Issue 1: Caring Society v Canada: Neoliberalism, Social Reproduction, and Indigenous Child Welfare

In January 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada v Canada (Caring Society) found that the Canadian government had discriminated against Indigenous children on reserve in its provision of funding for child welfare and certain other services. Caring Society is a case about the daily and generational work that is needed in any society to ensure social, cultural, and economic survival, or what feminist political economists call social reproduction. This article thus asks a central question of this decision: are the main constitutional issues it raises best understood as contests over, and crises of, care

Feminist Reflections on the Scope of Labour Law: Domestic Work, Social Reproduction and Jurisdiction

Drawing on feminist labour law and political economy literature, I argue that it is crucial to interrogate the personal and territorial scope of labour. After discussing the “commodification” of care, global care chains, and body work, I claim that the territorial scope of labour law must be expanded beyond that nation state to include transnational processes. I use the idea of social reproduction both to illustrate and to examine some of the recurring regulatory dilemmas that plague labour markets. I argue that unpaid care and domestic work performed in the household, typically by women, troubles the personal scope of labour law. I use the example of this specific type of personal service relation to illustrate my claim that the jurisdiction of labour law is historical and contingent, rather than conceptual and universal. I conclude by identifying some of the implications of redrawing the territorial and personal scope of labour law in light of feminist understandings of social reproduction

The structure of post-starburst galaxies at 0.5 < z < 2: evidence for two distinct quenching routes at different epochs

We present an analysis of the structure of post-starburst (PSB) galaxies in the redshift range 0.5 1), PSBs are typically massive (M* > 10^10 Msun), very compact and exhibit high Sérsic indices, with structures that differ significantly from their star-forming progenitors but are similar to massive passive galaxies. In contrast, at lower redshift (0.5 1 have been recently quenched during a major disruptive event (e.g. merger or protogalactic collapse) that formed a compact remnant, while at z < 1 an alternative less disruptive process is primarily responsible. Our results suggest that high-z PSBs are an intrinsically different population to those at lower redshifts, and indicate different quenching routes are active at different epochs

Issue 1: Caring Society v Canada: Neoliberalism, Social Reproduction, and Indigenous Child Welfare

In January 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada v Canada (Caring Society) found that the Canadian government had discriminated against Indigenous children on reserve in its provision of funding for child welfare and certain other services. Caring Society is a case about the daily and generational work that is needed in any society to ensure social, cultural, and economic survival, or what feminist political economists call social reproduction. This article thus asks a central question of this decision: are the main constitutional issues it raises best understood as contests over, and crises of, care

Feminism, Federalism and Families: Canada’s Mixed Social Policy Architecture

In 2018, with a self-declared feminist prime minister, a federal commitment to gender-based budget analysis, and a Cabinet composed of ministers who are 50 percent women, Canada’s social policy architectureis being transformed. This transformation is taking place alongside the rise of a reactionary conservative populism abroad and on the heels of almost a decade of federal Conservative social policy based on "family-values" in Canada. Despite its comparatively progressive character, Canada’s social policy architecture remains nested in a liberal welfare state model, with potentially deleterious outcomes especially for mothers, lower income, and racialized women. Further, populist discourses around families, and the social and tax policies associated with them, remain popular among many voters. Such approaches are often regressive and may entrench inequalities, yet they continue to flavour some of Canada’s policies related to families. This article explores some of the consequences of Canada’s family policy incoherence. It examines key federal family-related policies over the last decade, including the Liberal government’s recent extension of parental leaves to eighteen months, its income-based targeting of childcare spending, and its 2018 Gender Equality Budget. This exploration: (1) offers a dynamic theoretical framework for understanding gender in relation to law and social policy; (2) considers why families and federalism are complex political and policy terrain; (3) catalogues Canada’s mixed family policy architecture; and (4) recommends that a feminist future in Canadian social policy will require deviation from the current trajectory to include recalibration of parental leaves and an orientation to childcare as a public good