Canada: Pressure Groups Material

Leaflets, letters, newsletters, journals, posters and pamphlets at federal and state level issued by the British Columbia Federation of Women, the Canada West Foundation, the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, the Canadian Alliance in Solidarity with the Native Peoples, the Canadian Association in Support of the Native Peoples, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian League of Rights, Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, the Committee of Anglophones for Sovereignty-Association, the Citizens for Foreign Aid Reform, the Comité pour le réveil indépendantiste, the Conseil du patronat du Québec, the Elector's Action Movement (Vancouver), the Fondation des Québécois pour le Oui, the Groupe socialiste des travailleurs du Québec, Human Action to Limit Taxes, In Struggle!, the Ligue des droits de l'homme, L'organisation des jeunes indépendantistes pour un Québec communautaire, the Mouvement etudiant pour le oui, the Mouvement québécois pour combattre le racisme, the National Council of Women of Canada, the National Women's Liberal Commission, the Progressive Youth Movement, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Vancouver Status of Women, the Workers' Defence Alliance.

The pressure and interest group materials assembled here date predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s and their content has almost certainly been influenced by the research interests of those collecting them as well as by the prevailing issues of the time. Thus whilst the lobbying efforts of the business community are not represented in this collection a variety of women's groups and pro-labour organisations are, along with several movements concerned with human rights in general. In addition there is a wide selection of materials from different Québécois groups, dealing both with the province's constitutional status around the time of the 1980 referendum and with other domestic issues.

Alphabetically by group, and then in rough chronological order.

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institutes of Commonwealth and Latin American Studies.

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The Commonwealth Pressure Group Materials collection was built up alongside that of the Political Parties, which was begun in 1960-61, and likewise concentrated on the collection of primary material. The main method of gathering material has been to appeal directly to pressure groups throughout the Commonwealth, though contributions from Institute members and staff following visits to relevant countries have been significant. More recently material has been collected by means of downloading documents from the websites of significant groups and movements.

Further accruals are expected, some in electronic form.

See also Canada: Trades Unions Material (TU.CN) and Canada: Political Party Material (PP.CN), as well as Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries, and related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held at ICS.