Equality In Canada Research Articles

Moving from gender responsive to gender transformative action: What Canada achieved and missed in its Rohingya response strategy in Bangladesh

Since 2018, Canada, through its Rohingya Response Strategy in Bangladesh, has been providing targeted assistance to the impoverished Bengali host communities and Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Under Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), gender equality and gender-responsive humanitarian action constitute some of the core priority areas for the Canadian government. In Cox's Bazar, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funds programmes to empower women and girls through skill-based and livelihood training and to provide sexual and reproductive health services. However, scholars like Jennifer Cadesky and Rebecca Tiessen caution against the conflation of gender equality and empowerment, arguing that it often leads to short-term, quick-fix solutions without any long-term benefit to women. Canada needs to go beyond funding recovery assistance programmes at a surface level. Without understanding social norms and cultural practices that influence women's participation, mobility, and visibility in public spaces, gender equality in Canada's response strategy will be limited to only checklist goals.

Weaponized History: The Underground Railroad’s Mythologized Legacy in Canada

ABSTRACT The Underground Railroad remains a popular feature in Canadian narratives. However, public discourse on the subject does not often reach much further than presenting a story of weary enslaved persons finding their way to freedom and happiness in Canada. The communities that they built and who these enslaved persons were outside of their enslaved status is rarely discussed. This uncomplicated telling of history allows Canadians to hold their country up as a historical champion of human rights and use Underground Railroad communities to prove a track record of equality in Canada that misrepresents the historical record. This article discusses the nature of Canadians’ fixation on the Underground Railroad narrative and Canada’s historical uses for this romanticized mythology.

Looking at COVID-19 effects on intimate partner and sexual violence organizations in Canada through a feminist political economy lens: a qualitative study.

ObjectivesIntimate partner violence and sexual violence organizations such as women’s shelters play a crucial role in advancing gender equality in Canada. COVID-19 has challenged how such organizations operate. This study explored how intimate partner violence and sexual violence organizations in Canada have been affected by COVID-19 and the consequences on service delivery.MethodsWe interviewed 17 frontline and management staff from intimate partner violence and sexual violence organizations and programs across Canada, and analyzed the data using thematic analysis and applying a feminist political economy lens.ResultsWe identified the following themes: (1) Adapting; (2) Struggling financially; (3) Resourcefulness; (4) Troubles connecting; (5) Narrowing scope of work; and (6) Burden of care.ConclusionA feminist political economy framework considers the gendered impact of the pandemic and related measures on the workforce. Both the pandemic and measures to control it have affected intimate partner violence and sexual violence organizations in Canada, the staff working in these organizations, and the quality of relationships between staff and clients. Intimate partner and sexual violence organizations in Canada have been chronically underfunded and their predominantly female staff underpaid, affecting their ability to meet the needs of women. The onset of COVID-19 not only worsened these issues but converged with a shift in focus to more pandemic-related tasks, further limiting the scope and reach of organizations. Whether the adaptations, innovations, and perseverance demonstrated by such organizations and staff can tip the balance in favour of more equitable policy and outcomes remains to be seen.

Empowering young immigrant girls in Canada through the ‘Girls’ Voices’ Curriculum: A qualitative study

Background: Gender inequality is a global issue. In Canada, 70% of women experience some form of inequality in their lifetime. Immigrant adolescents in Canada make up a substantial proportion of newcomers, and immigrant girls face the threat of subjugation and oppression, which has a significant impact on their health, development, and economic outcomes as well as gender inequality. Research on girls’ empowerment and resilience-building programs and interventions is virtually nonexistent. In this project, we implemented the ‘Girls’ Voices’ Curriculum. The aim of this project was to engage and empower South Asian (SA) immigrant adolescent girls and to promote gender equality in Canada. Methods: This study utilized a qualitative descriptive design. Pre- and post-curriculum implementation focus group discussions were conducted. Results: A total of 16 adolescent girls ranging from 11 to 18 years of age participated in this study. The participants described challenges many young girls face in relation to gender inequality such as gender discrimination, gendered stereotyping, barriers to education, etc. The ‘Girls’ Voices’ Curriculum allowed participants to highlight and reflect on the various problems faced by SA immigrant adolescents in their communities. The participants learned to examine these challenges through a variety of engaging activities to identify their root cause, effects and propose solutions to bring long-lasting change. The curriculum equipped them with useful tools such as decision-makers maps and advocacy skills to educate decision-makers by creating and delivering powerful messages influenced by personal stories and evidence-based literature. Conclusion: The study provided significant insight into understanding the diverse challenges encountered by SA immigrant adolescent girls in Canada and linking them to the effectiveness of the ‘Girls’ Voices’ Curriculum. The girl-focused development programs that emphasize developing self-confidence, communication skills, problem-solving skills, and decision making are effective in empowering the socially deprived adolescent girls locally and in the global context.

