Ideas - Massey Lecture Part 5 | A human rights agenda for Canada

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

In more than 40 years on the front lines of international human rights Alex Neve has heard Canada described as ‘the land of human rights’ — and seen the profound ways Canada has failed to uphold universal human rights, both at home and abroad. In his final Massey Lecture, he lays out his vision for a way forward.

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Book at specksavers.cavers.caps are provided by independent optometrists. Prices may vary by location. Visit specksavers.cavers.cai to learn more. This is a CBC podcast. Okay, two minutes. It's 734, actually. How are you feeling? This is amazing. Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nala Ayyad. We're standing backstage at the National Arts Center in Ottawa, right before Alex Neve walks on stage to deliver his fifth and final 2025 CBC Massey lecture. A lot of things have been pointed towards this moment and I find it hard to believe that after this incredible tour across the country we've reached this culminating point and I guess very fittingly it brings me home. A perfect place then for Alex's final lecture

which is all about the human rights agenda here at home. And I wrap up tonight in Ottawa, very fittingly, with an offering of a way forward for Canada. What we can do, our governments, our communities, and each of us individually, to renew the universal human rights promise. This lecture doubles as an unofficial discussion paper for policymakers. Alex Neve's proposals for the future, after decades on the front lines of human rights work around the world. world. That was another reason, ending the tour in the nation's capital, made sense. Good luck, Alex. Don't break a leg. I have no intention on that. Please help me welcome the 2025 CBC Massey lecturer, Alex Neve.

Here is the final installment of Universal, Renewing Human Rights. in a fractured world. I'll tell you, one could readily get used to a lifetime of being introduced by Nala Ayad. Thank you so much, Nala. And good evening, dear, very dear Ottawa friends. I'm still not sure I assure you how I managed to take center stage at the NAC after being out there in the audience to see so many wonderful performances here over the years. I'll stick with it, though, until someone shows me to my seat.

So lecture five, our way forward, renewing Canada's commitment to universal human rights. Universal. True for all cases. not true though for sama tubel eight years old the agony and terror of her life in gaza was already unbearable and then she began to lose her hair once long and lustrous because of the unimaginable fear and shock she lives through every day in words that would pierce anyone's heart she told her mother mama i'm tired i want to die why won't my hair grow. I want to die and have my hair grow in paradise, God willing. Samma's family first fled their

home in Jabilia in the north of Gaza. Following Israeli military orders, they moved to Rafa in the south, assured it would be safe, but there a neighbor's house was hit by an Israeli air strike in August 2024. That is when she began to lose her hair, and it has not stopped since. Every time my hair starts to grow, I look at it with hope, but then it falls out again. Samas family fled again to a displacement camp in Han Yunus in central Gaza. Earlier this year, some Gazans started to return to the north, but Samas family could not. Their home had been destroyed under Israeli bombardment. We cannot abide a world in which an eight-year-old girl is tired and wants to die because of the bombs.

raining down around her. The universal human rights promise does, occasionally and fleetingly, glimmer in Gaza. In March, a ribbon of red ran across Gaza's destruction. A red-covered table, stretching for several hundred meters, carved a path of humanity through mounds of rubble under which so many bodies remain buried. There, in Rafa, families gathered to break their fast

on the first night of Ramadan. We decided to bring joy back to this street, just as it was before the war, said one of the communal Iftar organizers, Malakfada. Fleeting, red ribbons of hope and defiance, but for the people of Gaza after 24 months of genocide, there is no sliver of truth to the universal human rights promise, that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,

And that broken promise is an indictment of us all. Writing 800 years ago, the Persian poet, Rumi, beautifully encapsulated the essence of that yet-to-be-crafted universal human rights promise. Be a lamp or a lifeboat or a ladder. The promise is a lamp to the way ahead. It is a lifeboat to take us to safe harbor. It is a ladder to lift us up. Rumi does not suggest we look to others to provide the lamp, lifeboat, and ladder, but that we be those things ourselves.

The human rights promise is not only something we are owed, but something we must rise to as our shared responsibility. When faced with the ravages of the Second World War and the abomination of the Holocaust, the world's response was not to look away, but to proclaim the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which became the lamp, lifeboat, and ladder all in one. And there have been many remarkable moments since when the light has shone,

we have been safely afloat, and we have lifted each other up. But so often, and for so many, the light was not only extinguished but never lit, the lifeboat was not only lost at sea, it was never launched, and the ladder was not merely missing a rung or two, it remained at the back of the garage. That betrayal has been reflected in humanity's darkest moments of genocide and repression and the economic, political and social structures,

historic and contemporary, that have embedded the deep injustices of sexism and misogyny, racism, bigotry, and intolerance, entrenched poverty, colonialism, and environmental collapse in the lives of billions of people, We have consistently failed to deliver the most fundamental dimension of the human rights promise that it is universal. That failure means we live in a world in which carbon emissions rise and fossil fuel companies benefit from billions of dollars of government subsidies, all while catastrophic weather destroys communities everywhere.

