Premium Essay

Equality in Canada

In:

Submitted By ronnie123
Words 2425
Pages 10
I found myself thinking sociologically when I realized that equality in Canada is less practiced as what the Canadian Constitution Act of 1982 claims. In this constitution, it is stated that every individual should be treated equally regardless of their race, ethnicity, colour, religion, sex, age, and any disability; however, in reality, individuals experience inequality in the form of racism throughout the Canadian society. For instance, a few months ago, a black male was asked to leave the St. Laurent shopping centre by the mall securities as the position of his pants were viewed as not family-friendly but this type of fashion is normal for teenagers who are influenced by the hip-hop culture. As the man did not want to cause any trouble, he obeyed the securities but as he was escorted, the securities used unnecessary forces which caused scars and bruises to the individual. Furthermore, the black male was arrested and detained for 3 hours, then fined $65 by the Ottawa Police, and banned from the mall for 5 years. One witness stated that this was a case of racial profiling as she saw that the mall securities had no reason to assault the individual. Although many deny the existence of racism in the Canadian society, this type of inequality still largely exists. To further analyze this topic, articles written by various scholars on racial profiling in the criminal justice system and racism in the workplace in Canada will be compared and contrasted. Moreover, various sociological concepts learned from the class will be applied to explain racism. In addition, the Symbolic interactionist and Conflict perspectives will be compared and contrasted to have a better understanding of racism.
Racism has been a long-standing problem that various individuals face in the Canadian society throughout the history. Particularly, racism has been an issue observed in the workplace. In

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Pierre Elliott Trudeau: Should Canada Be A Just Society?

...Pierre Elliott Trudeau was a Canadian politician then the 15th Prime Minister of Canada. He remained in office for 15 years as a popular liberal leader. Trudeau’s opinions were widely supported by Canadians. On September 9, 1968, he gave a speech expressing his perception of how Canada should be a “just society”. Woman, LBGTQ people, and natives are all groups that make up a significant part of our society. The equality of all people, including those of these three groups contribute to the way the Canada portrayed by others. As of today Canada can be considered a “just society” in the way P.E. Trudeau defined it. Women’s equality in Canada is important when being called a just society. The government supports the rights of the female population,...

Words: 848 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Medicare

...human equality, yet so few nations do little to prove it. Canada, however, is not most nations. One of Canada’s central operating principles is to use public policy in unique and bold ways to ensure and promote sensible, everyday equality. Medicare is Canada’s best example. Not one single public policy implement ever did more to let the country live up to its equality ideal. Since the inception of Medicare, Canadian society has evolved into a much more inclusive of, accessible to, and tolerant of individuals with various types of disabilities and illnesses. Medicare is Canada’s defining moment as it has ultimately set Canada as the country it is today. Medicare's influential impact on Canadian society was recognized globally and put into effect in other nations all around the world. Equality then became a definition which every Canadian citizen understood. Medicare, as some have labelled “the most Canadian of programs” is the one program that best represents what Canadians value and hold dear. Health care has long been regarded as the most popular public policy in Canada; Canadians feel more strongly about the health care system than conceivably any other issue. Furthermore, publicly-funded health care is tied directly to Canada’s national identity and differentiates Canada from its American neighbours like few other establishments. Moreover, “in 2005, 85% of Canadians believed that ‘eradicating’ public health care’ represented a ‘deep-seated change to the nature of Canada’”. Health...

Words: 1204 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Canada Collective Rights

...Collective rights are an important part of the Constitution of Canada. Six groups in Canada have collective rights, which includes, Aboriginal peoples, First Nations, Métis, Inuit peoples and Francophones and Anglophones. Francophone and Anglophones have benefited the most from the collective rights in Canada. How do we know that Francophones and Anglophones have benefited the most from collective rights? We can compare how Francophones and Anglophones got their rights, what rights they have and how secure their rights are compared to the other groups in Canada who have collective rights. How did the Francophones and Anglophones get their rights? It all started in 1608 when Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec; one hundred and...

Words: 934 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Women's Suffrage In Canada

...From the beginning of time and up until 1918 in Canada, women weren’t allowed by law to vote. This was due to many believing that women were not equal to men, were intellectually inferior to men and that they should not have involvement in politics. As time went on women began to oppose the unfair and unjust treatment towards having no right or say in how the country was run. This is when the suffrage movement was born. The suffrage movement is defined as “the fight for the right of women to vote and run for office” ("Women’s Suffrage Movement", n.d.). After much conflict and opposition, women had won the right to vote and stand for election to the House of Commons in 1918. Women receiving the right to vote allowed them to have more involvement in politics and their society. By women achieving the right to vote in Canada it allowed women for the first time in Canadian history, to be appointed as senates and other positions of authority in politics and the running of the country. And on June 25, 1993, Kim Campbell won the vote as Canada’s ninetieth Prime Minister and the first women to be elected as Prime Minister. Campbell was a spokesperson for women’s health in Canada and supported the increase of abortion services available to Women and highlighted the need to reaffirm rights of sexual assault victims ("Kim Campbell:...

