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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Legally Queer Child, Bruce Macdougall
The Legally Queer Child, Bruce Macdougall
All Faculty Publications
This article explores the various presumptions and arguments of Canadian courts in largely denying queer children a legal presence. An analysis of the intersection of homosexuality and children is explored with a view to arguing that legally, queer children deserve a voice. The author begins by outlining the development of the legal conceptualization of the "child". This conceptualization led to the notion of the child as innocent, and thus in need of protection. In comparison, homosexuals came to be characterized as "aberrant" and "predatory". Protecting children from homosexuals then became a simple step of logic, which ultimately led to the …
Hierarchies Of Harm In Canadian Criminal Law: The Marijuana Trilogy And The Forcible 'Correction' Of Children, Janine Benedet
Hierarchies Of Harm In Canadian Criminal Law: The Marijuana Trilogy And The Forcible 'Correction' Of Children, Janine Benedet
All Faculty Publications
The author examines the seemingly contradictory Supreme Court of Canada decisions which upheld the prohibition on possession of marijuana (R. v. Malmo-Levine), yet allowed the defence of “reasonable correction” for parents and teachers charged with assaulting a child (Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (Attorney General)). She argues that these two decisions speak to the limits of the criminal law and the role that section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms plays in setting those limits. These decisions are also linked by the attempt by some members of the Court to establish a …