Turning Feminist Judgments into Jurisprudence

The Women’s Court of Canada on Substantive Equality

Authors

  • Denise Réaume University of Toronto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-0994

Keywords:

Equality, substantive equality, context, Igualdad, igualdad sustantiva, contexto

Abstract

The Women’s Court of Canada project is unique in having chosen to focus its rewriting efforts in a specific area of law – constitutional equality cases. This strategy permits an assessment of the WCC jurisprudence to see if it yields a competing ‘theory’ of equality rights that might be used to systematically critique the real jurisprudence and perhaps produce lines of argument capable of redirecting the real law. This effort reveals the pervasive importance of attention to and representation of context to bringing to life the abstract commitments of an account of substantive equality. While not a new discovery, this demonstration of the work context can do across an array of linked cases is illuminating.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

        Metrics

Views 589
Downloads:
PDF 503


References

Abrams, K., 1991. Hearing the Call of Stories. California Law Review [online], 79 (4), 971-1052. Available from: http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/californialawreview/vol79/iss4/1 [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3480793

Baines, B., 2000. Law v Canada: Formatting Equality. Constitutional Forum [online], 11 (1-4), 65-73. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.21991/C96M2S [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21991/C96M2S

Brodsky, G., and Day, S., 2002. Beyond the Social and Economic Rights Debate: Substantive Equality Speaks to Poverty. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, vol. 14, 185-220.

Brodsky, G., et al., 2006. Gosselin v Quebec (Attorney General). Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 18 (1), 189-250. Available from: http://www.thecourt.ca/the-womens-court-of-canada-gosselin-v-quebec-attorney-general-2006-1-w-c-r-193/ [Accessed 24 July 2018].

Buckley, M., 2006. Symes v Canada. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 18 (1), 27-66. Available from: http://www.thecourt.ca/womens-court-symes-v-canada-2006-1-wcr-31/ [Accessed 24 July 2018].

Conaghan, J., 2000. Reassessing the Feminist Theoretical Project in Law. Journal of Law & Society [online], 27 (3), 351-385. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00159 [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6478.00159

Day, S., and Brodsky, G., 1998. Women and the Equality Deficit: the Impact of Restructuring Canada’s Social Programs. Ottawa: Status of Women Canada.

Eberts, M., McIvor, S., and Nahanee, T., 2006. Native Women’s Association of Canada v Canada. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 18 (1), 67-120. Available from: http://www.thecourt.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/womenscourt-nativewomens1.pdf [Accessed 18 July 2018].

Faraday, F., Denike, M., and Stephenson, M.K., 2009a. In Pursuit of Substantive Equality. In: Making Equality Rights Real: Securing Substantive Equality under the Charter. 2nd ed. Toronto: Irwin Law, 9-28.

Faraday, F., Denike, M., and Stephenson, M.K., eds., 2009b. Making Equality Rights Real: Securing Substantive Equality under the Charter. 2nd ed. Toronto: Irwin Law.

Froc, K.A., 2010. Multidimensionality and the Matrix: Identifying ‘Charter’ Violations in Cases of Complex Subordination. Canadian Journal of Law and Society [online], 25 (1), 21-49. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0829320100010206 [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0829320100010206

Gilbert, D., 2003a. Time to Regroup: Rethinking Section 15 of the ‘Charter’. McGill Law Journal, 48 (4), 627-649.

Gilbert, D., 2003b. Unequaled: Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé’s Vision of Equality and Section 15 of the ‘Charter’. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 15 (1), 1-27.

Gilbert, D., and Majury, D., 2006. Critical Comparisons: The Supreme Court of Canada Dooms Section 15. Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice [online], vol. 24, 111-142. Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2261900 [Accessed 18 July 2018].

Greschner, D., 2002. The Purpose of Canadian Equality Rights. Review of Constitutional Studies, 6 (2), 291-232.

Hughes, P., 1999. Recognizing Substantive Equality as a Foundational Constitutional Principle. Dalhousie Law Journal, 22, 5-50.

Hunter, R., 2010. An Account of Feminist Judging. In: R. Hunter, C. McGlynn and E. Rackley, eds., Feminist Judgments: from Theory to Practice. Oxford: Hart, 30-43.

Jackman, M., 2005. Sommes-nous dignes? L’égalité et l’arrêt ‘Gosselin’. Revue femmes et droits, 17, 161-176. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jwl.2006.0010

Koshan, J., 2006. Newfoundland (Treasury Board) v NAPE (Women’s Court of Canada). Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 18 (1), 321-371. Available from: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/230236 [Accessed 24 July 2018].

Koshan, J., and Watson Hamilton, J., 2011. Meaningless Mantra: Substance Equality after “Withler”. Review of Constitutional Studies [online], 16 (1), 31-62. Available from: https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/images/journals/review/16RevConstStud31.pdf [Accessed 18 July 2018].

Koshan, J., and Watson Hamilton, J., 2013. The Continual Reinvention of Section 15 of the Charter. University of New Brunswick Law Journal, 64, 19-53.

