Canadian Law

When we talk about Canada, the world views it as a country that represents the utmost perfection in the way it treats its people. Although Canada is a stable and a strong country that stands alongside equality and fairness for all people, if one looks closely, we can see that statistics show a different side of the story. With about 1.2 million aboriginals living in impoverished conditions (Comack, 2014, p.3), over 1.5 million women living on low incomes (Comack, 2014, p.4) and racialized families experiencing discrimination three times more than non-racialized families (Comack, 2014, p.4),one may wonder how Canada and its legal system is securing the “fairness” and “equality” for these particular groups. In this essay, I will question on

Before I go ahead and explain why the Official Version of the Law is faulty, we need to understand what it is and what it claims. According to Naffine’s definition: “The official version of the law- what the legal world would have us believe about itself – is that it is impartial, neutral and objective system for resolving social conflict.”(Comack & Balfour,2004, p.22). This doctrine is founded on two major principles: the rule of law and “Equality of all before the law” (Comack &Balfour, 2004, p.22). The rule of law states that everyone is subjected to the law despite of their ranks and status. “Equality of all before the law” implies that the law treats everyone as legal equals, meaning that everyone that commits a crime is treated equally before the law. Both of these principles is to ensure that the

From the case regarding the aboriginal woman, we can see that her race was used against her by using racist stereotypes to validate the credibility of her testimony. If the victim was not aboriginal and perhaps white, would the question of race be part of the process or would they have focused on the crime that was committed? Similarly, gendering strategies are used to prevail the society’s concept of the dominating men and subordinate women. Since aggression is normalized among men, the law does not focus on why men commit violent crimes. This can be clearly seen in the case of the woman that testified against her rapist. All of this information can be used to conclude that ‘The Official Version of the Law’ is not impartial or neutral and definitely does not treat everyone