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Articles 1 - 30 of 35
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Expanding Equality, Terry Skolnik
Expanding Equality, Terry Skolnik
Dalhousie Law Journal
Section 15 of the Canadian Charter provides a constitutional right to equality. But the Supreme Court of Canada has interpreted this right restrictively. Today, the Constitution fails to protect certain individuals and groups against obvious forms of direct and indirect discrimination. This article argues that s. 15 of the Charter is interpreted narrowly in three respects and advances proposals to expand the right to equality. First, the right to equality framework fails to protect marginalized persons and groups against direct discrimination. Second, courts overlook how individuals can suffer discrimination based on quasi-immutable traits, which are personal characteristics that are relatively …
The Gender Injustice Of Abortion Laws, Joanna Erdman
The Gender Injustice Of Abortion Laws, Joanna Erdman
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This commentary is a response to Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska’s article on the treatment of criminal abortion laws as a form of sex discrimination under international human rights law through a study of the communications, Mellet v. Ireland and Whelan v. Ireland. The commentary offers a reading of these communications, and specifically the sex discrimination analysis premised on inequalities of treatment among women, as an engagement with the structural discrimination that characterises abortion laws, and asa radical vision for gender justice under international human rights law.
The Broad Implications Of The First Nation Caring Society Decision: Dealing A Death-Blow To The Current System Of Program Delivery On-Reserve & Clearing The Path To Self-Government, Naiomi Metallic
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
On January 26, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) released a watershed decision in a complaint spearheaded by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, its Executive Director, Dr. Cindy Blackstock, and the Assembly of First Nations (the “Caring Society” decision). The complaint alleged that Canada, through its Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs (“INAC” or the “Department”), discriminates against First Nations children and families in the provision of child welfare services on reserve. In its decision, the Tribunal found that INAC’s design, management and control of child welfare services on reserve, along with its …
The Door Has A Tendency To Swing Shut: The Saga Of Aboriginal Peoples' Equality Claims, Naiomi Metallic
The Door Has A Tendency To Swing Shut: The Saga Of Aboriginal Peoples' Equality Claims, Naiomi Metallic
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper tracks the history of Aboriginal peoples' equality complaints against the state. From the time Aboriginal people started to bring discrimination complaints before the courts, there have been significant obstacles that have operated to effectively — and sometimes even explicitly — prevent Aboriginal peoples from advancing pressing discrimination complaints against governments. Although there have been changes made in the law over time to attempt to eliminate such barriers, what we see is a pattern where new obstacles crop up to replace the old ones. Over and over, Aboriginal peoples see the door to equality open up only to have …
Indigenous Lawyers In Canada: Identity, Professionalization, Law, Sonia Lawrence, Signa Daum Shanks
Indigenous Lawyers In Canada: Identity, Professionalization, Law, Sonia Lawrence, Signa Daum Shanks
Dalhousie Law Journal
For Indigenous communities and individuals in Canada, "Canadian" law has been a mechanism of assimilation, colonial governance and dispossession, a basis for the assertion of rights, and a method of resistance. How do Indigenous lawyers in Canada make sense of these contradictory threads and their roles and responsibilities? This paper urges attention to the lives and experiences of Indigenous lawyers, noting that the number of self-identified Indigenous lawyers has been rapidly growing since the 1990s. At the same time, Indigenous scholars are focusing on the work of revitalizing Indigenous law and legal orders. Under these conditions, Indigenous lawyers occupy a …
Twu Law: A Reply To Proponents Of Approval, Elaine Craig
Twu Law: A Reply To Proponents Of Approval, Elaine Craig