That failure means we live in a world which looks on from afar as the Taliban strip women and girls in Afghanistan of their rights and seek to erase them from public life. That failure means we live in a world where Rohingya refugees forced to live in closed camps in Bangladesh with no prospect of returning home to safety in Myanmar are expected to survive on $6 per month. That failure means we live in a world in which we stood by. and watched a genocide unfold in Gaza, even as the UN Secretary-General described Gaza as a killing field where civilians are in an endless death loop. That failure means we live in a world in which two white men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, amassed wealth of over $500 billion between them, while 700 million people survive on less than $2.15 per day. That failure means we live in a world in which the foreboding doomsday clock is now the closest ever to the end of humanity.

Yet, nuclear weapons arsenals are being upgraded. That failure means we live in a world in which the most vulnerable members of society are cavalierly thrown under the bus of hate, while hate mongers dominate political discourse and run amok in our virtual world. And that failure means we live in a country where faced with our responsibility to reckon with the irrefutable genocidal history of residential schools, disinformation and anti-indigenous racism fuel a movement of denialism. But in the face of that failure, hundreds of people from over 40 countries joined the Sumud Flotilla in the Mediterranean intent on piercing, Israel's genocidal blockade of Gaza. In the face of that failure, Gen Z protesters around the world decry inequality, corruption, and authoritarianism, and over 7 million people across the United States

joined no king's protests earlier this month, standing up for democracy. In the face of that failure, Innu elder Elizabeth Panashoei does not waver or falter from decades of defending her people's land. in Labrador. And in the face of that failure, unheralded and unknown students, refugees, grandmothers, farmers, factory workers, artists, doctors, community leaders, and grassroots activists everywhere. Mount Acts of resistance, small and large,

because they believe in universal human rights. We Canadians are inclined to feel self-satisfied about human rights. In a survey, a decade ago, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ranked as the symbol that best expressed Canadian identity ahead of the flag, the RCMP, our national anthem, and even hockey. A 2022 poll ranked the charter and our health care system equally. It is our global image as well in 2001 in a temporary transit camp for Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea, West Africa. Our Amnesty International delegation sat with a group of elders, while a wider circle of people listened in. I was the only Canadian on the team, and after I finished speaking, one man stood up, shook my hands,

turned to the assembled group, and assured everyone that all would be well because Canada was the land of human rights. There are indeed many reasons to take pride in Canada's contributions to universal human rights. That includes such consequential breakthroughs as UN peacekeeping, the landmines ban, the international criminal court, and strengthened protections for child soldiers. Canada's resettlement of Indo-Chinese refugees earned us the Nansen Award, the equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize for Refugee Protection. Canada has generally been a leading advocate globally for women's equality and for the rights of two S-LGBQI-plus individuals.

We defied our U.S. and U.K. allies to oppose apartheid in South Africa, and we said no to George Bush's unlawful invasion of Iraq. All true. But new chapters are being written as we tangle with Donald Trump. We try to distance ourselves from his chaos and cruelty, yet the universal human rights style is shifting, and governments, including our own, gravitate to where he has set the debate. debate. That has meant massive increases in military spending and border enforcement to the detriment of already sparse global humanitarian budgets, which are more urgently needed than ever. We have remained silent as Donald Trump eviscerates the rights of refugees and migrants. Instead, we maintain the indefensible line that there is no need to suspend the safe third country agreement between our two countries, because the United States remains safe for refugees. Such reticence underscores a pernicious impact of the Trump agenda. Reluctant to push back

and worried about reprisals, the international community, including Canada, risks normalizing what he has unleashed. Many world leaders eagerly join him in shredding the universal human rights promise. Canada's response cannot be indifference, but bold determination to take a different path. There has never been a more important time to be that fabled land of human rights. But it means getting our own house in order. Our house will not be in order until we meaningfully address the history and contemporary reality of genocide, disposition, and racism against indigenous peoples. Canada's most disgraceful and unresolved story. A country that was founded with cruel determination to take the Indian out of the child has far to go in meeting the universal promise of human rights.

