The role of popular mobilizations in the struggle for the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

In spite of the best efforts of Canada's first ministers, the debate leading up to the enactment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was characterized by the mobilization of several demanding factors of the Canadian populace. The Hays-Joyal hearings on the Constitution provided a formal setting for popular participation, and in fact drew submissions from a variety of special interest groups. Significantly, the minimal class representation in both the formal and informal processes of Charter construction was in stark contrast to the militant interventions of women's and Native's lobbies. In spite of the resistance of the politicians, and in spite of internal weaknesses, these movements were able to impose some elements of their collective demands on the otherwise limited vision of rights in Canada. Their voices were in fact heard over the din of federal-provincial squabbling.This article is a revised version of a Chapter from the author's Doctoral Dissertation, entitledCanada's Passive Revolution: The Charter and Hegemonic Politics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, August 1992.     

Global access to treatment: achievements and challenges

As mentioned in the previous issue, this section of the Review addresses issues related to improving access to adequate and affordable care, treatment, and support everywhere. It replaces the section previously called "Patents and Prices." In this issue, we feature a review of achievements and challenges in recent years in opening global access to HIV/AIDS treatments. The article - one of a series commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, discussing past developments and future directions in areas of policy and law related to HIV/AIDS - describes the developments that recast the debate about access to treatment from one focused on patent entitlements to one focused on the right to health and treatment. It analyzes the role of national and international activism, strategically constructed alliances, and principled leadership in achieving this change. And it discusses continuing obstacles to equitable access to HIV/AIDS treatments for the world's population.     

Geographical access to treatment for sex offenders under community supervision in Kentucky

Abstract

As sex offenders are probated or paroled into the community, sex offender treatment and monitoring is often a condition of their release. In Kentucky, sex offenders are required to participate in community-based treatment for two years or more. However, some sex offenders are disadvantaged in accessing mandated treatment. This is a result of decisions concerning the placement of treatment programmes, the sex offenders' preference to return to communities where they can rely on family and other indigenous support networks, and some statutes (e.g. sex offender registration and residency restriction laws). This study utilises spatial methodologies, including an origin–destination (OD) matrix, to determine the time, in minutes, that sex offenders travel to sex offender treatment providers and non-spatial ordinary least squares (OLS) regression techniques to determine the association between family, neighbourhood and community characteristics on sex offenders’ travel time to treatment. Findings suggest that there is substantial disadvantage in treatment access, measured by travel time, for sex offenders who live in impoverished rural communities.     

WHO initiatives to increase access to treatment in developing countries

In mid-2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that some six million people with HIV/AIDS in developing countries are currently in need of life-sustaining antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, but that only 230,000 have access to these medicines, half of whom live in one country, Brazil. The WHO believes that, with a concerted international effort to expand access to HIV treatment and care, three million people could have access to ARVs by the end of 2005. A number of recent initiatives provide some useful tools toward reaching this goal.     

Reasons why law students should have access to learning law through a skills-based approach

The Legal Education and Training Review identified gaps in law students’ key skills development and this paper considers how skills training in three key areas of mooting, negotiation and client interviewing can be maximised so that law students have a sense of themselves as lawyer as well as law student from the beginning of their legal education. The research identifies numerous benefits to learning law through skills-based activities, but also discovers some possible apprehensions about participating from a student perspective. This paper draws on data taken from students who engaged in short-term optional courses in client interviewing, negotiation and/or mooting and considers the responses to a survey conducted prior to participation, a reflective survey post-completion and a focus group exercise. In total 64 students responded to the questionnaire. The research explores the expected and actual benefits of participating in the courses, discusses how these impact on students’ perceptions of their employability and the types of activities considered most valuable. The article considers how, in light of the research, experiential learning can be put to best use within the law curriculum.     

