Newcomers to Timmins recently got a lesson on human rights.
“We’ll be using this information in my family, down to my hopefully future grandchildren,” said John Lui Santos, whose family moved to Timmins eight months ago.
He and a dozen other newcomers to Timmins got a lesson in their charter rights and the Ontario human rights code recently at the Timmins Museum: NEC.
The session was led by Nat Paul, the Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust’s education director, and hosted by the Timmins Multicultural Centre. The education trust is a branch of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA).
“We have funding to be in all kinds of communities in Ontario and educate people about their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said Paul.
The presentation also highlighted the differences between federal and provincial laws regarding discrimination and rights.
“It’s not very well understood that the charter is law for anyone in Canada. You don’t have to be a Canadian citizen, you don’t have to be landed, you can be here as a tourist,” said Paul. “The protections that are available under provincial human rights laws are more everyday things that you would encounter, issues with a landlord, or an employer.”
The CCLA is taking the message nationwide, with events in Halifax, Toronto, and Edmonton. Friday's event was the first held in Timmins in recent memory.
“Canada is experiencing an immigration boom, and this is a good thing, but it puts a lot of people in the country who haven’t had a chance to learn about these rights and what they are,” said Paul.
Paul's goal was to leave people with tools so they could access answers on a variety of topics themselves if they needed to.
“The justice system is here for everybody, and it’s part of our job to make it more accessible, easier to understand, less intimidating, less opaque, and that’s a big job,” said Paul. “There’s a saying that you can do things just in case, or you can do things just in time, which is probably too late.”
Santos says he hopes there will be more opportunities to learn about his family’s new home.
“It really boosts my knowledge about being a Canadian,” he said. “I hope that this will not be the last session because we really need these things, and we really appreciate what the multicultural centre is doing.”
He said moving to Canada made sense to him.
“Every one of us has potential, something that we can contribute to the community, that we can learn for ourselves, and I think Canada is the best place where we can hustle and show that potential,” said Santos.
