Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2010: Broadbent on the rise and fall of economic and social rights. What's next?

The Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences is an annual gathering of scholars, students, policymakers and practitioners to exchange ideas and nurture groundbreaking research. This year's Congress is being held at Concordia University in Montreal, with "connected understanding" as its overriding theme. Ed Broadbent is a social democratic politician and political scientist. His lecture, "The Rise and Fall of Economic Social Rights," reviews the connection between human rights (i.e. civil and political rights) and social and economic rights, arguing that the two sets were never meant to be treated separately. Broadbent suggests we have reached a new low since the rise of economic and social rights -- what he deems "a new barbarism" in Canada's approach to human rights and equality. This lecture was recorded by Kim Elliott