Law’s Sexual Infections

In 2019, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights published its study on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada. The report recommended removing HIV non-disclosure from sexual assault laws in Canada. This constituted a welcome development for many HIV advocates. Yet other recommendations proved more controversial. In order to counter the exceptional targeting of HIV, the Committee proposed an offence for the non disclosure of all infectious diseases. This article uses the proposal to develop three arguments. First, the idea of creating an offence for all infectious diseases finds its origins in criminal laws dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Second, the report relied on HIV’s exceptional criminal treatment to justify the creation of a new general offence. Third, the proposal reflects what Reva Siegel has called “preservation through transformation.” In the face of HIV advocates’ successful contestation of the terms of HIV criminalization, lawmakers distanced themselves from earlier penal justifications and developed new, seemingly more contemporary rationales to defend the status quo. En 2019, le Comité permanent de la justice et des droits de la personne de la Chambre des communes a publié son étude sur la criminalisation de la non divulgation du VIH au Canada. Le rapport recommandait de retirer la non divulgation du VIH des lois sur les agressions sexuelles au Canada. Cette recommandation a été accueillie favorablement par de nombreux défenseurs du VIH. Cependant, d’autres recommandations se sont avérées plus controversées. Afin de contrer le ciblage exceptionnel du VIH, le Comité a proposé d’ériger en infraction la non-divulgation de toutes les maladies infectieuses. Cet article s’appuie sur cette proposition pour développer trois arguments. Premièrement, l’idée de créer un délit pour toutes les maladies infectieuses trouve son origine dans les lois pénales datant du milieu du XIXe siècle. Deuxièmement, le rapport s’appuie sur le traitement pénal exceptionnel du VIH pour justifier la création d’une nouvelle infraction. Troisièmement, la proposition reflète ce que Reva Siegel a appelé « la préservation par la transformation ». Face à la contestation réussie des termes de la criminalisation du VIH par les défenseurs de la cause, les législateurs ont pris leurs distances par rapport aux justifications pénales antérieures et ont élaboré de nouvelles justifications, apparemment plus contemporaines, pour défendre le statu quo

Book Review: Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary, by Ummni Khan

Book review of Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary, by Ummni Khan

Toby Goes to Catholic School: Gender Expression Human Rights, and Ontario Catholic School Board Policy

In this article, we share findings from an analysis of Ontario Catholic school board policy documents (N = 179) containing Canada’s newest human rights grounds: gender expression and gender identity. Our major finding may be unsurprising—that Ontario Catholic boards are generally not responding to Toby’s Act (passed in 2012) at the level of policy, as few boards have added these grounds in a way that enacts the spirit of that legislation. While this finding is likely unsurprising, our study also yielded findings that unsettle any facile binary of “Catholic boards/bad” and “public secular boards/good” in relation to gender diversity. We also leverage our findings to suggest a striking possibility for a vigorous and doctrinally-compatible embrace of gender expression protections in Catholic schools, if not gender identity protections. We argue that fear of gender expression protections may stem from an erroneous conflation of “gender expression” with “gender identity” when these are in fact separate grounds—a conflation that is also endemic within secular Ontario school board policy; this doubles as a conflation of gender expression with “transgender,” as the latter is unfailingly linked with gender identity human rights. We make a series of recommendations for policy, and a case for Catholic schools embracing their legal duty to provide a learning environment free from gender expression discrimination without doctrinal conflict and arguably with ample doctrinal support, so that students of all gender expressions can flourish regardless of whether they are or will come to know they are transgender.Dans cet article, nous partageons les résultats d’une analyse des documents de politiques des conseils scolaires catholiques de l’Ontario (n = 179) comprenant les plus récents fondements ayant trait aux droits de la personne du Canada : l’expression de genre et l’identité de genre. Notre principale conclusion n’est sûrement pas surprenante : les conseils scolaires catholiques de l’Ontario ne répondent généralement pas à la Loi Toby (adoptée en 2012) sur le plan de leurs politiques, puisque peu de conseils ont décidé d’ajouter ces fondements de façon à permettre que l’esprit de cette loi soit respecté. Bien que cette constatation ne soit pas vraiment surprenante, notre étude a également obtenu des résultats qui remettent en question la notion du binarisme rudimentaire « conseils catholiques, mauvais » et « conseils publics laïcs, bons » en ce qui a trait à la diversité des genres. Nos résultats permettent également d’entrevoir la possibilité prometteuse d’une adoption enthousiaste et doctrinalement compatible à la protection de l’expression de genre dans les écoles catholiques, voire à la protection de l’identité de genre. Nous soutenons que la réticence entourant la protection de l’expression du genre a peut-être pour fondement la confusion des termes « expression de genre » et « identité de genre », alors qu’il s’agit en fait de fondements distincts. Cette convergence est également endémique dans les politiques des conseils scolaires laïcs de l’Ontario, ce qui entraîne en même temps la convergence des termes « expression de genre » et « transgenre », ce dernier étant indéfectiblement lié aux droits de la personne portant sur l’identité de genre. Nous avons rédigé une série de recommandations en matière de politiques, et nous plaidons pour que les écoles catholiques s’acquittent de leur obligation légale de fournir un environnement d’apprentissage exempt de discrimination fondée sur l’expression de genre, sans conflit doctrinal et avec un large soutien doctrinal, afin que les élèves de toutes les expressions de genre puissent s’épanouir, que cette personne soit transgenre ou non

