Whose Rights, Whose Reality? Human Rights, Power and Difference
About this Event
Event description
Rights are often talked about as if they are universal and land the same way for everyone. In practice, they do not. The same right can protect one person, fail another, or come into conflict. The contexts and combinations of rights can result in varied outcomes, depending on institutional settings and how power is distributed in everyday life. In some cases, entire categories of rights, like social and economic rights and equality rights, are discounted or minimized. In others, including in Quebec today, the rights and freedoms of religious minorities have been sharply curtailed in favour of a muscular version of secularism.
In this talk, Pearl Eliadis explores how rights actually function beyond slogans. Drawing on her work in international human rights, as a lawyer and as a lecturer, she looks at why rights can feel straightforward in theory but much messier in practice. Different claims, identities, and forms of vulnerability collide in Canada. Competing understandings of multiculturalism are an important factor. So is the use of the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The growing use of the notwithstanding clause has become a particular source of concern as provincial governments use it to suppress fundamental freedoms, legal rights, and equality rights.
This is a conversation for anyone trying to think more clearly about equality, democracy, and what rights really mean once they move from legal language into lived experience. Expect a more grounded way of understanding who rights protect, where they fall short, and why those differences matter, based on what the courts are telling us, and what these conversations might mean for the upcoming general election in Quebec.
What the audience will walk away with
- A clearer sense of how the same rights can protect some people, fail others, or come into conflict
- A better understanding of how equality rights, social and economic rights, and fundamental freedoms play out in real life
- A sharper lens for thinking about multiculturalism, secularism, and the notwithstanding clause in Canada
About the speaker
Pearl Eliadis is Associate Professor (professional) at McGill University's Max Bell School of Public Policy, a lawyer, and a Full Member of McGill's Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. Her work focuses on human rights, equality, anti-discrimination, democracy, and public institutions, and she brings both legal and public-facing perspective to questions about how rights function in everyday life.
Agenda
🕑: 07:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Doors Open!
🕑: 07:30 PM - 08:15 PM
Start of presentation (shhhh)
🕑: 08:15 PM - 08:30 PM
Ask away!
🕑: 08:30 PM - 09:00 PM
Discussions
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 13.18 to CAD 30.75
