government's policy toward indigenous rights, particularly land claims, frequently depended on legal challenges. According to an August Amnesty International report, approximately 60 Aboriginal claims over territory previously excluded from treaty making remained unresolved. An additional 765 specific claims related to interpretation of historic treaties remained unresolved.

During the year the CHRC received 20 complaints against the federal government in the areas of eligibility for status as a First Nations person and access to health and educational services for those who live off-reserve.

In June the government appointed a new chairman for the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission following the resignation of all the original members in 2008. On October 15, the governor general relaunched the commission to examine abuse that indigenous children sustained in residential schools in the 20th century.

The Specific Claims Tribunal, created in 2008, has the authority to issue binding decisions on Aboriginal grievances relating to treaties that are rejected for negotiation or where negotiations fail. The tribunal had not registered any judgments at year's end.

In August former students of Aboriginal day schools in Manitoba filed suit against the federal government for Cdn $15 billion ($14.3 billion) for alleged abuse suffered in the schools. The claimants sought to have the case adopted as a class-action suit to cover an estimated 70,000 former Aboriginal day students across the country.

In June the government launched a "Federal Framework for Aboriginal Economic Development" to promote government collaboration, private-sector partnerships, skills development, and easier access to capital for the Aboriginal community. Through the framework, the government committed C$200 million ($191 million) over four years to enable economic use of land, improve access to commercial capital, promote Aboriginal procurement of goods and services at market rates, and strengthen Aboriginal participation in key economic areas.

In August the government announced the creation of the Northern Economic Development Agency, located in Nunavut territory, to foster economic and social development and better environmental stewardship in the North. The government dedicated funds to six geosciences programs for mining industry explorations in Nunavut and funds to a program aimed at strengthening and diversifying Nunavut's fishing industries.

In November the Nisga'a First Nation in northwestern British Columbia became the first self-governing Aboriginal nation in the country to pass legislation allowing private property rights on Aboriginal land.

On January 28, the government reiterated its previously rejected Cdn $26 million ($24.8 million) offer in 2007 to settle one of the four land claims of the Haudenosaunee/Six Nations in Ontario. The disputed site had been occupied since 2006. Consultations on the government's offer continued at year's end.

The government continued the process of claim settlements and self-government negotiations with more than 350 First Nations communities.

Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

There were rare reports of societal violence or discrimination based on sexual orientation. The law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the criminal code provides penalties for crimes motivated by bias, prejudice, or hate based on personal characteristics, including sexual orientation. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organizations operated independently and without restriction. Federal, provincial, and municipal governments authorized, and sometimes provided financial support for, gay pride marches in communities across the country and provided police protection to marchers. There was no official discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, or access to education or health care.

In July the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission opened an investigation into a complaint by an individual formerly employed by a provincial youth facility that he experienced severe and prolonged sexual harassment in the workplace based on his sexual orientation. The case remained pending at year's end.

In July a gay man filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal after his parish priest removed him from his volunteer position as a church altar server because of his sexual orientation.

In July a lesbian couple filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission alleging that a family doctor declined to accept them as patients because their sexual orientation offended her religious beliefs and because she had no experience treating gay patients. The case was pending at year's end.

On July 22, a Saskatchewan court upheld a 2008 Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal ruling that a provincial marriage commissioner had discriminated against a gay couple when he refused to perform their same-sex ceremony on the grounds that the law violated his charter right to freedom of religion.

Other Violence or Societal Discrimination

There were no known reports of societal violence or discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS. The criminal code provides penalties for violence against individuals. Courts generally interpreted prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of disability in federal and provincial human rights statutes to include discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS.

Section 7 Worker Rights

a. The Right of Association

The law allows workers in both the public (except armed forces and police) and the private sectors to form and join unions of their choice without previous authorization, and workers did so in practice. The law allows unions to operate without government interference. An estimated 30 percent of the civilian labor force belonged to a trade union.

All workers, except for those in the public sector who provide essential services, have the right to strike, and workers exercised this right in practice. Workers in essential services had recourse to binding arbitration if labor negotiations failed. The law prohibits employer retribution against strikers and union leaders, and the government generally enforced this provision in practice.

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

The law protects collective bargaining, and the government effectively enforced this right in practice. An estimated 25 percent of workers were covered by collective agreements. The law prohibits antiunion discrimination and employer interference in union functions, and the government protected this right in practice.

On December 17, the Supreme Court heard an appeal by the Ontario government of a November 2008 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that struck down a provincial law prohibiting an estimated 32,000 agricultural workers (including foreign migrants) from bargaining collectively. The court's decision remained pending at year's end.

On November 27, the Supreme Court upheld the right of a company to terminate its operations. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union had alleged that a store in Jonquiere, Quebec, violated provincial labor laws and workers' constitutional rights by closing in 2005, six months after receiving union certification and days before a provincially appointed labor arbitrator was to present the parties with a mandatory contract settlement.

There are no export processing zones.

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, there were reports that adults and children were trafficked into the country for the purpose of forced labor in the agricultural sector, domestic servitude, and prostitution.

On December 9, Ontario passed a law to protect foreign caregivers in the province from abuse by recruiters and employers. The law prohibits employers from confiscating a worker's personal documents such as a passport or work permit and prohibits recruiters from charging fees to live-in caregivers.

d. Prohibition of Child Labor and Minimum Age for Employment

Child labor legislation varies by province. The federal government employs youths under age 17 only while school is not in session and in work unlikely to endanger health or safety. Most provinces restrict the number of hours of work, and prohibit children under age 15 or 16 from working without parental consent, at night, or in any hazardous employment.

Inspections by federal and provincial labor ministries effectively enforced child labor laws and policies.

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

The federal government sets minimum wage rates for federally regulated employees covered by the Canada Labour Code, and provincial and territorial governments through their respective employment standards laws, and enforced them effectively. Some provinces have minimum wage boards that represent the interests of employers and employees, and may recommend nonbinding changes to rates. Four provinces have legislation requiring an annual or biennial review of the minimum wage, but no governments have a legislated obligation to increase or otherwise modify rates. Minimum wage rates ranged from Cdn$8.00 to Cdn$10.00 ($7.60 to $9.50) Some provinces exempt agricultural and other specific categories of workers from minimum wage rates, and Ontario and British Columbia have a minimum wage rate for youths lower than their respective minimums for adult workers. The minimum wage did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. The federal statistical agency calculates annual averages, or Low Income Cut Offs (LICOs), below which individuals and families spend significantly more on food, shelter, and necessities than the average. During the year the national LICO for a family of four with a before-tax income of less than Cdn$40,259 ($38,300) qualified as low income.

Standard work hours vary by province, but in each the limit is 40 or 48 hours per week, with at least 24 hours of rest. The law requires payment of a premium for work above the standard workweek. Authorities effectively enforced these standards. There is no specific prohibition on excessive compulsory overtime, which is regulated by means of the required rest periods in the labor code that differ by industry.

Federal law provides safety and health standards for employees under federal jurisdiction, while provincial and territorial legislation provides for all other employees. Federal and provincial labor departments monitored and enforced these standards, and conducted inspections proactively through scheduled visits, reactively in response to complaints, and at random. Enforcement measures included a graduated response, with a preference for resolution via voluntary compliance, negotiation, and education, and prosecution as a last resort. Some trade unions argued that resources limited capacity effectively to conduct proactive inspection and enforcement. Federal, provincial, and territorial laws protect the right of workers with "reasonable cause" to refuse dangerous work and remove themselves from hazardous work conditions, and authorities effectively enforced this right.