Koshan, J., et al., 2010. Rewriting Equality: The Pedagogical Use of Women’s Court of Canada Judgments. Canadian Legal Education Annual Review, 4, 121-148.

Lawrence, S., 2006. Choice, Equality and Tales of Racial Discrimination: Reading the Supreme Court on Section 15. In: S. McIntyre and S. Rodgers, eds., Diminishing Returns: Inequality and the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. Markham: LexisNexis, 115-133.

Lewis, J., ed., 2006. Children, Changing Families, and the Welfare State. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781847204363

Majury, D., 1987. Strategizing in Equality. Wisconsin Women’s Law Journal, vol. 3, 169-187.

Majury, D., 1990. Equality and Discrimination According to the Supreme Court of Canada. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, vol. 4, 407-439.

Majury, D., 2002. The Charter, Equality Rights, and Women: Equivocation and Celebration. Osgoode Hall Law Journal [online], 40 (3/4), 297-336. Available from: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol40/iss3/4 [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1438

McIntyre, S., 2006. Deference and Dominance: Equality without Substance. In: S. McIntyre and S. Rodgers, eds., Diminishing Returns: Inequality and the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. Markham: LexisNexis, 95-114.

McIntyre, S., and Rodgers, S., eds., 2006. Diminishing Returns: Inequality and the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. Markham: LexisNexis.

Minow, M., and Spelman, E.V., 1990. In Context. Southern California Law Review, 63, 1597-1652.

Monture, P., 1986. Ka-Nin-Geh-Heh-Gah-E-Sa-Nonh-Yah-Gah. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 2, 159-171.

Neysmith, S.M., ed., 2000. Restructuring Caring Labour: Discourse, State Practice, and Everyday Life. Oxford University Press.

Pothier, D., 2001. Connecting Grounds of Discrimination to Real People’s Real Experiences. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 13, 37-73.

Pothier, D., 2006a. Eaton v Brant County Board of Education. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 18 (1), 121-142. Available from: http://www.thecourt.ca/the-womens-court-of-canada-eaton-v-brant-county-board-of-education-2006-1-wcr-124/ [Accessed 24 July 2018].

Pothier, D., 2006b. Equality as a Comparative Concept: Mirror, mirror, on the Wall, What’s the Fairest of Them All? In: S. McIntyre and S. Rodgers, eds. Diminishing Returns: Inequality and the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. Markham: LexisNexis, 135-150

Radin, M.J., 1990. The Pragmatist and the Feminist. Southern California Law Review, vol. 63, 1699-1726.

Réaume, D., 2006. Law v Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration). Canadian Journal of Women and the Law [online], 18 (1), 143-188. Available from: http://www.thecourt.ca/the-womens-court-of-canada-law-v-canada-minister-of-employment-and-immigration-1999-1-scr-497/ [Accessed 24 July 2018].

Réaume, D., 2013. Dignity, Equality, and Comparison. In: D. Hellman and S. Moreau, eds., Philosophical Foundations of Discrimination Law. Oxford University Press, 7-27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664313.003.0002

Rioux, M., 1994. Towards a concept of Equality of Well-Being: Overcoming the Social and Legal Construction of Inequality. Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence [online], 7 (1), 127-147. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0841820900002605 [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0841820900002605

Scott, J., Dex, S., and Plagnol, A.C., eds., 2012. Gendered Lives: Gendered Inequalities in Production and Reproduction. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781849806275

Sheppard, C., 1990a. Equality in Context: Judicial Approaches in Canada and the United States. University of New Brunswick Law Journal, 39, 111-125.

Sheppard, C., 1990b. Recognition of the Disadvantaging of Women: The Promise of Andrews v Law Society of British Columbia. McGill Law Journal [online], vol. 35, 207-234. Available from: http://lawjournal.mcgill.ca/userfiles/other/8055201-Sheppard.pdf [Accessed 18 July 2018].

Sheppard, C., 2010. Inclusive Equality: The Relational Dimensions of Systemic Discrimination in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773580886

Williams, J., 2000. Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do about It. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195094640.001.0001

Williams, S.H., 1993. Feminist Legal Epistemology. Berkeley Women’s Law Journal [online], 8 (1), 63-105. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38FW1S [Accessed 18 July 2018].

Young, M., 1997-98. Sameness / Difference: A Tale of Two Girls. Review of Constitutional Studies [online], 4 (1), 150-166. Available from: https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/images/journals/review/4-1young.pdf [Accessed 18 July 2018].

Young, M., 2006. Blissed Out: Section 15 at Twenty. In: S. McIntyre and S. Rodgers, eds., Diminishing Returns: Inequality and the “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms”. Markham: LexisNexis, 45-69.

Young, M., 2013. Social Justice and the Charter: Comparison and Choice. Osgoode Hall Law Journal [online], 50 (3), 669-698. Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2310253 [Accessed 18 July 2018]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1020

Downloads

Published

31-12-2018

How to Cite

Réaume, D. (2018) “Turning Feminist Judgments into Jurisprudence: The Women’s Court of Canada on Substantive Equality”, Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 8(9), pp. 1307–1324. doi: 10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-0994.