LEAF - the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund - is a national charitable organization that works toward ensuring the law guarantees substantive equality for all women in Canada.

Mandate

• To ensure the rights of women and girls in Canada, as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are upheld in our courts, human rights commissions and government agencies; and
• To take actions to reveal how factors such as race, class, Aboriginal status, sexual orientation, ability, and religion compound discrimination against women.

Since its inception in 1985, LEAF has intervened in over 150 cases and has helped establish landmark legal victories for women on a wide range of issues from violence against women, sexual assault, workplace inequities, socio-economic rights, and reproductive freedoms.

Vision

LEAF is committed to the realization of substantive equality for all women in Canada. This vision of equality is based on two notions:

• Some groups in society (women, persons of colour, persons with disabilities, Aboriginal peoples, and lesbians to name a few) who have been treated unequally;
• The purpose of sections 15 and 28 of the Charter, the equality provision, is to end their inequality and to help members of these groups overcome the results of their mistreatment.

Role

• Education: Advance public understanding of women's equality rights, particularly in relation to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• Litigation: Serve as a leader in the development of equality using litigation
• Law Reform: Provide a catalyst for and resource to legislators, policy makers, women's groups and others on law reform, as it affects women's equality rights

Approach

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes two equality clauses.

• Section 28 - Notwithstanding anything in the Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.
• Section 15 - Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

Core values

• Inclusiveness and openness
• Trust
• Integrity and ethical behaviour
• Diversity
• Respect
• Accountability

LEAF works to ensure that these provisions are reality for women and girls in Canada.