Digital Commons Network^™

Indigenous Land Claims And Reconciliation: The Importance Of Land And Relationship Between Indigenous Nations And The Government Of Canada, Joy S. Spear Chief-Morris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis discusses whether Indigenous land claims settlements signal reconciliation between Indigenous nations and the Government of Canada. Using Indigenous methodologies, anti-oppressional and intersectional lenses, and process tracing, it argues that land claim settlements do not signal reconciliation of the Indigenous-Canadian relationship. This is because the modern land claims settlement process exists as a reiteration of the colonial policies and institutions that proceeded it. It examines the historical treaty process, case law on Aboriginal rights and title, existing documents, and statutes that protect and promote Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood. Lastly, it examines the 2015 Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as …

Global Governance And Imperial Entanglements: Competition, Cooperation, And Catastrophe In Anglo-Italian Relations, 1922-1940, Jessi Gilchrist

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study reconsiders the road to war narrative by focusing on cooperation rather than conflict in Anglo-Italian relations. I link international and imperial historical methods in order to examine British and Italian efforts to cooperate over their clashing interests in empire between 1922 and 1940. By comparing six case studies drawn from British and Italian archives, this thesis explains why the two governments pursued cooperation over empire; how imperial methods facilitated or challenged cooperation; and what this tells us about the global order and the norms that governed it during the interwar years.Three case studies highlight imperial spaces where cooperation …

Exhuming Norms: Examining The Influence Of International Norms On The Independent Commission For The Location Of Victims’ Remains In Northern Ireland, Tamara Kathleen Hinan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Forced disappearances are crimes against humanity that occur when individuals disappear, often occurring during a period of political conflict. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the conflict among Irish nationalists and British unionists between 1968 and 1998, 16 people were disappeared by Irish nationalist paramilitary forces. In 1999, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) was established to investigate the disappearances, locate the remains and return the victims to their families.

The ICLVR is not the first institution to conduct forensic human rights investigations into forced disappearances, these investigations have become the standard approach internationally. However, little …

Pragmatic Conservative Nationalism: The Coalition Avenir Quebec, Joshua Nahmias

MA Major Research Papers

The Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) is a provincial political party that was founded in 2011 and formed the province’s government for the first time in 2018. The purpose of this major research project is to explain the origins and policy preferences of the CAQ. It will argue that the CAQ reflects a “pragmatic conservative nationalist” ideology, and that this is as much a result of a conscious political orientation as it is a necessity in Quebec’s politically moderate electoral landscape. The party is the ideological heir and the continuation of the centre-right faction of the Parti Québécois (PQ), most notably …

The Goldstone Commission In South Africa’S Transition: Linking Gradual Institutional Change And Information-Gathering Institutions, Tammy Lambert

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Used by states to investigate patterns of past human rights abuses, truth commissions have garnered considerable consensus for their value in addressing past harms and repression. Many still tout the South African model as a success story of truth commissions. This dissertation provides answers to two questions. First, what role, if any, did earlier investigative institutions play in shaping South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)? The dissertation argues that the Commission of Inquiry for the Prevention of Public Violence and Intimidation, also known as the Goldstone Commission, played a central role in transforming information- gathering measures in South Africa. …

Political Attitudes Vary With Detection Of Androstenone, Amanda Friesen, Mike Gruszczynski, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Alford

Political Science Publications

Building on a growing body of research suggesting that political attitudes are part of broader individual and biological orientations, we test whether the detection of the hormone androstenone is predictive of political attitudes. The particular social chemical analyzed in this study is androstenone, a nonandrogenic steroid found in the sweat and saliva of many mammals, including humans. A primary reason for scholarly interest in odor detection is that it varies so dramatically from person to person. Using participants’ self-reported perceptions of androstenone intensity, together with a battery of survey items testing social and political preferences and orientations, this research supports …

Another Possibility: Hiv And The Contemporary Moment, Matthew Halse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

“Another Possibility: HIV and the Contemporary Moment” addresses possibilities for political participation and HIV activism in a post-antiretroviral world. With advancing medical technologies rendering viral loads undetectable for HIV positive persons and with increasingly prevalent use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as prevention technique for HIV negative persons comes the opportunity for a renewed understanding of the epidemic. Against the grain of nostalgic framings of activism prompted by the immanence of death, this dissertation outlines possibilities for new forms of political participation because of, not in spite of, the becoming-chronic of HIV.