Canada's humiliating initial opposition to the game-changing UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, has given way to support and the declaration has been incorporated into Canadian law. But the rights of indigenous peoples are still violated daily through racism in policing and corrections, resistance to addressing the legacy of residential schools, ongoing violence against indigenous women and girls, discrimination in accessing safe water, housing, education, health care, and child protection, and sacrifices. indigenous land and treaty rights in the face of dams, pipelines, mines, and development projects. Consider the debate about searching Winnipeg's prairie green landfill for the remains of three indigenous

women murdered by a serial killer. In Manitoba's 2023 election, the governing conservatives made their refusal to authorize that search a proud campaign plank. The reason was obvious. It was because they were indigenous women. Hate lost that election. With federal support, Wab Cano's new government began the search earlier this year, the remains of two of the women, Morgan Harris and Mercedes Myron, were identified. And police have confirmed that the third woman, named Buffalo woman by her community

so that she would not remain nameless, is Ashley Shingus. the search for her remains is about to begin three families who should never have had to endure being told that Morgan, Mercedes, and Ashley did not matter enough to be found the truth is undeniably no effort to find those women would have been spared if they were white

universalizing the human rights promise in Canada therefore must start with honoring the rights of indigenous peoples. Our house will not be in order if we are selective in our diplomacy, championing the rights of some people while wholly disregarding the rights of others. Canada's long-standing policy with respect to Israel and Palestine

trumpets our steadfast friendship with Israel, but fails to say the same about Palestinians. In fact, we have a long history of sidelining and penalizing groups and individuals who promote the rights of Palestinians. It reflects what is often termed the Palestine exception. There is equality, there is freedom of expression, and there are human rights, except when it involves Palestine. Canada frequently reminds the Israeli government that it must comply with international law,

but fails to take action when those obligations, including with respect to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are brazenly breached with devastating consequences for Palestinians. When it comes to supporting the role of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court in addressing the situation in Gaza,

Canada's ambivalent stance at best and silence at worst stands in stark contrast to our firm position on cases before those two courts dealing with genocide against the Rohingya, Russia's invasion of Ukraine or torture in Syria. The universal human rights promise has no space for double standards. Our house will not be in order as long as business interests continue to take precedence

over human rights and the environment. Canada remains a laggard when it comes to reducing our high level of carbon emissions. The impact of the mounting climate crisis, particularly the devastating fires that are destroying huge swaths of the country has become dire. Yet, we are a dismal 62 among 67 countries on the 2025 climate change performance index. Federal and provincial governments provide billions of dollars of support to fossil fuel companies. And debate about the climate crisis in this year's federal election? Barely a whisper.

It is an uphill battle as well to press governments of any stripe to take human rights seriously in trade policy. For years, we were told by liberal and conservative ministers alike that the best strategy for improving human rights in China was to establish a business-friendly climate. The rule of law, after all, crucial for upholding contracts, would then trickle down to human rights. Business has indeed expanded, but human rights violations across. China have only worsened. Our newest free trade agreement with Ecuador is dismissive of human rights concerns. Ortencia Jawe, an indigenous activist from Ecuador, notes, it's hard enough already to defend ourselves against the Canadian mining companies' attempts

to advance projects without our consent. It will be even harder if the power of mining companies is strengthened by this free trade agreement. There is no world in which leaving universal human rights out of climate, business, and trade policy leads to a better future. Our house will not be in order until we learn the lessons from our grievous failures to respect human rights in national security activities. Not only have there been grave consequences for numerous Canadian citizens, including Mejur Arar, Abdullah al-Malki, and Omar Qadr, There has been a considerable cost for the Canadian taxpayer, but these hard-learned lessons are ignored. Canadian citizens Hassan Diab and Abusfi and Abdul-Razik have been abandoned to national security and justice for close to 20 years, forced to fight in the courts of law and public opinion for redress.

Nine Canadian men and seven Canadian children have been unlawfully imprisoned without charge in northeast Syria for over seven years, locked up in horrific conditions and facing violence and abuse. The Canadian government has left them to languish, deprived of a basic precept of justice, the right to defend themselves. Our house will not be in order unless we take our international obligations seriously. At a time when so many countries discredit and attack the international, human rights regime, it is vital that countries like Canada show scrupulous respect for that international system. But we too have a less than proud record when it comes to complying with

our international obligations. UN recommendations are ignored or lost in the vagaries of federal provincial finger-pointing. That is particularly so when it comes to economic and social rights dealing with such vital concerns as poverty, housing, and healthcare, rights that governments in Canada still often treat as being of secondary importance. A case in point is the federal government's refusal to respect a UN committee's finding that denying access to essential health care on the basis of immigration status is discriminatory and violates the right to life. A forum of ministers on human rights, which brings federal, provincial, and territorial governments together to discuss international human rights responsibilities has yet to find its footing.

