Advancing the Rights of Non-Citizens in Canada: A Human Rights Approach to Migrant Rights

Abstract

Focusing on seasonal agricultural migrant workers in Canada, this article illustrates how local migrant rights activists have utilized different judicial fora to claim rights for non-citizen migrant workers under the international human rights framework. The article underscores the role of litigation by activists who, citing international norms and conventions, claim that protections provided by domestic constitutional provisions and labor laws should be extended to non-citizen migrants. The importance of judges' willingness to recognize the international law framework is also underscored. This article contributes to human rights studies by emphasizing the transformative role of judicial agency in the fight for the extension of human rights protections. Relative to citizens, non-citizens are a group lacking in political power and as such vulnerable to having their interests overlooked and their rights to equal concern and respect violated.