Global movements including U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable) messaging, referring …

How Do Populist Voters Rate Their Political Leaders? Comparing Citizen Assessments In Three Jurisdictions, Gerald Seijts, Cristine De Clercy

Political Science Publications

Drawing from the field of management studies, we explore how a sample of voters in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom use a leader character framework to judge political leadership. We ask, how do voters actually assess the character of their current leaders? And, in light of the populist zeitgeist, do people who hold a populist attitude differ markedly in how they judge the character of political leaders? Our results show that voters generally consider character important. However, voters who lean toward populism believe character matters less in political leadership than individuals who scored low on the populism …

The Masculinity Of Genocide: Examining The Male Dimensions Of Genocide, Genocide Ideology, And Violence., Zachary Matthews

2020 Undergraduate Awards

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi, contrary to common perceptions, is one of the most methodological and efficient genocides in human history. The widespread use of violence, both physical and sexual, was central to the realisation of genocide ideology. This violence has a current estimate of around 1,070,000 killed, and an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 who experienced sexual violence during a period only spanning three months.¹ The genocide produced the first conviction of rape used as a weapon of genocide with the conviction of Jean-Paul Akayesu. The Rwandan Genocide had revealed the impact where gender, particularly masculinity, has …

Missing Trans Bodies In The Canadian House Of Commons: Paths To Power For Gender-Diverse Canadians, Christopher Anthony

2020 Undergraduate Awards

Despite substantial public acceptance for Canadian sexual and gender minorities, LGBT people remain on the margins of obtaining equitable federal political representation. In the 2015 election, twenty-one openly LGBT candidates ran for office with just six winning a seat in the House of Commons (HoC). Of these candidates, one identified as openly-transgender. According to John Adams, legislatures should be “[miniature portraits] of the people at large, and … should feel, reason and act like them.” If so, Canada’s parliament lags in achieving LGBT equitable representation, given that LGBT people make up as much as ten percent of the Canadian population …

To Follow Or Not To Follow: Social Norms And Civic Duty During A Pandemic, Laura French Bourgeois, Allison Harell, Laura B. Stephenson

Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread calls from government officials for people to drastically change their behaviour to slow the spread of the disease. From self-quarantining to maintaining physical distance from others, these measures only work if there is widespread adherence. In this article, we explore how one's sense of duty and one's perception of other people's behaviour shape who follows health recommendations. Drawing on the 2020 Democracy Checkup survey, we show that one's own sense of duty and a belief that most other Canadians are adhering to the rules decrease how often people report breaking the rules. Furthermore, …

Does Canada Meet International Standards On Employment Rights For Migrant Workers? An Analysis Of The Effects Of Labour Market Inequality, Ria Haque

MA Major Research Papers

The goal of this paper is to carefully assess the international standards of labour and the effects of the rise in labour market inequality specifically in Canada while also looking at what is going on in China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as case studies. By analyzing empirical and qualitative data, this paper ultimately concludes that the dominant explanation and interpretation of related literature in this subject depicts a broad sense of injustice to migrant workers who are only increasing internationally. These migrant workers face countless hardships while only pursuing jobs in foreign countries in the attempts of going …

The Sino-Lankan Relationship: Challenging Liberal Foundations Of Transitional Justice, Thurka Brabaharan

MA Major Research Papers

Sri Lanka continues to demonstrate the challenges of implementing legitimate transitional justice mechanisms in a post-conflict state ruled by its victors. While the island-nation of Sri Lanka has managed to sustain relative peace for over a decade, the government’s outstanding human rights record remains a concern for the country’s minority ethnic groups. While there is substantial evidence against the Sri Lankan Army to validate the human rights abuses and war crimes alleged by Tamil civilians, little has been done to hold these individuals accountable. Within the sphere of liberal international order, a victor’s peace, such as Sri Lanka’s, would likely …

The Effects Of Invasive Border Security Policies On Vulnerable Communities Today, Salena Halbouni

MA Major Research Papers

The following literature review is grounded in a case of a Syrian/Canadian man of the name Maher Arar who was wrongly convicted of having associations with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda.5 The purpose of the case is to highlight flaws within counterterrorism policies and strategies. Despite the government’s attempts at protecting innocent civilians, it has also created many challenges for those in office with respect to protecting civil and human rights. As previously mentioned, in an attempt to overcome such challenges it is essential to implement safeguards within practices, and policies to ensure the protection of the most vulnerable.

Theories Of Foucault And Agamben: The Issues Of Borders And Sovereignty”, Melinda Ann Callahan

MA Major Research Papers

Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben have developed theoretical lenses for depicting how we should understand individuals in sovereign states, and the way in which these states interact with said individuals. Through an approach that assesses the framework of biology, race and ethnicity contribute to the notions of biopolitics and of ‘bare life,’ and exemplifies the constructs of how discrimination against the ‘other’ is embedded in western thought. These systematic processes are utilized through notions of biopower and the ‘state of exception’ as a means of maintaining hierarchical power structures. This paper will be assessing the role of the international in …