Government decisions about signing on to human rights treaties are shrouded by secrecy. And let us not forget the growing inclination of politicians in Canada to evade human rights responsibilities through resort to the Charter's Notwithstanding Clause, singling out groups whose human rights standing is already fragile, including Muslim women, transgender youth, and people living in homeless encampments. And we add teachers in Alberta to that list, all of which sends a message that it is acceptable to selectively choose when and if to respect human rights. We might as well hang a sign in our window, be as universal, or not.

not as you wish. There is another path. As Professor Pam Palmeter, citizen of the MiGMA Nation and member of Eel River Bar First Nation, told my international human rights class at the University of Ottawa earlier this year, imagine all the good we can do and the better country and world we would live in for indigenous peoples and all of humanity if we actually gave human rights their turn, just as we have always said we would. Indeed, it is time to fully and completely give human rights their turn. In fact, we must thoroughly reimagine the place of universal human rights in our world. This is a moment to overhaul our systems and structures, elevate human rights, and challenge ourselves to live our lives differently. A time for renewal.

building on what we have created while reconceiving something different with a heightened sense of purpose. The universal human rights renewal that I imagine has six key elements. Put human rights first. Embrace universality and commit to equality. Protect human rights defenders and the right to protest. Ensure justice. be expansive and believe in and champion human rights. It is a collective pledge, yes, it is what we demand of governments,

but also it is what we must expect of ourselves. Number one, put human rights first. There is always an excuse for putting human rights on hold. One day, not now. there are other priorities. Human rights will be a distraction or too expensive. Honestly, we just don't care. That anguish is captured in Omar Al-Aqad's powerful book. One day, everyone will have always been against this. He writes, when finally there is no other means of preserving self-interest but to act, the powerful will act, the same people who did the killing and finance the killing,

and justified the killing and turned away from the killing will congratulate themselves on doing the right thing. It is very important to do the right thing eventually. What a collective global creed a cure for Palestinians, for the rights of all peoples. Universal human rights were never intended to be for later, not left for that eventual one day. they were to be the starting point.

That is why the Universal Declaration talks of human rights being the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, the solid foundation, not the leaky roof. Delaying human rights robs them of their purpose. Human rights do not rise to the top after a people have been decimated by genocide, are not something to think about after we have been ravaged by the climate crisis, and do not come to the fore after economic policy and trade deals have gutted a community of their livelihood. We need to begin with human rights. Consider the Security Council, the one body within the United Nations that has the power to issue legally binding decisions

when dealing with threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts. of aggression, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and widespread war crimes. However, there is the not-so-small matter of the Security Council veto, which gives the five permanent members unchecked power to defeat any resolution, three of whom the United States, Russia and China, veto shamelessly, including recent resolutions dealing with appalling human rights in humanitarian crises in Palestine, Syria, Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela, and Mali. There have been earnest attempts to constrain the veto. France and Mexico have launched a widely supported call that the five permanent members

voluntarily and collectively pledged not to use their veto in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes on a large scale. A UN General Assembly resolution requires a debate in the General Assembly, examining any use of the veto at the Security Council. Yet, the same three states continue to use it, wholly unconcerned by their failure to put human rights first. Consider also the world of business. There is growing recognition of the importance of companies conducting upfront human rights impact assessments of their business operations and of governments doing similarly with respect to trade deals. Civil society groups have proposed model legislation requiring Canadian businesses

to carry out mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence assessments of their operations. Just imagine if that became the norm. Human rights would be thought of not as an inconvenience to be addressed when business goes awry, but as the foundational premise. to getting things right from the start. To say human rights come first is an easy talking point. It will remain empty rhetoric without new ways of thinking and tangible measures to ensure that human rights are indeed our first consideration when adopting laws, setting policy, and making decisions.

At a time when governments around the world are sabotaging the universal human rights promise, Canada needs to say. set a countervailing example. Where is our international human rights action plan, grounded in feminist principles and championed by a high-level ambassador? That would bring focus, consistency, expertise, resources, and diplomatic heft to Canada's efforts to uphold universal human rights around the world. We should work with other states to rein in the use of Security Council vetoes, and we must go beyond our welcome recognition of the state of Palestine and demonstrate that human rights will now come first, no matter what, in our stance on that crisis, meaning no stone

left unturned in preventing further genocide. It's not enough to put human rights first in our diplomacy. The universal human rights promise extends to the home front. It is time for a nationwide framework for international human rights implementation championed by ministers who actually have explicit human rights mandates, who work closely with municipal governments, indigenous peoples, and civil society to ramp up compliance with Canada's

international human rights obligations. Putting human rights first at home surely requires ratifying all outstanding human rights treaties, such as those dealing with torture prevention, migrant workers, disappearances, and economic, social, and cultural rights, and also the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which is, yes, entirely about our universal human rights.