What is "gender expression"? How a New and Nebulous Human Rights Construct Is Taking Shape in Ontario School Board Policy Documents

In 2002, jurisdictions across Canada began adding two new protected grounds to their human rights laws: gender identity and/or gender expression. Gender identity protections generally apply only to transgender people, whereas gender expression protections may apply to all Canadians in places like K–12 schools. However, it remains legally unclear what kind of action, utterance, or pattern constitutes gender expression discrimination, and who can access related protections. In search of clarification, this article explores how the meaning of gender expression is being constructed within policy documents (N = 206) authored at the level of Ontario’s English public secular school boards. Keywords: gender expression, gender identity, transgender, education policy, education law, K–12, Ontario, CanadaEn 2002, des ressorts dans l’ensemble du Canada ont commencé à ajouter deux nouveaux motifs de discrimination interdits à leurs lois sur les droits de la personne, soit l’identité sexuelle et/ou l’expression de l’identité sexuelle ou de genre. Les protections entourant l’identité ne s’appliquent en général qu’aux personnes transgenres, alors que les protections entourant l’expression sexuelle ou de genre peuvent s’appliquer à tous les Canadiens et Canadiennes dans des endroits tels que les écoles élémentaires et secondaires. Une incertitude juridique demeure toutefois à l’égard du type d’action, de propos ou de schéma de comportement qui constitue une discrimination à l’égard de l’expression sexuelle ou de genre et à savoir qui peut se prévaloir des protections qui en découlent. Dans le but de clarifier cet aspect, cet article explore la manière dont la signification de l’expression sexuelle ou de genre est façonnée dans le cadre des politiques (N = 206) adoptées à l’échelon des conseils scolaires publics laïques de l’Ontario. Mots-clés : l’expression de l’identité sexuelle, l’identité sexuelle, transgenre, politique d’éducation, droit de l’éducation, écoles élémentaires et secondaires, Ontario, Canad

Social determinants of place attachment at a World Heritage site

While the work on place attachment is extensive, it neglects to focus on residents' and tourists' perspectives of the construct concurrently. Additionally, the role that social factors play in forging attachment to place is lacking within the tourism literature. This work focuses on whether residents' (n = 469) and tourists' (n = 461) degree of place attachment at the Osun Oshogbo Cultural Festival (Nigeria) were significantly different. Examining the psychometric properties of the place attachment scale in an international context was a second aim. The final purpose of this work was to assess whether social factors (i.e., frequency of interaction and emotional closeness) between residents and tourists could explain the resulting CFA place attachment factors. MANOVA results revealed tourists demonstrated a significantly higher degree of attachment. Each social determinant predicted the attachment factors for both samples, with the two independent variables explaining higher degrees of variance among residents

Sex Crimes: Queer Engagements with the Criminal Law from the Street to the Prison

Over the past three decades, debates in Canada surrounding the introduction of human rights protections, benefits for same-sex couples, and relationship recognition have tended to invoke a new legal subject, one draped in the garb of respectability. When members of queer communities have sought access to legal protections, they have tended to predicate their claims on respectable familial arrangements. Largely absent from this turn to respectability, however, is engagement with the criminal law, particularly in cases where queer people cannot be easily read as the victims of crime. Sex Crimes: Queer Engagements with the Criminal Law from the Street to the Prison returns to the criminal law to examine its continued use as a tool that disciplines â and, at times, fails to discipline â those who cannot be read in terms of respectability. The project weaves together the practices of policing on the street, stories about HIV non-disclosure from the courtroom, and the experiences of queer people in prison. This project argues that when queer people become ensnared in the repressive aspects of criminal justice, the contemporary legal system stops addressing the hardships they face due to their sexual and gender identities. While norms of substantive equality are now well entrenched in the fields of human rights law, family law, and constitutional law, these standards are cast aside when it comes to the administration of punishment. The project concludes by developing a theory of the law and order queer movement, arguing that when queer people code themselves as respectable victims of crime seeking protection from the punitive apparatuses of the carceral state, they run the risk of instantiating law and order agendas. As a result, they may inadvertently breathe new life into systems that continue to be used to discipline the most vulnerable members of queer communities.S.J.D.2019-11-02 00:00:0

