In Defence of Principles

By tracing how NGOs have advanced and defended human rights in Canada, including through controversial legal cases, this book sheds new light on the evolution of human rights norms in liberal democracies.

Stephen Hsia:
In Defence of Principles is a comprehensive survey of three groundbreaking Charter cases and the NGOs that plunged into the heart of these controversies. Thompson’s book ultimately reminds readers of the fragility of NGOs’ gains in the field of human rights, as the experiences of AI Canada in Kindler and of the CCC in Singh both show. Thompson’s work also describes how NGO intervention is not without its costs. The CCLA and AI Canada, for instance, paid a substantial price in the form of adverse publicity and decreased donations, respectively, for being seen to side with odious individuals (whether a virulent racist or two violent criminals). In spite of these setbacks, the persistence of Singh, Keegstra, and Kindler in current debates on refugees, free expression, and capital punishment remains a legacy of the intervention and bold ideas of Canada’s NGOs.

Alison Brysk, Mellichamp Professor, Global and International Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara:

This book is an important addition to the literature on the evolution of human rights norms, the sociology of law, and Canadian politics. It is a first-rate study that adds a political dimension to the legalistic and historically oriented accounts of these issues.