And let's concretely put human rights first by complying with the United Nations call to repatriate all Canadians who remain unlawfully imprisoned in northeast Syria. After all, how can we expect the universal promise of human rights to be kept if human rights are always left for another day? On ideas, you're listening to the fifth and final of the 2025 CBC Massey Lectures. I'm Nala Ayed. This program is brought to you in part by Specksavers. Every day, your eyes go through a lot, squinting at screens, driving into the bright sun,

reading in dim light, even late-night drives. That's why regular eye exams are so important. At Specsavers, every standard eye exam includes an advanced OCT 3D eye scan, technology that helps independent optometrists detect eye and health conditions at their earliest stages. Take care of your eyes. Book your eye exam at Specsavers today from just $99, including an OCT scan. Book at Spexsavers.cavers.cai.a. Eye exams are provided by independent optometrists.

Prices may vary by location. Visit Spexsvers.cavers.C.A to learn more. for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always overdelivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights.

And you can help us keep climbing. Donate at lovescarbro.cairro.com. In more than 40 years on the front lines of international human rights, Alex Neve has heard Canada described as the fabled land of human rights. And yet, he has repeatedly witnessed the profound ways in which Canada has failed to uphold universal human rights, both at home and abroad. In this, his final Massey lecture, Alex lays out his vision for a way forward.

From the National Arts Center in Ottawa, here is Alex Neff. Number two, embrace universality and commit to equality. You know, some of the most perceptive questions I've been asked about human rights over the years have come during school talks, anywhere from kindergarten to grade 12. This one at a high school in Edmonton cut to the chase. since so many people's rights are violated so easily, doesn't that mean that none of us actually have human rights? She was right.

When human rights are upheld for some people, but not everyone, in some places, not everywhere, and sometimes, not always, and when some rights matter and others do not, universality is nowhere to be found. Clearly, we live in a world in which universal, universal human rights are far more secure for white, cisgender, heterosexual, middle class, and not males living in the global north, hello, than for anyone else. And what about when we tell the world that the universal promise, you know, it isn't so much about

Canada. It's for the countries with more serious problems. If we take ourselves out of the universal human rights promise, why should we be surprised when other governments do the And what of when the promise is not extended to all rights equally? Many governments, certainly federal and provincial governments in Canada, still consider economic and social rights like housing and education to be money matters, not true rights. The phrase universal human rights is not a bromide for ministerial press releases. It must be how we govern and how we approach life.

Nothing has eroded the promise of human rights in our world more. in our world more than the failure to extend it universally and equally to everyone, and universally and equally with respect to all rights. Human rights will soar when their universality is embraced. That means making efforts to counter gender inequality, racism, and discrimination, hallmarks of Canadian foreign policy at a time when equality rights are being actively challenged and shredded by so many governments, including our closest allies, Canada needs to offer substantial, diplomatic, political, and financial support for diversity, equity, and inclusion around the world.

Advancing equality on the world stage must also be backed up by addressing inequality at home. Top of that list must be full respect for the rights of indigenous peoples, including genuinely acknowledging Canada's unresolved history of genocide. All jurisdictions in this country should incorporate the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples into their laws, and we must all embrace our shared responsibility to live up to that declaration. And so much more. Support for gender and racial equality must be a priority.

we should appoint a black equity commissioner. We must suspend the Canada-US safe third-country agreement so that refugees who are obviously not safe in the United States are able to access refugee protection in Canada. Comply with the UN's call to ensure essential health care is accessible to all in Canada, not restricted by immigration status, and add social condition as a prohibited ground of discrimination

in all human rights laws, in our country because the rights of people living in poverty matter and must be respected equally. Human rights will not provide the protection they promise nor the solutions they offer until they are upheld universally and equally. We cannot accept anything less. Number three, protect defenders and protesters. Juletta is a resolute Colombian human rights defender with the movement for living rivers. During a 2019 cross-Canada tour, she spoke about the role of export development Canada in helping to finance the construction of a destructive megadam in Colombia, Idro Itwango.

She starkly conveyed how dangerous it was to speak out. Six of her colleagues had been killed, and Isabel regularly received death threats. Yet she was determined to continue. At the end of the tour, she told me, I won't stop defending human rights because what else matters if we do not have our rights? I will continue until our rights are protected or until they silence me. In Colombia's historic 2022 elections, which brought a progressive government to power, Isabel Zuleta was elected to the Colombian Senate. She has, fortunately, been far from silenced. But to our collective shame, human rights defenders often pay with their lives simply for trying to make the universal human rights promise real. That persecution has become transnational,

with numerous governments including China, India, Russia, and Iran, killing, surveilling, and intimidating activists and journalists in other countries, including here in Canada. And more widely, when demonstrators take to the streets to defend human rights, repressive governments everywhere respond with brutal force and seek to break protest movements. We must recognize the essential role of human rights defenders and peaceful protest in society as sentinels of human rights and the lifeblood of democracy. Defenders and protesters around the world must be able to count,