Critical Reflections on Fraser: What Equality Are We Seeking?

In this brief comment, I contextualise and complicate the conventional reading of Fraser v Canada as a victory for equality seeking groups.1 Instead, or at least alongside that reading, I want to suggest some other stories about the trajectory of equality in Canada since the Charter2 era began, and about what future doctrinal developments Fraser might lead us to predict.
 1 Fraser v Canada (Attorney General), 2020 SCC 28 [Fraser]. 2 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11.

Neoliberalism and Gender Equality: Canadian Newspapers’ Representations of the Ban of Face Coverings at Citizenship Ceremonies

In late 2011, Canada’s Conservative government banned face coverings for those taking oath at citizenship ceremonies. The ban was unequivocally interpreted by the press to be targeting veil-wearing Muslim women. This paper analyzes newspaper coverage in the month following the announcement of the policy. It argues that most commentators conceptualized citizenship to be a neoliberal tool of rescuing veiled Muslim women from their male oppressors and making them more like the equal/neoliberal “us” and/or as a reward for those who already are or will become equal/neoliberal. Most non-Muslim commentators constructed gender oppression as the reason for which veiled women should (not) become citizens. Gender equality in Canada was represented as a key national value and inequality was erased or minimized and presented as a Muslim problem. In attempting to deflect these arguments, most Muslim commentators silenced gender inequality among Muslims by arguing that veiled Muslim women choose the practice and by relegating gender oppression to Western societies, thereby constructing veiled Muslim women as ideal neoliberal subjects worthy of Canadian citizenship.
 
 Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v11i1.253

Neoliberalism and Gender Equality: Canadian Newspapers’ Representations of the Ban of Face Coverings at Citizenship Ceremonies

In late 2011, Canada’s Conservative government banned face coverings for those taking oath at citizenship ceremonies. The ban was unequivocally interpreted by the press to be targeting veil-wearing Muslim women. This paper analyzes newspaper coverage in the month following the announcement of the policy. It argues that most commentators conceptualized citizenship to be a neoliberal tool of rescuing veiled Muslim women from their male oppressors and making them more like the equal/neoliberal “us” and/or as a reward for those who already are or will become equal/neoliberal. Most non-Muslim commentators constructed gender oppression as the reason for which veiled women should (not) become citizens. Gender equality in Canada was represented as a key national value and inequality was erased or minimized and presented as a Muslim problem. In attempting to deflect these arguments, most Muslim commentators silenced gender inequality among Muslims by arguing that veiled Muslim women choose the practice and by relegating gender oppression to Western societies, thereby constructing veiled Muslim women as ideal neoliberal subjects worthy of Canadian citizenship.

Ideas, Institutions and the Politics of Federalism and Territorial Redistribution

AbstractDrawing on the work of Richard Simeon and using the cases of equalization in Canada and Belgium's social security system, this article shows how nationalist ideas combined with institutional management structures, government formation rules and the configuration of party systems to condition the territorial dynamics around these two programmes. In Canada, resentment against equalization in many provinces, often because it is perceived as accommodating Québécois nationalism, has translated only into moderate pressures on the programme because federal parties have largely stayed away from this divisive issue and federal executive discretion over the programme has meant that provinces cannot force change. In Belgium, pressures on social security have been more intense because the absence of pan-Belgian parties has given greater resonance to Flemish nationalist ideas within the political system.