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Trinity Western University has a Community Covenant that only permits sexual minorities to attend at considerable personal cost to their dignity and sense of self-worth. All student and staff applicants to TWU are required to sign this covenant pledging not to engage in same sex intimacy. On April 11, 2014, the Law Society of British Columbia accredited TWU’s law degree program despite the university’s formal policy of exclusion on the basis of sexual orientation. Later that month, the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society refused to approve that same program because of concerns regarding the …
The Door Has A Tendency To Swing Shut: The Saga Of Aboriginal Peoples' Equality Claims, Naiomi Metallic
The Door Has A Tendency To Swing Shut: The Saga Of Aboriginal Peoples' Equality Claims, Naiomi Metallic
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper tracks the history of Aboriginal peoples' equality complaints against the state. From the time Aboriginal people started to bring discrimination complaints before the courts, there have been significant obstacles that have operated to effectively — and sometimes even explicitly — prevent Aboriginal peoples from advancing pressing discrimination complaints against governments. Although there have been changes made in the law over time to attempt to eliminate such barriers, what we see is a pattern where new obstacles crop up to replace the old ones. Over and over, Aboriginal peoples see the door to equality open up only to have …
The Case For The Federation Of Law Societies Rejecting Trinity Western University's Proposed Law Degree Program, Elaine Craig
The Case For The Federation Of Law Societies Rejecting Trinity Western University's Proposed Law Degree Program, Elaine Craig
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Should Canada have a law school that discriminates against gays and lesbians? Would the governing bodies of the legal profession in Canada approve a law school that prohibited mixed race sexual intimacy? Should a self-regulating legal profession require that the policies of the institutions that produce this country's next generation of lawyers respect equality and academic freedom? Trinity Western University (TWU), a private Christian school in British Columbia is posed to become Canada’s first Christian law school. Trinity Western discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation in both its hiring and admissions policies. It has also been found to violate …
Gimme Shelter, Robert Leckey
Gimme Shelter, Robert Leckey
Dalhousie Law Journal
Highlighting the family home's significance as shelter this paper challenges the prevailing view of the demands of the equality guarantee in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms regarding unmarried cohabitants. In Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. Walsh, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the claim that it was discriminatory to restrict rules dividing matrimonial property to married couples. By contrast, on many views it is discriminatory to exclude cohabitants from a support obligation. Scholars and judges assume that Walsh upholds all statutory rules regarding married spouses and their property, including measures protecting the family home as shelter But Walsh …
Adding Social Condition To The Canadian Human Rights Act, A. Wayne Mackay, Natasha Kim
Adding Social Condition To The Canadian Human Rights Act, A. Wayne Mackay, Natasha Kim
Reports & Public Policy Documents
Almost a decade ago, in June 2000, the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel conducted a comprehensive review of the Canadian Human Rights Act [CHRA] and recommended that “social condition” be added as a prohibited ground of discrimination. Since then, no action has been taken to implement this recommendation, despite calls for action from international bodies, political actors, human rights agencies and organizations, and academic commentators to provide protections from discrimination for those suffering from social and economic disadvantage. The authors analyze the experiences at the provincial level with socio-economic grounds of discrimination, jurisprudential developments under the Canadian Charter of …
Re Cupe And Canadian Staff Union (Reynolds), Innis Christie
Re Cupe And Canadian Staff Union (Reynolds), Innis Christie
Innis Christie Collection
The Employer posted a position located in Halifax. The Grievor was denied the position because he was not prepared to relocate to Halifax due to family responsibilities. The Union grievance alleged that the Employer breached the Collective Agreement which prohibits discrimination based on marital status and place of residence, and that the Grievor's request to commute should have been accommodated. The Employer believed the position needed to be located in Halifax and that commuting from Newfoundland would not be effective.
