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Actual Uses Versus Paper Owners: The Ontario Court of Appeal’s Decision in Kosicki v Toronto (City) in Context
No full textSexual Assault, Fault and the Charter
No full textThe Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the criminal law of sexual assault have in many ways grown up together over the last four decades. In this article we examine the impact of the Charter on the fault requirement for sexual assault and sexual offences against children. We argue that the Charter has been used repeatedly to undermine the early gains of feminist law reform and that courts have gone out of their way to avoid the reasonable steps provisions of the Criminal Code. Courts are consistently reluctant to expect men to desist from sexual activity until they have the necessary information around the presence of consent or the adult age of the complainant. We urge the Supreme Court of Canada to clarify that the reasonable steps provision is a clear expression of legislative intent to modify the mens rea for the relevant offences and to add a constitutionally permissible objective component to that mens rea. As such, reasonable steps provisions were intended, and should operate as, an independent path to conviction where an accused fails to raise a reasonable doubt that such steps were taken
\u27Decide one more time\u27: Prostitution and Sexual Intelligence in the Early Writings of Andrea Dworkin
No full textAndrea Dworkin’s first book, Woman Hating, was published in 1974, and written while Dworkin was in her 20s. It is experimental, literary, and ultimately hopeful. Right Wing Women, which had its start as a Ms. Magazine article in 1977, was expanded into a book in 1983. The most difficult of Dworkin’s works to find today, it was also her least favourite, owing to the academic conventions demanded by the publisher. It is dense, political and unflinching in its criticism. Despite their differences, these two books demonstrate the evolution of Dworkin’s thinking as she grapples with a central feminist contradiction – the need to remake the world while simultaneously living in it. Dworkin’s message in both books is that sexual liberation without sex equality is not the revolution we need. Women aligned with the male Left fail to understand both that Right-wing women are striking a clear-eyed bargain with their oppressors, but also that Left-wing women are in denial about doing exactly the same thing. Forty years later, the contemporary relevance of the analysis developed in these works is striking, even as the legal and material conditions of women’s lives have changed in many ways from the world that Dworkin describes. This paper focuses on the resonance of Dworkin’s analysis for the current feminist debates around prostitution. Dworkin was consistent in her identification of prostitution as incompatible with women’s freedom and equality. Read together, these early writings help us to understand why so many women, on both the Right and the Left, believe that their equality can be achieved while other women continue to be prostituted, and why women continue to look the other way when faced with this expression of male sexual entitlement
The labours of life : examining the challenges for paid domestic workers in India, social reproduction theory, and the fight for legal rights
No full textThe full abstract for this item is available in the body of the item, and will be available when the embargo expires
Sorting Out Surrogacy: Three Considerations for Evidence-Informed Law Reform
No full textThis article draws on novel survey research with surrogates in Canada—the Exploring Surrogates Experiences and Insights Survey—to examine three critical issues for potential law reform: (1) reimbursement and compensation (i.e., payment); (2) the work of surrogacy agencies; and (3) surrogacy arrangements involving foreign intended parents. Following a brief history of the regulation of surrogacy in Canada and a description of the survey’s methods, it explores each of these areas in turn, using the survey results to identify considerations for law reform. It argues that while the current legislative and regulatory framework largely addresses key issues related to commercialization and commodification, it does not adequately consider other crucial areas of concern, namely the influence of surrogacy agencies and the rise of transnational surrogacy, necessitating more comprehensive federal regulation
The Logic of the Revenge Tax
No full textWei Cui is a professor in the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. In this article, Cui argues that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s formerly proposed section 899, targeting “unfair” foreign taxes, was more sensible than many observers initially perceived, and that, if seen as a restrained deployment of U.S. market power, it represented a defensible and ultimately acceptable approach for addressing the undertaxed profits rule and digital services taxes
Intersecting Abuse of People and Animals in Practice: Implications of the Connection Between Intimate Partner Violence and Animal Abuse for Family Justice Professionals
Get PDFAccording to recent estimates, 60% of Canadian homes have at least one cat or dog, and the number continues to climb. Often considered family members, these animals are vulnerable to family violence. Their presence can also render human victims of violence more vulnerable: research indicates many victims delay leaving their abuser out of concern for their animals or consider returning to the abusive relationship because their abuser has the animal companions. Despite a substantial body of literature documenting the link between intimate partner violence (IPV) and animal abuse, research has not examined how family law professionals encounter and deal with it in their practices. Given that these professionals are often among the first to encounter those aiming to end an abusive relationship, their perspectives are key to understanding how to better serve impacted victims/survivors. This study sought to understand the perspectives of family law professionals in Canada using a self-administered online survey (n=348) and in-depth follow-up qualitative interviews (n=12). Although most participants reported confronting the connection between animal abuse and IPV in their practice, they were uncertain how to best address it. The findings point to six recommendations that should be prioritized: providing family law practitioners with relevant training and resources; educating the judiciary; establishing guidelines for when and how to report animal abuse; screening for the presence of companion animals in client intake forms and other family law forms that screen for IPV; clarifying how ownership or guardianship of companion animals should be determined in cases where there is IPV; and amending protection order legislation to enable the explicit inclusion of companion animals