Squaring the Circle of Multiculturalism? Religious Freedom and Gender Equality in Canada

Abstract The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is globally unique in that it includes explicit commitments to the values of multiculturalism and gender equality. Section 27 of the Charter provides that: “[It] shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians,” whereas section 28 states that: “Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.” The Canadian experiment (as I will call it) offers us a rare, living laboratory in which a thriving constitutional system searches for legal and institutional pathways to addressing seemingly incongruous demands, obligations, rights, and protections. This article identifies a range of concrete legal responses developed and articulated by Canadian judges and other policymakers in response to claims for fair inclusion raised by members of religious minority communities. Contributing to ongoing theoretical and legal debates, I will conceptualize three variants of such fair inclusion claims. I will then assess what the Canadian multicultural experiment can teach other comparable countries about principled and pragmatic responses to the challenge of “living together” in shared spaces such as workplaces, schools, courthouses, and during citizenship ceremonies. The discussion will then explore the promises and pitfalls of a jurisprudential approach that resists the hierarchy of rights formulas, and tries instead to cover all grounds so as to neither erase diversity nor sacrifice equality.

Towards a new specialization in health librarianship: LGBTQ health

In 1964, Canadian gay activist Jim Egan and Maclean’s journalist Sidney Katz decided to kick-start a revolution [1]. Katz’s two-part article “The Homosexual Next Door: A Sober Appraisal of a New Social Phenomenon,” published by Maclean’s in February and March of that year [2, 3], was the first positive portrayal of homosexuality to appear in the Canadian mass media [4]. Katz had worked closely with Egan on the milestone article, later recognised as lending critical mass to the nascent Canadian gay liberation movement. In the same year, Canada’s first homophile organisation Association for Social Knowledge (ASK) was founded [5], and the gay community magazines Two and Gay were launched in Toronto [6]. There are various comprehensive accounts of the history of the struggle for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning) equality in Canada [7, 8], and the pages of JCHLA/JABSC are not the place to provide a further one. Indeed, readers of this article might be asking themselves what connection there is between Canadian gay activism and Canadian health librarianship. Our answer: because of a history of stigma and discrimination that may discourage them from accessing library services, LGBTQ health information seekers frequently have different information-seeking behaviours from their heterosexual peers. This includes LGBTQ health professionals [9, 10]. In our view, it is impossible to understand these differences in information-seeking behaviour, or to respond appropriately, without understanding the corresponding history of discrimination that many LGBTQ people have experienced. The current context for LGBTQ people, with dramatic improvements in civil rights and in public opinion, would be unimaginable to an LGBTQ person from 1964. However, many challenges remain such as ongoing workplace discrimination [11] and barriers to healthcare [12]. Here, we argue that the time has come for medical librarianship to engage more fully with the area of LGBTQ health and with potential LGBTQ users through visible demonstrations of support, the development of specialized training, and through the broadening of the evidence base for this area of our profession.

AN INTRODUCTION TO EXPLORING LAW, DISABILITY, AND THE CHALLENGE OF EQUALITY IN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES: PAPERS FROM THE BERKELEY SYMPOSIUM

It brings me great pleasure to write this Introduction to Exploring Law, Disability, and the Challenge of Equality in Canada and the United States. This special collection of articles in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice [WYAJ] stems from a symposium of the same name held at the Berkeley Law School at the University of California on 5 December 2014. Writing this introduction allows me to bring together my identities as a law and disability scholar, the principal organizer and convener of the Berkeley Symposium, and editor-in-chief of the WYAJ.In these roles, I have had the opportunity to engage with this set of articles and their authors in a distinct way – from the early versions of these articles through to the final peer-reviewed publications. The Berkeley Symposium is the first conference, of which we are aware, to bring together scholars and experts from both Canada and the United States to present research and exchange ideas on equality issues affecting persons with disabilities in both countries.1 Each academic was invited to write about an equality issue of their choice that is of contemporary concern to persons with disabilities, and to focus on Canada, the United States,or both, at their option. The result is a set of articles that is simultaneously introspective and comparative.

