Jennifer Tunnicliffe

Dr. Jennifer Tunnicliffe is a human rights historian whose research examines how domestic and transnational activism has shaped cultural attitudes and legislative approaches to rights and freedoms in Canada. These interests also inform her teaching, which includes courses on Canadian and global human rights history, histories of protest and resistance, and social movements.

She is the author of Resisting Rights: Canada and the International Bill of Rights, 1947–76 (UBC Press, 2019), which challenges the narrative of Canada as a longstanding advocate for international human rights and highlights the role of activists in shaping Canadian diplomacy at the United Nations. She is also co-editor of Revisiting Human Rights in Canadian History (University of Manitoba Press, 2025) and Constant Struggle: Histories of Canadian Democratization (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021).

Her current book project, Drawing the Line: Free Speech and the Regulation of Hate in Canadian History, traces the historical development of Canada’s hate speech laws within a global human rights framework. She is also developing a related project examining why Canada’s 1970 hate propaganda laws protected groups defined by race, religion, and national or ethnic origin while excluding sex. Taken together, these projects explore changing understandings of free expression, equality, and legal protection, revealing how debates over hate speech have reflected broader tensions over rights, power, and settler colonialism in Canadian society.