on the Canadian government to have their back. We do so by providing greater financial and diplomatic support to frontline human rights defenders, speaking out when they are threatened or attacked, and by pushing back against repression of peaceful protest around the world. Defenders and protesters in Canada must also be respected. We need a national action plan to protect human rights defenders,

including indigenous land defenders, and to ensure they are not criminal. normalized. More should be done as well to protect rights defenders here who are targeted by foreign governments. And we need nationwide guidelines for upholding the right to protest across the country, be it in front of parliament, be it on university campuses, or be it in the streets. The bottom line, no one ever should be killed, threatened, or silenced for defending human rights or speaking out when they are violated. That must be universal.

Number four, ensure justice. I recall the words of a Lubicon Cree elder. In many ways, it is more painful to have rights that are promised but never delivered than to have no rights promised at all. At least governments are being honest when they don't make a promise they don't intend to keep. It was a frank assessment he shared with me

while I was visiting Lubicon territory in northern Alberta in 2008. In 1990, the UN Human Rights Committee had ruled that the Canadian government had violated the international covenant on civil and political rights by failing to recognize the Lubicon's land rights. The government had promised they would reach a negotiated landform. settlement, but 18 years on, that had not happened. In fact, it took another 10 years to finally reach that settlement. There are many UN processes meant to ensure states live up to the

universal human rights promise that generates publicity, public shaming, and peer pressure. Nonetheless, states, including Canada, insist that those UN recommendations are not legally binding. Well, enforcement of the universal promise is nigh impossible if there is no effective remedy to turn to when rights are violated. Canada allows individuals to make UN complaints of civil and political rights, but not of economic, social, and culture rights. How is it that I can pursue justice if my rights to free expression or a fair trial have been violated, but not if I have been denied access to adequate housing or safe water. The challenges in pursuing an effective remedy for human rights abuses by companies are so considerable

that one of the three pillars to the UN's guiding principles on business in human rights is devoted to precisely that, access to remedy. It remains elusive in Canada, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, set up in 2019, was not granted, promised powers to conduct effective investigations. Frontline communities affected by the operations of Canadian mining companies find accessing Canadian courts to, say the least, a daunting prospect. And we have yet to adopt mandatory due diligence legislation that would guarantee a remedy when companies fail to address human rights

and environmental harms in their overseas operations. There has been some progress, though uneven and tentative, in the drive to ensure that individuals who are responsible for mass atrocities face justice witness the growing caseload of the international criminal court. Canada, however, has not kept pace with other countries in ensuring that our national courts play their role in that struggle. Only three such cases have been launched in our own courts in 25 years. compliance, remedies, and accountability are fundamental components of justice. And without justice, the universal human rights promise falters and ultimately fails. So on the world stage, we need to increase our support for the International Criminal Court,

the establishment of which Canada championed, and we absolutely must push back when the court's personnel, including a Canadian judge, are subject to political attacks and sanctions. To remain silent is to abandon justice. There is so much more we must do to ensure human rights justice flourishes here at home, such as ratifying the optional protocols to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and the Convention on the rights of the child, so that individual complaints of those rights violations can actually be made before UN bodies. Curtailing resort to the notwithstanding clause in the charter, increasingly used to deny

human rights remedies for marginalized and vulnerable communities, passing mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, and granting those full investigative powers to the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise. and increasing financial and political support for universal jurisdiction prosecutions in Canadian courts for individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Any promise rises or falls on whether it is kept. Wishful thinking is not enough. When the universal human rights promise is broken, justice must step in.

Number five, be expansive. Renewing human rights compels us to ensure the promise extends and responds to needs that were either left out or not yet imagined when the Universal Declaration was written in 1948. For human rights, while universal, are not static. They are multifaceted and dynamic, and they must evolve as we evolve. By any measure, the overriding threat to human rights in our world is the spiraling climate crisis, something that was not envisioned in the slightest in 1948. As Kumi Nidu, who has headed up both Greenpeace International and Amnesty International,

succinctly puts it, there are no human rights on a dead planet. Yet action to address the climate crisis is woefully inadequate, in the hands of Donald Trump and other leaders, even that inadequate progress is being undone. That Canada continues to subsidize fossil fuel production in the billions of dollars simply defies belief. To ensure the planet does not die,

people around the world are recognizing nature's own rights. The Magpie River in northern Quebec has been granted legal personhood, meaning it is not simply an object to exploit, but a person to be protected. The rights of Mother Earth in Ecuador and Bolivia and of the Uruguera Forest in New Zealand have been enshrined in law. The rights of the natural world are recognized in parts of Pennsylvania and in Panama. Bangladesh's Supreme Court has ruled that all rivers in the country have the right to life. In 2010, a People's Conference with Delegates from Around the World adopted a universal declaration of the rights of Mother Earth.