Beyond apartheid: moral identity, FIPAs, and NEPAD in Canada–South Africa relations

Canada has more often than not portrayed a moral image in its relations with South Africa. However, many would agree that Canada has a mixed record in South Africa and that the pursuit of human rights and racial equality in Canada's foreign policy is accompanied by the pursuit of economic interests. Canada–South Africa relations received a major boost under the Chrétien government when the two countries forged closer ties and used multilateral institutions such as the Commonwealth to promote human rights, rule of law, and democracy particularly in African states. At the bilateral level, Canada signed a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with South Africa. Moreover, the launching of the New Partnership for Africa's Development in 2001 helped to further deepen Canada–South Africa economic relations. However, recent changes in the geographic focus of Canada's policy, especially the ‘look to the Americas policy’, raises the question as to where South Africa sits on the foreign policy agenda of Canada. This paper looks at Canada's economic relations with South Africa in the post-apartheid era through the lens of moral identity and asks, what are the impacts of the Harper government's ‘look to the Americas’ policy on Canada–South Africa economic relations? And does the promotion of human rights inform Canada's economic policy towards South Africa after apartheid?

Social Exclusion, Gender, and Access to Education in Canada: Narrative Accounts from Girls on the Street

Based on an exploratory study of the intersection among social exclusion, gender, and access to education, this article documents interpretive insights into the social and cultural dimensions of schooling through the narrative accounts of young women and girls living in poverty and experiencing homelessness in Canada. Having recognized the challenges of the public education system to meet the varying needs of a diverse student body, the declarations of these girls shed much-needed analytic light on the multiple factors mediating the issue of access, social and economic constraints, and alienation from teaching and learning environments faced by homeless young women and girls in the educational arena. Consequently, they shift our attention away from notions of individualized failure in school to a structural and gendered critique of “access” in education, and bring into relief important questions about justice and social equality in Canada.

Federalism and Fiscal Policy: The Politics of Equalization in Canada

Fiscal equalization is a key political issue in many federal countries, including Canada. Yet, relatively few scholars have paid systematic attention to the political dimensions of Canada’s federal equalization program. Taking an historical and institutionalist perspective, this article explores the politics of equalization policy in Canada, with a focus on the mid-2000s, a period when equalization policy suddenly became a major source of intergovernmental conflict. The main objective of the article is to explain why and how such political struggles over equalization developed. The explanation focuses on four factors: (i) the importance of executive discretion over the equalization program; (ii) the “inter-state” nature of Canadian federalism; (iii) the concentration of non-renewable natural resources in certain provinces; and (iv) the perceptions that surround the program.

Multiculturalism, Transnationalism, and the Hijacking of Canadian Foreign Policy

Visitors from abroad, and many Canadians themselves, see as a defining and positive feature of this country. Nonetheless, since its inception as a federal government policy in 1971, multiculturalism has generated significant critical commentary. The focus and priorities of the policy have changed since 1971, and its various incarnations have been subject to a now familiar bundle of criticisms.1 In its early versions, multicultural policy was criticized for its promotion of symbolic ethnicity and its inability to break down structural barriers to socioeconomic equality in Canada.2 In the 19903 the policy was criticized for promoting cultural relativism, undermining Canadian identity, values, and culture, and fostering ethnic ghettos, as well as preventing the integration of newcomers to Canada.3More recently, the policy has been criticized for encouraging the development of socially harmful and politically dangerous transnational ties, connections, and identities on the part of immigrants and ethnoreligious communities in Canada. In this new round of criticisms, historian Jack Granatstein claims that multicultural policy facilitates transnationalism in the form of engagements in motherland issues, dual political loyalties, and the import of old world conflicts into Canada.4My aim in this article is to question what Granatstein sees as the link between politically oriented unhealthy transnationalism and the federal policy of multiculturalism. There are three parts to this article. First, I review Granatsteiris argument that draws a causal connection between multiculturalism and socially forms of transnationalism. second, I question the link between transnationalism and multiculturalism on historical grounds. I suggest that transnational identities and politics existed in Canada (and the United States) well before the announcement of the policy of multiculturalism in 1971. Third, I examine the wider contextual factors that shape transnational political engagements among immigrants and ethnic communities. I suggest that contextual factors associated with sending countries and the context of reception in Canada shape present-day transnational involvements. I also suggest that multicultural policy may have little to do with the promotion of transnational political connections, actions, and identities.MULTICULTURALISM AND UNHEALTHY TRANSNATIONALISMA new twist has been added to the lengthy list of criticisms directed against the federal government's policy of multiculturalism. Some commentators see contemporary multiculturalism as responsible for the promotion of socially forms of politically oriented transnationalism that undermine Canadian unity, identity, and foreign policy.Contemporary critics of multiculturalism often use the same examples to demonstrate that socially forms of transnationalism are widespread in Canada and are being encouraged by multiculturalism. One case is that of Croat-Canadians who returned to Croatia in the 19903 to fight in the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia. Some returnees promoted hypernationalist political agendas and participated in ethnic cleansing campaigns; some within the Croatian-Canadian community were accused of morally and financially supporting these causes from within Canada. Another case is that of individuals of Italian heritage who do not live in Italy but who are allowed to vote and stand in Italian elections. In 2006, diasporic Italians elected two members of parliament to represent the interests and concerns of Italians abroad, even though they are citizens of other states. Finally, the case of the evacuation of 30,000 Lebanese Canadians during the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel is also used to expose socially transnational identities. The alleged quick return to Lebanon of many of the evacuees when the war ended raised questions about the obligations the government had towards dual citizens whose connections to Canada were thin. …