The Impact Of "Chartervalues" And Campbell V. Jones: Is It Now Easier To Establish Qualified Privilege Against Defamation?, Geoffrey Duckworth
The Impact Of "Chartervalues" And Campbell V. Jones: Is It Now Easier To Establish Qualified Privilege Against Defamation?, Geoffrey Duckworth
Dalhousie Law Journal
The purpose of this case comment is to impel a discourse on whether Campbell v. Jones' has "loosened the test" on qualified privilege. In the aftermath of the Court ofAppeal decision, it might be tempting to suggest that Campbell v. Jones means that the defence of qualified privilege is being re-fabricated in light of the advent of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in order to take an expanded account of "Charter values" such as freedom of expression. This case comment adopts the contrary view, and asserts that what Campbell has really done is clarify exactly which type of extraordinary …
I Do' Kiss And Tell: The Subversive Potential Of Non-Normative Socialsexual Expression From Within Cultural Paradigms, Elaine Craig
I Do' Kiss And Tell: The Subversive Potential Of Non-Normative Socialsexual Expression From Within Cultural Paradigms, Elaine Craig
Dalhousie Law Journal
Using a comparative analysis of the equality movements of sexual minorities in Canada and India the author identifies a symbiosis between the subversive benefits of a deconstructionist approach to equality and the practical achievements to be gained by a rights-based model of social justice. The analysis is conducted through an examination of the role that the expression of same-sex desire plays in the legal and social positions of sexual minorities in Canada and India The author argues that the acquisition of rights can provide sexual minorities with greater access to dominant cultural rituals and that such access provides opportunities to …
Same-Sex Partners And Family Class Immigration: Still Not Equal With Opposite-Sex Partners, Donald G. Caswell
Same-Sex Partners And Family Class Immigration: Still Not Equal With Opposite-Sex Partners, Donald G. Caswell
Dalhousie Law Journal
The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which came into force in 2002, and the Regulations under it, expanded family class immigration to include commonlaw partners and conjugal partners in addition to spouses A common-law partner or a conjugal partner may be either an opposite-sex or same-sex partner-as can a spouse, depending upon the currently evolving law with respect to samesex marriage. Under the former Immigration Act, same-sex partners had been admitted pursuant to the discretion to admit immigrants on the basis of compassionate or humanitarian considerations. After examining the admission of same-sex partners under both the former and the current …
Redressing The Imbalances: Rethinking The Judicial Role After R. V R.D.S., Dianne Pothier, Richard Devlin
Redressing The Imbalances: Rethinking The Judicial Role After R. V R.D.S., Dianne Pothier, Richard Devlin
Dianne Pothier Collection
The Decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. R.D.S. dealt with whether a trial judge's comments, about interactions between police officers and "non-white groups", gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias in the circumstances. They strongly criticize the contrary ruling of the dissent as inappropriately drawing a false dichotomy between decisions based on evidence and decisions based on generalizations, and as improperly ignoring social context with an unwarranted confidence in the ideology of colour blindness. While more supportive of the majority's analysis, the authors also find cause for concern, with somewhat different emphasis in the nature …
What's The Difference? Interpretation, Identity And R. V. R.D.S., Allan Hutchinson, Kathleen Strachan
What's The Difference? Interpretation, Identity And R. V. R.D.S., Allan Hutchinson, Kathleen Strachan
Dalhousie Law Journal
Lawyers hanker after authority. Whether it be in enforcing the law or justifying law's institutional power, there is an almost desperate yearning to establish and maintain the legitimacy of law and, therefore, of themselves, in a social world in which the whole notion of authority is challenged and undermined. When it comes to matters of legal interpretation, jurists and judges still crave some method that will ground or trace back an interpretation to a foundational or ultimate source that can confer authority on one particular interpretation over another. However, recent jurisprudential debate has done fatal damage to the notion that …
An Analysis Of Gender In Admission To The Canadian Common Law Schools From 1985-86 To 1994-95, Brian M. Mazer
An Analysis Of Gender In Admission To The Canadian Common Law Schools From 1985-86 To 1994-95, Brian M. Mazer
Dalhousie Law Journal
Using statistical data covering a ten year period, this study examines the issue of gender representation in admissions to first year law study at common law schools in Canada. After addressing three identifiable steps in the admission process-applications, offers and registration-the author concludes that while there has been progress and the gap has narrowed, the problem of gender inequality persists.
