We have grown in size and stature over the years, from our beginnings as a small volunteer group that met in members’ homes. We now have a modest office in

The major areas of our work are:

• assisting individuals to address violations of their civil liberties
• educating citizens about the importance of protecting civil liberties
• encouraging changes to laws and policies that infringe on civil liberties.

In setting policy, our Board of Directors carefully weighs claims to rights and freedoms against
competing rights and against the public interest. As a result, our views on matters of public importance are often sought by governments, private sector institutions and the media.

When we judge that a law or policy violates civil liberties, our first, second and third strategies are to try to persuade the government or institution to change it. Going to court is expensive and time consuming. However, if all else fails, we are prepared to litigate the issue or intervene in a court challenge.

Casework

We do not normally offer legal advice or representati on. We mainly offer paralegal and practical advice,help clients to use existing complaints mechanisms and make submissions to government bodies and officials on their behalf. In rare cases, we may arrange for pro bono counsel to represent a client when there is an important civil liberties principle at stake.

Typical examples of casework are:

• successfully defending a local theatre charged with obscenity for producing the critically acclaimed play The Beard
  
• arranging for counsel for clients facing Police Board hearings into their police complaints
  
• successfully challenging a provincial government decision to remove abortions from coverage under the Medical Services Plan
  
• meeting with school officials and school boards on such topics as teaching creationism in science classes, students’ access to sex education and random searches of student lockers
  
• approaching the Police Commission with concerns about high speed police chases, police use of "breach of the peace" powers and videotaping police interactions with citizens
  
• critiquing the McEwen Report into alleged sexism and racism in UBC’s Political Science Department
• sitting as a member of the PharmaNet Committee which oversees some uses of the sensitive prescription information on B.C. citizens
  
• attending meetings with clients when they are interviewed by police about their complaints.

Public

The key to protecting fundamental rights and freedoms is an informed and vigilant citizenry. From the beginning, we have devoted considerable resources to producing and publishing handbooks, brochures and a quarterly journal, speaking at public gatherings and in the media and (more recently) taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the Internet. Our public education efforts have included:

• producing and distributing continuously since 1963 our quarterly journal The Democratic Commitment
• publishing and distributing three widely read handbooks: Youth and the Law, Discrimination, and Arrest: Civil Rights and Police Powers
  
• conducting two landmark studies, Ethnic Conflict in Vancouver and AIDS Discrimination in Canada, and distributing reports on these
  
• publishing and distributing the books Catastrophic Rights, on AIDS patients’ access to experimental therapies; Liberties, a collection of important BCCLA position papers; and The Privacy Handbook, a practical guide to citizens’ privacy rights
  
• writing, translating into four foreign languages, and distributing The Citizenship Handbook: A guide to citizenship rights and responsibilities; and a companion brochure Civil Liberties in Canada... and How to Protect Them
• publishing and distributing the brochures Drug Testing in the Workplace and Making a Complaint Against the Police
• organizing the conference The Charter: Ten Years After
• speaking at numerous conferences, workshops and seminars on civil liberties topics
  
• making numerous presentations in schools
• traveling around the province to speak at public gatherings and encourage the formation of local civil liberties groups
• appearing numerous times each year in the media

Public policy and law reform

Over the years, the Association's Board of Directors has developed over 200 policy briefs, which serve as the principled cornerstones for our work. We meet with government and private sector officials to persuade them to change laws or policies which infringe on civil liberties and to develop new laws and policies which protect fundamental rights and freedoms. Our efforts have included:

• playing a major role in the development of the Human Rights Act, the Police Act and the
  Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
  
• making a well received submission to the Supreme Court of Canada on allowing public interest intervenors in court cases
  
• advocating for a provincial Ombudsman and Rentalsman
  
• submitting briefs on assisted suicide and the use of DNA for criminal investigation purposes to the Minister of Justice
  
• meeting regularly with the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the Information and
  Privacy Commissioner, the B.C. Police Commission (now the Police Complaints Commissioner) and the Attorney General.
  
• testifying before numerous provincial and federal government committees and commissions, including: Parliamentary committees considering the proposed Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act and the five year review of that Act, sentencing and corrections reform, the "rape shield" law, regulation of new reproductive technologies and changes to the Young Offenders Act, Senate committees on assisted suicide and on decriminalization of marijuana, the Oppal Commission on policing in British Columbia and the MacDonald Commission regarding illegal activities of the RCMP

When our efforts are unsuccessful, we are sometimes able to go to court, either by arranging for
pro bono counsel for clients, by intervening in legal cases or by litigating the issue ourselves.
Examples include:

• challenging the mandatory features of the former Heroin Treatment Act
  
• providing counsel for two women who successfully challenged mandatory school prayers
  under the School Act
  
• successfully challenging the lack of absentee voter provisions under the Election Act
  
• launching a constitutional challenge to Canada Customs’ censorship powers
  
• supplying counsel for a successful challenge to the Public Service Act provision giving preference to Canadian citizens Intervening in:
  

• R. v. Butler at the Supreme Court of Canada on the obscenity law
  
• Trinity Western University v. B.C. College of Teachers in B.C. Supreme Court and at the
  B.C. Court of Appeal
  
• R. v. Cuerrier at the B.C. court of Appeal and then Supreme Court of Canada on consent
  to sexual relations
  
• James Chaimberlain et. al. v. School District #36 (Surrey) on religion in public schools