Collective Bargaining and Wage Equalization in Canada’s Iron & Steel Industry, 1939-1964

This paper is one in a series being prepared by the Labour-Management Section of the Federal Department of Labour's Economies and Research Branch. It has three purposes. First, to highlight significant developments and characteristics in collective bargaining in the industry. Second, to determine the extent to which wage equalization is present in the industry. Third, to identify the influences that have contributed to these equalizing tendencies.

An Evaluation of the Stabilization Properties of Equalization in Canada

The Canadian system of equalization is designed to address differences in revenue-raising capacity across provinces, basing a province's annual entitlements on its actual tax bases. However, the standard against which a given province's equalization entitlements are calculated fluctuates from year to year with all provinces' tax bases and tax rates. The consequence is that, while the redistribution function is fulfilled annually, the stability of provincial revenues suffers. The evidence we present indicates that, at least for the three revenue categories we examine, the equalization system can actually be destabilizing, thereby imposing on provinces volatility in their potential revenue streams that exceeds what would exist in the absence of equalization.

An Evaluation of the Stabilization Properties of Equalization in Canada

The Canadian system of equalization is designed to address differences in revenue-raising capacity across provinces, basing a province's entitlements on its actual tax bases. However, since it does so on a year-on-year basis, the standard against which a given province's equalization entitlements are calculated fluctuates from year to year with all provinces' tax bases and tax rates. The consequence is that, while the redistribution function is fulfilled annually, the stability of provincial revenues suffers. The evidence we present indicates that, at least for the three revenue categories we examine, the equalization system can actually be destabilizing, thereby imposing on provinces variability in their potential revenue streams that exceeds what would exist in the absence of equalization.

Equalization: Its Contributions to Canada's Economic and Fiscal Progress

The fiscal equalization program is one of the cornerstones of Canadian fiscal federalism. The proceedings of a conference held in May 1997, this collection of papers and commentaries focuses on a range of issues and implications surrounding the evolution, structure, and reform of the equalization program. Papers include a survey of the principles against which the equalization program ought to be evaluated, an assessment of the functioning of the program as presently structured, a consideration of the political climate within which the commitment to fiscal equalization will find its definition, a response to the proposition that there is too much equalization in Canada through an examination of the degree of interprovincial revenue redistribution resulting from the program, and a comparison with the German, Australian, and United States federations in search of lessons for Canada. Contributors include Robin Boadway (Queen's), Doug Clark (formerly of the Department of Finance), David Milne (UPEI), Paul Hobson (Acadia), and Sam Wilson (Alberta). Commentaries are provided by Tom Courchene (Queen's), Francois Vaillancourt (Montreal), and Wade Locke (Memorial)."

Federal budgets and equality in Canada

Federal budgets and equality in Canada