Panel recommends significant changes to federal law against discrimination

In a report released on 23 June 2000, the Review Panel tasked by the federal Minister of Justice with reviewing the Canadian Human Rights Act made some welcome recommendations for improving the Act and the way the Canadian Human Rights Commission functions. Three are of particular significance: the recommendation that "social condition" be added to the prohibited grounds for discrimination listed in the Act; the recommendation that the Canadian Human Rights Commission should have, under its governing legislation, the duty to monitor and report to Parliament and the UN Human Rights Committee on the federal government's compliance with international human rights treaties regarding economic, social, and cultural rights; and the recommendation that "gender identity" should be expressly added to the Act as a prohibited ground of discrimination.     

TRIPS from Doha to Cancún ... to Ottawa: global developments in access to treatment and Canada's Bill C-56

In November 2003, Canada introduced legislation to amend the Patent Act so that manufacturers could obtain licences to make generic versions of patented pharmaceutical products for export to countries lacking sufficient capacity to produce their own. Bill C-56 aims to implement an August 2003 decision of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that relaxes its rules on pharmaceutical patents to allow this kind of measure. While the bill is a welcome development, it contains several serious flaws that will undermine the initiative and render it largely meaningless. Civil society organizations, including the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, have called on the Canadian government to remedy the flaws before Bill C-56 is enacted. This article provides an overview of recent global developments leading up to Canada's initiative, as well as an analysis of Bill C-56 itself.     

Stress, coping styles, and hopelessness in self-poisoners

This study examined the association between level of hopelessness with stress and coping style for a sample of 80 people who had recently attempted suicide. Higher levels of hopelessness were found to be associated with higher levels of stress. Level of hopelessness was also associated with the use of problem-focused but not with emotion-focused coping. Analyses of the interaction between stress and coping style suggested that these variables influence the level of hopelessness in an independent and linear fashion. The implications for clinical intervention are discussed.     

Canadian court dismisses Pfizer attempt to prevent approval of generic fluconazole

On 10 January 2001, Pfizer lost its bid before the Federal Court of Appeal to prohibit the federal Minister of Health from issuing approvals for two generic versions of the drug fluconazole.     

Court dismisses constitutional challenge to ban on assisted suicide

On 6 February 2001, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a constitutional challenge by Jim Wakeford, a Toronto man with HIV/AIDS and an advocate for access to medical marijuana, to the sections of the Criminal Code that outlaw assisted suicide in Canada.