UBC Professor David Boyd, who has served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to a Healthy Environment, has powerfully argued that recognizing the rights of nature would benefit both the environment and human rights. Be expansive. That certainly must also extend to the distribution of wealth in our world. Oxfam rightly describes the flourishing of an ultra-wealthy class as a failure for humanity. Oxfam writes, for too long, governments, international financial institutions, and elites have misled the world with a fictional story about trickle-down economics, in which low-tax and high gains for a few would ultimately benefit us all. It is a story without any basis in truth.

Of course, what we need is an economy that makes deliberate linkages to human rights in such areas as taxation, debt, public services, and climate finance. And then what of technology? As we gather in this theater, our social media feeds are no doubt humming with the latest rant from Donald Trump and the avalanche of hatefulness. it has unleashed. Just one reminder of the grievous human rights harms that come with the dizzying digital advances of the past decade. Advances that also bring enormous human rights advantages. Digital technology is irreversibly embedded in our lives, but the challenge, a considerable one, is to find the sweet spot that embraces the good and banishes the bad. And we know that leaving that in the hands of social media and technology billionaires has predictably been

a colossal failure. It is tempting to retreat to safeguarding existing rights frameworks that are under attack and buckling, but we must also be expansive and ensure human rights are relevant to the grave challenges of today, including by evolving our understanding of human rights. On the stage Canada could spark an effort to enumerate and uphold the rights of nature. We could be a strong voice for rights-based economic justice, including the ongoing negotiations underway for a global tax treaty. And we could take a lead role in developing international standards with respect to digital technology and human rights. Not only could we, we should. We will not rise to emerging human rights challenges with status quo solutions. We need innovation here at home. Let's start by

enshrining in law that human rights are the foundation of our climate policies and actions. That would certainly necessitate scrapping fossil fuel subsidies. Let's also enshrine the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in federal, provincial, and territorial laws everywhere in the country. Let's pass legislation requiring Canada to contribute a minimum of 0.7% of our gross national income towards international development assistance. And let's adopt a new national legal framework to govern the interplay between technology and human rights.

In order for universal human rights to thrive, the planet and nature must live. Economic justice must be assured for all, and technology must serve and not in peril. human rights. Lastly, number six. Believe in and champion human rights. Elie Wiesel's powerful words accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 should be our personal

and global mantra. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented, sometimes we must interfere. And I would add the side we must interfere for is universal human rights. To take a side and to interfere, we need much deeper societal awareness of an education about human rights. What we truly need to learn is not only the knowledge that the universal declaration and the charter of rights exist and what they contain, but more profoundly

an awareness of what they offer in this time of challenge and crisis as a way forward. We need to better understand how to bring human rights into our lives. Equally, we need to rediscover our ability to converse with one another and more critically, take those conversations to a new plane. If we do not push ourselves to listen and engage with each other honestly and courageously, how can we shore up our collective belief? in human rights. In last year's Massey lectures,

Ian Williams explored the crucial imperative of remaking conversation in our time. He pointed to the deterioration in our civic and civil discourse, the new challenge of our conversations increasingly taking place in online spaces, the fact that we now live in closer proximity to people who are different from us, and the deep concern that we face aggressive attempt,

to silence certain voices. How critical, therefore, that we refrain from responding to insults with insults, hatred with hatred, and lies with lies, that we steer away from polarizing, dividing, and blaming. Talk less and listen more. Seek out where we can build understanding.

Easy to say? Not so easy to model. Not when impatience, outrage, and anger take over our emotions as we plunge into heated political discussions on social media. Yet if we are true to universal human rights, anyone whose path we cross should be assured that we respect their rights. It boils down to this. The high road is the right road and silence is not an option. Hate does not overcome hate and denying someone's rights in response to their denial of my rights takes us nowhere. Look for where common ground offers space to open dialogue and build understanding.

Breathe, then respond. And after we breathe, we must indeed respond. Silence is not an option. Silence is destructive. Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us that in the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. forge the world in which there is no silence because we stand together in solidarity with those whose rights are on the line. In doing so, we make it clear that we are not indifferent to genocide, to a burning planet, to sexism, racism, and discrimination, to erasing trans lives, to shutting borders, to refugees, to homelessness. And we are certainly not indifferent to our responsibility to advance rights regarding reconciliation with indigenous peoples. We are not indifferent to efforts that tear down our common humanity,