Law’s Sexual Infections

In 2019, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights published its study on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada. The report recommended removing HIV non-disclosure from sexual assault laws in Canada. This constituted a welcome development for many HIV advocates. Yet other recommendations proved more controversial. In order to counter the exceptional targeting of HIV, the Committee proposed an offence for the non disclosure of all infectious diseases. This article uses the proposal to develop three arguments. First, the idea of creating an offence for all infectious diseases finds its origins in criminal laws dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. Second, the report relied on HIV’s exceptional criminal treatment to justify the creation of a new general offence. Third, the proposal reflects what Reva Siegel has called “preservation through transformation.” In the face of HIV advocates’ successful contestation of the terms of HIV criminalization, lawmakers distanced themselves from earlier penal justifications and developed new, seemingly more contemporary rationales to defend the status quo. En 2019, le Comité permanent de la justice et des droits de la personne de la Chambre des communes a publié son étude sur la criminalisation de la non divulgation du VIH au Canada. Le rapport recommandait de retirer la non divulgation du VIH des lois sur les agressions sexuelles au Canada. Cette recommandation a été accueillie favorablement par de nombreux défenseurs du VIH. Cependant, d’autres recommandations se sont avérées plus controversées. Afin de contrer le ciblage exceptionnel du VIH, le Comité a proposé d’ériger en infraction la non-divulgation de toutes les maladies infectieuses. Cet article s’appuie sur cette proposition pour développer trois arguments. Premièrement, l’idée de créer un délit pour toutes les maladies infectieuses trouve son origine dans les lois pénales datant du milieu du XIXe siècle. Deuxièmement, le rapport s’appuie sur le traitement pénal exceptionnel du VIH pour justifier la création d’une nouvelle infraction. Troisièmement, la proposition reflète ce que Reva Siegel a appelé « la préservation par la transformation ». Face à la contestation réussie des termes de la criminalisation du VIH par les défenseurs de la cause, les législateurs ont pris leurs distances par rapport aux justifications pénales antérieures et ont élaboré de nouvelles justifications, apparemment plus contemporaines, pour défendre le statu quo

Book Review: Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary, by Ummni Khan

Book review of Vicarious Kinks: S/M In The Socio-Legal Imaginary, by Ummni Khan

Constitutional Cases 2024 (Pt 6) | Courts, Politics and Public Trust

In recent years, potent forces have emerged which are reshaping democratic institutions, constitutionalism and public trust in our courts. Our speakers present different engagements with these questions, including quantitative empirical data, case studies and reflections from comparative perspectives. Panelists: Erin Crandall (Department of Politics, Acadia University) and Andrea Lawlor (Political Science, McMaster University) Kyle Kirkup (Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa) Rosalind Dixon (School of Global & Public Law, University of New South Wales) Chair: Bruce Ryder (Osgoode Hall Law School) The 27th iteration of the Constitutional Cases conference was held on Friday, April 12, 2024. Osgoode Hall Law School’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference, recognized as the leading constitutional law conference in Canada, brings together many highly respected constitutional scholars, lawyers, students, and experts for an insightful and practical analysis of the Supreme Court’s significant constitutional judgments of the past year

Constitutional Cases 2024 (Pt 6) | Courts, Politics and Public Trust

In recent years, potent forces have emerged which are reshaping democratic institutions, constitutionalism and public trust in our courts. Our speakers present different engagements with these questions, including quantitative empirical data, case studies and reflections from comparative perspectives. Panelists: Erin Crandall (Department of Politics, Acadia University) and Andrea Lawlor (Political Science, McMaster University) Kyle Kirkup (Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa) Rosalind Dixon (School of Global & Public Law, University of New South Wales) Chair: Bruce Ryder (Osgoode Hall Law School) The 27th iteration of the Constitutional Cases conference was held on Friday, April 12, 2024. Osgoode Hall Law School’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference, recognized as the leading constitutional law conference in Canada, brings together many highly respected constitutional scholars, lawyers, students, and experts for an insightful and practical analysis of the Supreme Court’s significant constitutional judgments of the past year