Lesbians, Gays And The Struggle For Equality Rights: Reversing The Progressive Hypothesis, Mary Eaton
Lesbians, Gays And The Struggle For Equality Rights: Reversing The Progressive Hypothesis, Mary Eaton
Dalhousie Law Journal
The tale often told of Canadian law's advancement in the field of sexual orientation rights is simple but sublime: law has moved, however ploddingly and not without substantial prodding, out of an epoch of almost total repression, into an evermore enlightened era. Castigated by criminal law, pushed to the perimeter by administrative law, and ignored by human rights law, the "homosexual"' had once been law's quintessential "other." In recent years, however, legislatures and courts have increasingly been willing to recognize "homosexuals" as a constituency too long held down by the heavy hand of legal control. Most penal prohibitions against exercises …
A Postmodern Constitutionalism: Equality Rights, Identity Politics, And The Canadian National Imagination, Carl F. Stychin
A Postmodern Constitutionalism: Equality Rights, Identity Politics, And The Canadian National Imagination, Carl F. Stychin
Dalhousie Law Journal
In the 1990s, "identity" has become the centrepiece of theoretical work in a variety of disciplines. We now know that, in the conditions of late modem (or postmodem) society, identity is complex-it is fragmented, intersected, subject to alteration, socially constructed and it exhibits only a partial fixity at any moment. Most important, identities are to be valued, respected, and understood on their own terms. However, we also have relearned (if we ever forgot) that identities can be dangerous and fatal, especially when they coalesce in the form of nationalism. In this article, I will explore the intersection of nationalism and …
Re Canada Post Corp And Cupw, Innis Christie
Re Canada Post Corp And Cupw, Innis Christie
Innis Christie Collection
The main issue before me here is whether the new dress code implemented by the Employer April 5, 1992, for uniformed employees, was within the power of the Employer in so far as it provides: The wearing of tags, buttons, stickers and other insignia is not permitted unless prior approval of the Corporation is obtained.
Reproductive Technology And Disability: Searching For The "Rights" And Wrongs In Explanation, Judith Mosoff
Reproductive Technology And Disability: Searching For The "Rights" And Wrongs In Explanation, Judith Mosoff
Dalhousie Law Journal
Several years ago I worked as a lawyer representing psychiatric patients on the grounds of a large medieval-looking turn-of-the-century mental hospital in British Columbia. Soon after starting my new job I met Ann, a woman who shortly after her admission as an involuntary patient had informed her treatment team that she was pregnant. She had always wanted to have a baby. When she told her doctor about her pregnancy, he decided that this idea was part of her delusional system and prescribed anti-psychotic drugs to control her pathology. In fact she was pregnant and the medication given during the first …
Discrimination, The Right To Seek Redress And The Common Law: A Century-Old Debate, Béatrice Vizkelety
Discrimination, The Right To Seek Redress And The Common Law: A Century-Old Debate, Béatrice Vizkelety
Dalhousie Law Journal
Does discrimination law have anything in common with the common law? This question, which may have been reworded from time to time in deference to the age in which it was raised, is one which has recurred with remarkable tenacity throughout most of this century. It is also a question which continues, despite initial impressions, to be relevant to the manner in which adjudicatots interpret and apply anti-discrimination legislation today.
Discrimination In The Legal Profession, Codes Of Professional Conduct And The Duty Of Non-Discrimination, Christ Tennant
Discrimination In The Legal Profession, Codes Of Professional Conduct And The Duty Of Non-Discrimination, Christ Tennant
Dalhousie Law Journal
This paper is about discrimination in the legal profession, and about the kinds of responses to discrimination that the legal profession should be considering. I begin with a review of the various forms of discrimination which exist in the legal profession. Discrimination in the legal profession ranges from the exclusion of the members of certain groups from parts of the profession, to sexual harassment, to discrimination in our courts, to the exclusion and deprecation of the perspectives and experiences of those who have not traditionally beenin positions of power. Discrimination in the legal profession occurs against women, against aboriginal people, …
Public Housing And Equality Rights - Dartmouth/Halifax County Regional Housing Authority V. Irma Sparks, Stephen G. Coughlan
Public Housing And Equality Rights - Dartmouth/Halifax County Regional Housing Authority V. Irma Sparks, Stephen G. Coughlan
Dalhousie Law Journal
In Dartmouth/HalifaxCounty Regional Housing Authority v. Sparks, courts in Nova Scotia are once again called upon to consider whether tenants in public housing are entitled to the same protection as private tenants. The Supreme Court Appeal Division decided in Bernard v. Dartmouth Housing Authority that shorter notice periods for public housing tenants were not objectionable, under either s. 7 or s. 15 of the Charter. The issue will now return to the Court of Appeal, but in the meantime the County Court has held that Bernard still sets the standard in Nova Scotia.