Economic issues in access to medications: schizophrenia treatment in England

Mental health problems and the services to address them are currently receiving more attention in the UK than ever. Mental health care in England--indeed, across the UK--is experiencing a much needed transformation. It is therefore highly pertinent to examine the patterns of psychotropic medication use, given their intended links to recovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration, as well as to explore the economic and other factors that appear to influence those patterns. These are the aims of this paper. Our attention will be primarily focused on England. What this analysis shows is that given a higher profile by government, including additional funding (although not really benefiting differentially compared to other parts of the health service) and the first national service framework, it is possible to see changes in service patterns, access and (to a degree) outcomes. These changes are occurring at a time when new classes of psychotropic medication are being introduced in a range of therapeutic areas, contributing to the relatively rapid growth of take-up but also raising questions about appropriateness, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and equity.     

Limits to learning: the struggle to adapt to unintended effects of international payment for environmental services programmes

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - This article pioneers new thinking on learning by organizations created by international environmental agreements, especially...     

Canadian compulsory community treatment laws: recent reforms

This paper addresses the principles underlying compulsory community treatment (CCT) and discusses the different provisions in Canada's twelve jurisdictions. Comparisons with different models of CCT in other countries are also drawn. CCT is not only intended to reduce relapses it is also a "least restrictive" alternative to in-patient detention. Seven of the twelve Canadian mental health acts allow conditional leave from hospital. Two jurisdictions provide community treatment orders, but require two or three previous in-patient admissions. Criteria for CCT, in most jurisdictions, includes that there is a "likelihood of significant mental or physical deterioration". The requirement for previous hospitalization for CCT in Canada, unlike other countries, precludes CCT for use with first episode patients. Some jurisdictions require consent for CCT. Most jurisdictions explicitly state that the services necessary for the CCT conditions must be available.     

Equal access to justice

Conclusion My concerns are unlikely to strike a note amongst those senior judges delivering “big justice” who will operate in the multi-track. They seldom encounter disabled people in their courts and when they do access, communication and representation problems are likely to have been sorted out at an earlier stage. But for those of us who have to deal with those earlier stages or are to (and already do) deliver “bulk justice” in the fast track and small claims courts, coping with disabled litigants is already a problem. Hitherto we have responded with insufficient care to their needs, but is it too late to hope that we may be encouraged (or better still constrained) to take into account their disclosed needs when managing cases so that civil proceedings may be conducted in a manner that is fair to all. If we do not face up to this now we could find ourselves and our courts in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 which is intended to impose the new culture on society (including our courts). The message from society is clear: a change in the culture of civil justice is required but we must not overlook the “disability factor”. A District Judge at Preston on the Northern Circuit.     

When special needs categories for exceptional students overlap mental health diagnoses: The Canadian experience and its Charter implications

This paper explores Canadian 'educational' categorical systems for special needs students and their relation to mental health diagnoses. Parents wishing to access special education services for their children are generally required to consent to their children being formally assessed. Frequently, the school board committee will require a psychological or psychiatric assessment which may lead to diagnosis of a mental health disorder that overlaps with the special needs category to which the child is assigned. This paper explores whether Canadian parents of exceptional students are in fact providing fully informed and voluntary consent given: (a) frequent parental lack of understanding of the overlap between the so-called 'educational' special needs category and a mental health diagnosis; and (b) the power of the school board to proceed with a special education placement based on a particular category even without parental agreement. The argument is made that making special education service eligibility contingent on meeting the criteria for one or more government approved categories of 'disorder' or 'impairments', some of which overlap mental health diagnoses, infringes Canadian Charter s.15 equality rights as well as s.7 liberty and security of the person rights.     

From struggle in responsible investment to potential to improve global environmental governance through UN PRI

This article introduces an exploratory framework which, on a conceptual level, suggests that the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment can contribute to the accessibility of responsible investment and encourage institutional investors to undertake it. By co-operating with leaders of global environmental governance and by engaging with investee companies in the field of the environment, responsible investment by institutional investors may help to improve the lack of coherence in global environmental governance.