The recent passing of Canadian human rights lawyer Susan Eng provides an opportunity to reflect on the status of human rights in Canada as well as the work of Eng and other human rights lawyers fighting for fairness.
Photo by Min An from Pexels
Many people may think of human rights as being shaped by David-versus-Goliath struggles of individuals seeking to use the law to change monolithic cultural, social or corporate practices.
We’ve seen this in the movies, where the lawyers are usually stoic, gritty, tough, uncompromising and unwavering: Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington in Philadelphia, Paul Newman in The Verdict, Ben Kingsley in Gandhi, Julia Roberts and Albert Finney in Erin Brockovich, Felicity Jones in On the Basis of Sex, Mark Ruffalo in Dark Waters, Chadwick Boseman in Marshall, or Matthew McConaughey in A Time to Kill.
Canada’s human rights scene may be less Hollywood but is no less compelling. And its lawyers are just as roll-up-the-sleeves tough as their silver screen counterparts.
The July 2025 passing of lawyer, advocate and activist Susan Eng inspired this article about human rights advocates in Canada. Eng’s career exemplified the work of lawyers who take on all human rights challenges.
What are human rights
According to the United Nations, human rights are “inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression (and) the right to work and education … Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.”
Federal, provincial and territorial human rights laws prohibit discrimination in various protected areas and based on various protected grounds. Protected areas include at work, accessing housing, accessing public goods and services, and public notices. Protected grounds include race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital and family status, and mental and physical disabilities.
While striving for fairness, Canada is not without its issues. The Human Rights Watch World Report 2020 noted:
Canada continues to struggle to address longstanding human rights challenges, including wide-ranging abuses against Indigenous peoples, the continued confinement of immigration detainees in jails, and a prison law that does not rule out prolonged solitary confinement. Canada also grapples with serious human rights issues relating to the overseas operations of Canadian extractive companies, and persistent exports of military equipment to countries with a record of human rights violations.
A report by Amnesty International about Canada was also critical of the country’s human rights conditions in 2024:
Systemic racism and discrimination against Black and racialized people persisted. Two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual (2SLGBTQQIA+) people faced discrimination and violence. Indigenous land defenders were criminalized for protecting their ancestral territory, violence against Indigenous women continued and the fate of Indigenous children remained unresolved. Migrants’ and refugees’ rights were violated.
Human rights is a challenging backdrop for human rights lawyers, and it can come with its own personal and professional challenges.
The work of Susan Eng
Eng was an Osgoode Hall Law School graduate and activist in the Chinese Canadian community. She was a member of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Services Board, serving as its chair from 1991 to 1995. While there, she implemented changes related to police conduct and was under surveillance by the city’s police service for a time.
A co-founder of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, Eng was heavily involved in the redress campaign for Canada’s Chinese head tax (the oppressive tax levied against Chinese people to discourage them from entering Canada following completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway). Lawyer Mark Warner (on X) called Eng “fearless and unprecedented in the face of huge opposition from police chiefs and the police union … the role model for police accountability.”
The work of Prakash Diar
Consider the work of Prakash Diar, recipient of the Law Society of Ontario’s Human Rights Award in 2023. A Law Society of Ontario news release highlighted Diar’s work:
Mr. Diar exposed the unjust system of apartheid in his native South Africa where he defended many political prisoners. While fearlessly fighting for justice and exposing the perversion of the rule of law, he was arrested at court and detained in solitary confinement for a month without charge.
Diar’s book, The Sharpeville Six, details the 1985 case in which he defended six people accused of a murder they didn’t commit. After the trial, Diar was illegally detained, spent weeks in solitary confinement and was tortured. Death threats followed his release. The case brought Diar international attention. He came to Canada in 1989 with help from the federal government.
After arriving, human rights continued to figure prominently in Diar’s life. Serving with the Department of Justice, Diar worked on the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement beginning in 2004, followed by implementing the agreement. Over the years he trained thousands of legal personnel on the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the Crown, as well as on systemic racism and the over-representation of Indigenous and Black People in Canada’s legal system.
In a phone interview, Diar said that “all human beings are born in dignity. But we don’t live up to that. In the end justice is about fairness and basic decency. Children of course understand that innately,” while adults “tend to complicate it in simplistic ways. People deserve respect (but) we don’t treat people fairly and equally.”
The work of Arleen Huggins
Arleen Huggins, a partner at Koskie Minsky, is also a lawyer who focuses on fairness and equity. She was chosen in 2021 by Canadian Lawyer readers as one of the 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Human Rights, Advocacy and Criminal Law.
Huggins earned a reputation “for her investigation work involving important issues of public policy, such as the 2018 Independent External Review of Complex Cases under the Ontario Public Service’s Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Policy through an anti-racism lens and more recently the 2020 Minister of Education’s investigation of the Peel District School Board’s compliance with the Minister’s 27 binding Directions aimed at dismantling structures that perpetuate racism, and particularly anti-Black racism,” according to a Koskie Minsky news release.
The work of the late Clayton Ruby
Clayton Ruby was a lawyer and activist based in Toronto who passed away in 2022. He represented a range of high-profile clients, including:
the surviving Dionne Quintuplets, who were seeking compensation from the Ontario government for exploiting them by putting their lives on display to a paying publicGuy Paul Morin, who was wrongfully convicted for rape and murderabortion rights advocate Dr. Henry Morgentalerthe men arrested in the gay community-galvanizing Toronto Bathhouse Raids of 1981
Constance Backhouse and Beth Symes in the Law Society of Ontario Gazette noted:
Colleagues recalled that (Ruby’s) first legal strategy was to search for the solution that would increase the social justice in the world … He used law to crusade for free speech, firearm regulation, abortion access, gender equality, anti-racism, Indigenous justice, (and) animal rights.
The work of late Senator Murray Sinclair
Senator Murray Sinclair, who died in 2024, was an Anishinaabe lawyer, judge and member of Peguis First Nation. He represented Indigenous communities in criminal matters and land claims.
Most prominently, Murray served as chair of the seven-year-long Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In June 2015, the TRC released 94 Calls to Action, designed to build reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians. The University of British Columbia, in paying tribute to Sinclair, noted his rise “from challenging beginnings and a childhood marked by racism to become a powerful advocate for Indigenous rights and justice.”
The time to stand up is now
The need to stand up for human rights has never been more important than right now, adds Diar. Advocates have “got to speak out and we must mobilize. It is up to us as individuals and as a collective to put pressure on our leaders. Pressure on leaders can force them to change their positions. We must hold our leaders to account.”
In accepting his Human Rights Award, Diar noted that Canada has “not yet overcome the legacy of colonialism and slavery, and in particular the Indian residential schools’ legacy. We have to face the truth so that we can build a better Canada for everyone. None of us is free until everyone is free.”
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DISCLAIMER The information in this article was correct at time of publishing. The law may have changed since then. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of LawNow or the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.