and we are not indifferent to breaking the promise of universal human rights. Wouldn't it be magnificent if we regularly convened People's Human Rights Assemblies, bringing together indigenous peoples, civil society, human rights commissions, governments, and the public to share perspectives, build awareness, foster greater commitment, and learn how to talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes to universal human rights. We must never forget human rights are for the people and by the people. There are so many reminders of the vitality of people power in affecting human rights change. Consider the arms trade. For decades, it has been close. clear that one of the most disgraceful causes of devastating human rights violations is the ease

with which arms and weapons are sold and transferred globally. But the geopolitical interest involved in the massive clout of the military industrial complex were such that convincing governments to stop providing arms to human rights violators had long proved impossible. Civil society groups, however, were unrelenting. The human toll of irresponsible arm transfers could not be ignored. I think of interviews I have carried out in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan with survivors, family members, and witnesses of indiscriminate aerial bombardment by the Sudanese Air Force. One woman described what it was like to pick up the disembodied pieces of a beloved 90-year-old neighbor who had not been able to reach the closest home-dug shelter

before the bomb dropped. She spoke of how she gently gathered the woman's body parts on a woven mat, and she began to weep as she told me that she has always worried that she did not recover her entire body. During one of those research trips, there had been a wave of recent attacks, and we were able to retrieve the twisted fragments of the weapons that were being used against civilians.

I returned home with a suitcase full, of those deadly souvenirs, which we turned over to experts to see if their provenance could be traced. Testing of those deadly remnants pointed to cluster bombs, artillery rockets, barrel bombs, high-caliber bullets, and other weapons originating in at least eight different countries. None of the arms had been made locally. They had all been transferred from elsewhere. It was obscene to imagine how easy it had been to do so. Neaysayers doubted that governments would ever agree to rein in the global arms trade, but the worldwide network of international, national, and grassroots civil society groups

demanding global rules knew otherwise. Survivors and family members told their wrenching stories again and again. The campaigns were defiant and on occasion, bitingly satirical, such as bright yellow banana-shaped postcards that made. made the point that there were more rules governing the world's banana trade than the arms trade. And it worked. In 2013, the United Nations adopted the arms trade treaty. Today, 117 countries, slowly but eventually, including Canada, are parties to that treaty. Now, there is undeniably still very far to go in ensuring states comply with the treaty.

well evidenced by Canada's willingness to sell armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia amidst widespread war crimes in Yemen, and obfuscation and loopholes with respect to Canadian sales of arms and weapons components to Israel via the United States. The United States, Russia and China, three of the four major arms exporting countries accounting for more than half of all global arms transfers are not party to the treaty, and they are unlikely to come on board anytime soon. All true, but still, how far we have come. As Cesar Haramillo, the former executive director of Project Plowshares, told me, it is a huge step forward to have a binding legal framework that brings human rights rules to arms transfers.

Pundits doubted it would be possible to get states to agree to limit their trade in weapons. they underestimated people power. The point is this. When we believe, when we are empowered and bound to one another in solidarity, when we spread the word and protest, when we overcome doubt by making human rights real, when we defend human rights, when we set out to make change happen,

even against enormous odds, we can and do prevail. Earlier this month in Labrador, Cheyenne Michel, a young Innu woman from Shahaghi First Nation, spoke to me about what human rights mean to her. Her words go to the very heart of the universal promise, for as she said, it is all about the right to belong. She is so right, and that means that we all must join in to show that everyone, every single one of us does belong, and that we will. will not allow anyone to be left to the side. Our collective determination has advanced the universal promise of human rights in the past. It can and must do so again. The Charter of the United Nations does, after all, begin with these three words. We, the peoples. Thank you.

That was human rights lawyer Alex Neve, including his final Massey lecture, the same way he ended his first, with a resounding standing ovation. And I'm taking that as we're all on. our feet for each other, because that's what it's all about. Our way forward, renewing Canada's commitment to universal human rights was the fifth and final of the 2025 CBC Massey Lectures. I want to officially thank you for your inspiring lectures, for really important and timely and significant lectures, and for being a lamp, a lifeboat, and a ladder, and an incredible optimist. You can get the entire 2025 CBC Massey Lectures series at cBC.ca.ca slash

massies. You can also stream episodes through the CBC News app or download the lectures from your favorite podcast app. Visit your local bookseller for the book version of the lectures titled Universal Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World. Our partners in the Massey Lecture series are Massey College at the University of Toronto and House. of An Ansi Press. Technical production, Pascal Jobin and Sam McNulty. Our web producer is Lisa Ayuso,

and our senior producer is Nikola Luxchich. The Massey Lectures are produced by Pauline Holdsworth. There's a superstar. There's a superstar. And with support tonight from Karen Chikiluck,

and our executive producer of ideas and the Massey Lectures is Greg Kelly. And I'm Nala Ayyad. Thank you so much for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cBC.ca.ca slash podcasts.