Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Identity, Law, And The Right To A Dream?, Robert Leckey Oct 2015

Identity, Law, And The Right To A Dream?, Robert Leckey

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper engages critically with the new orthodoxy holding that individuals have a "right" to know their genetic origins and that such knowledge is crucial to realizing their identities. It examines two case studies: the Pratten litigation under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms regarding anonymous donor conception and scholarship approving a reform to Quebec's adoption law. It addresses the supposed "identity gap" between those who are adopted or donor-conceived and those who are neither Arguments for law reform exaggerate that gap, opposing the incomplete, insecure identity of the adopted or donorconceived to the ostensibly complete, secure identity of …


Defining Metis People As A People: Moving Beyond The Indian/Metis Dichotomy, Brenda L. Gunn Oct 2015

Defining Metis People As A People: Moving Beyond The Indian/Metis Dichotomy, Brenda L. Gunn

Dalhousie Law Journal

This article argues that the legal definition that defines Metis people in opposition to Indian detracts from the goal of recognizing the Metis as a distinct people. The article argues that we ought to de-couple the definitions of Metis and Indian to more strongly recognize Metis as a distinct people. This article considers three intertwined concerns that arise from this dichotomous approach to Metis identity The first concern is about the "hard line" created in the definition between Indian and Metis, forcing one to be either Indian or Metis. The second concern is that changes to the definition of Indian …


Who Are We?: The Quest For Identity In Law, Colin Jackson, Kim Brooks Oct 2015

Who Are We?: The Quest For Identity In Law, Colin Jackson, Kim Brooks

Dalhousie Law Journal

Scholars from Haraway to Foucault to Freud, from Bourdieu to Erikson to Scarry have theorized identity across continents and among disciplines. Despite the rich material available, however, interrogations of identity in law have remained isolated within substantive areas of law (those working on identity in evidence law have not necessarily met issue with those exploring identity in constitutional law, for example), and have been more limited in scope and imagination than the interrogations undertaken in other disciplines.


Inequality And Identity At Work, Jennifer Koshan Oct 2015

Inequality And Identity At Work, Jennifer Koshan

Dalhousie Law Journal

A clinic at the University of Calgary law school in 2014 worked with unions and workers'rights groups to develop constitutionalchallenges to the historic exclusion of farm workers from labour and employment legislation in Alberta. After exploring arguments under sections 2(d), 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we concluded that, based on the existing jurisprudence, the equality rights arguments under section 15 were the weakest. This article explores what is lost when we fail to recognize the identity-based harms that flow from government violations of equality rights. It considers the nature of these harms, why they …


Canadian Constitutional Identities, Eric M. Adams Oct 2015

Canadian Constitutional Identities, Eric M. Adams

Dalhousie Law Journal

Constitutions are stories nations tell about themselves. Despite the famous declaration in the Constitution Act, 1867 that the "Provinces ofCanada...Desire...a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom," most of Canada's constitutional history can be understood as the search for a distinctly Canadian constitutional identity Canadians have always looked to their constitutional instruments to both reflect and produce a particular vision of the nation and its citizens. This article focuses on the search for Canada s constitutional identity during its first century as a nation, from Confederation until the 1960s. Drawing on a varied array of sources and …


Agonizing Identity In Mental Health Law And Policy (Part I), Sheila Wildeman Oct 2015

Agonizing Identity In Mental Health Law And Policy (Part I), Sheila Wildeman

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this two-part paper, the author explores the significance of identity in mental health law and policy In this as in other socio-legal domains, identity functions to consolidate dissent as well as to effect social control. The author asks: where do legal experts stand in relation to the identity categories that run so deep in this area of law and policy? More broadly, she asks: is "mental health" working on us on the mental health disabled, legal scholars, all of us-in ways that are impairing our capacity for social justice? In the first part of the paper, the author considers …