Aboriginal Peoples And Criminal Justice: A Special Report Of The Law Reform Commission Of Canada, Bruce P. Archibald
Aboriginal Peoples And Criminal Justice: A Special Report Of The Law Reform Commission Of Canada, Bruce P. Archibald
Dalhousie Law Journal
Canada's criminal justice system has been shaken out of its stolid complacency in recent years by demonstrated instances of unfair treatment of religious, ethnic and racial minorities, and in particular our Aboriginal peoples.' Faced with a hue and cry directed at the justice system, the federal Minister of Justice asked the Law Reform Commission of Canada to study "as a matter of special priority, the Criminal Code and related statutes and to examine the extent to which those laws ensure that Aboriginal persons and persons who are members of cultural or religious minorities have equal access to justice and are …
The Hidden Gender Of Law, Christine Boyle
The Hidden Gender Of Law, Christine Boyle
Dalhousie Law Journal
Two legal academics who set out to produce a book of materials with such a title could weave many components into it. They could explore feminist methodology, and show how much feminist legal scholarship has in common with feminist scholarship generally. They could illustrate the influence of feminist academic work on actual legal decisions and legislation. They could discuss feminist scholarship and legal education, including the dramatic developments over the last twenty years. Questions about fundamental values - equality, liberty, security, fairness - could be addressed. Materials could be included from the field of law often called Women and the …
Miles To Go: Some Personal Reflections On The Social Construction Of Disability, Dianne Pothier
Miles To Go: Some Personal Reflections On The Social Construction Of Disability, Dianne Pothier
Dalhousie Law Journal
The "social construction" of disability refers to the way an able bodied conception of disability magnifies its consequences. The social construction of disability assesses and deals with disability from an able bodied perspective. It includes erroneous assumptions about capacity to perform that come from an able bodied frame of reference. It encompasses the failure to make possible or accept different ways of doing things. It reflects a preoccupation with "normalcy" that excludes the disabled person.
Reasoning With The Charter, Gerald Tg Seniuk
Reasoning With The Charter, Gerald Tg Seniuk
Dalhousie Law Journal
Reasoning with the Charter by Leon Trakman is a timely and useful book. It is "timely" because in this the tenth anniversary of the Charter it is appropriate to review its impact, which Prof. Trakman finds wanting and unduly circumscribing. It is also useful, although "useful" is not a term usually associated with a theoreticalbook such as this. Certainly this is not a "how-to" book about Charter application. It does, however, outline a different approach to Charter interpretation and it may be that the neglect by our judges of this approach is a mistake. Perhaps not; but there are at …
Miles To Go: Some Personal Reflections On Social Construction Of Disability, Dianne Pothier
Miles To Go: Some Personal Reflections On Social Construction Of Disability, Dianne Pothier
Dianne Pothier Collection
The "social construction" of disability refers to the way an able bodied conception of disability magnifies its consequences. The social construction of disability assesses and deals with disability from an able bodied perspective. It includes erroneous assumptions about capacity to perform that come from an able bodied frame of reference. It encompasses the failure to make possible or accept different ways of doing things. It reflects a preoccupation with "normalcy" that excludes the disabled person.
An Essay On Institutional Responsibility: The Indigenous Blacks And Micmac Programme At Dalhousie Law School, Richard F. Devlin, A Wayne Mackay
An Essay On Institutional Responsibility: The Indigenous Blacks And Micmac Programme At Dalhousie Law School, Richard F. Devlin, A Wayne Mackay
Dalhousie Law Journal
Dalhousie Law School, like most other law schools, as a tribute to its graduates and as a manifestation of its traditions, adorns its walls with class photographs of years gone by. However, if one were to stop and scrutinize more carefully these pictures one might want to reconsider the tradition in a more circumspect light. Perhaps one might notice that until the nineteen sixties women were few and far between and that even now they still make up less than half of most graduating classes. More conspicuous still, is the general absence of First Nations peoples from the celebratory pageant. …