Words: 2190 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Stop Bullying In Canada

...Canada is a great country and we have many good things here. There is also a huge void and as grade 9’s we need to get the message across to others - meaning no more racism, bullying, and gender equality. We need to have love, tolerance and respect for each other. We can make the choice to end these issues and make Canada even better! Racism has been going on forever! We need to stop hurting people just because of their color, heritage or beliefs. Immigrants are in constant fear of being the target of a hate crime. Global News reported that “The number of police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslim-Canadians more than doubled over a three-year period.” The hate crime rate across Canada is 3.7 per 100,000 people. Ontario has the highest...

Words: 987 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Politics

...“Reasonable accommodation refers to the idea that equality rights set out in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms demands that accommodation be made to various ethnic minorities. The concept is especially applied with reference to the anti-discrimination laws in Québec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.” (Rock, Hoag) Multicultural and ‘multiculturalism are terms commonly used to refer to “a social condition of ethnic and racial multiplicity, to a government policy for addressing the problems associated with such range, and to an ideal of interethnic harmony and cooperation on the basis of equality”. (Harold Troper) As an ideal or ideology, multiculturalism sets a standard for the equal treatment of new and minority members of an existing national society. It seems as though many calls for accommodation come from the advocates of mixed-up political precision, the promoters of multiculturalism, diversity and communitarianism. For them, the presence of permanent ethnic and religious groups and of collective rights attached to them is a public good. Reasonable accommodation is one of the ways of upholding differences and the negotiation of the level of accommodation. This model of Canada is what Joe Clark meant when he said that Canada is a “community of communities.” (James) The opponents of accommodation, especially in Quebec, are often inspired by French republicanism, by views of secularism, of equality and of integration of newcomers as equals into...

Words: 1438 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Income Inequality in Canada: How Does Manitoba Compare? Can We Do Better?

...v i e w E c o n o m i c & S o c i a l Tr e n d s September 2012 Income Inequality in Canada: How does Manitoba compare? Can we do better? The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has been documenting the rise in inequality in Canada since 2006. More recently, the Conference Board of Canada and the OECD have confirmed this trend. These organizations also report that inequality in Canada is now increasing faster than is the case in many other countries. In their highly acclaimed 2009 book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, Wilkinson and Pickett showed the impact of inequality on a variety of measures such as levels of crime, teenage pregnancies, life expectancy and educational achievement (to name a few). The study concluded that countries that are most equal do best. If Canada wants to measure up to more equal countries, the growing gap between rich and poor will need to be addressed. The federal government has the most important role to play in redressing the imbalance. CCPA and others have suggested how poverty and inequality can be tackled through improved policies and programs, and better redistribution of wealth through taxes and transfers at the federal level. But provincial governments also have a responsibility. A recent study in Ontario shows that province to be the most unequal. Our analysis looks at the trend in inequality across Canada with a focus on measuring progress in Manitoba for individuals earning market incomes. As...

Words: 2765 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Women in the Canadian Military

...the Canadian Womens Army Corps (C.W.A.C) paved the future for women in the military as equals. Through devotion, consistent bravery, and dedication, the C.W.A.C had provided a base for equality between men and women in the Canadian Army. Women played a large role in World War Two, the C.W.A.C performed many acts of devotion. The Canadian Womens Army Corps was not always around. Before the C.W.A.C women were a part of small groups across Canada, such as the Women's Volunteer Reserve Corps (from central Canada and the Maritime provinces) or the Canadian Territorial Service (from Ontario and the Western provinces).[i] A short period of time after the creation of the Canadian Women's Army Corps, almost 22,000 volunteers had enlisted.[ii] This proved devotion and challenged many twentieth century traditions. To prove equality, women even took physical and knowledge based courses to improve themselves for the military. The women acing these tests could prove they were equals, as well as devoted t their careers in the military.[iii] Everything these ladies did, was to prove their devotion and equality, as well as their bravery. During World War Two acts of bravery were extremely common. Approximately 3000 women served overseas, just in World War Two.[iv] The women’s bravery showed to prove equality with men in the military every day. Jerri Mumford was one of many to prove herself. In 1944 she was one of the 11 women from the Canadian Army Corps to travel to Italy. She helped to evacuate...

Words: 640 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Royal Commissions in Canada: Comparing the Significance of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

...immigration, and the penal system. This paper will compare two of numerous federal investigations that have taken place in Canada between the years 1868 and 2008: the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada (The Bird Commission) and the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Both of these commissions tackle matters of early childhood education and care, education, the Indian Act, economic self-reliance, special treatment, the renewal of a relationship, the private sector, and the criminal code. After a more extensive comparison has been achieved between these two reports, I will decide which commission has had the largest impact on our Canadian constitution. Before forming a comparison, it is important that I explain briefly how each of these federal commissions came before us: Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson instituted the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada (RCSW) in February of 1967 (Royal Commission on the Status of Women, vii). It was launched as a direct response to a six-month campaign mounted by a coalition of thirty-two women's organizations and led by Ontario activist Laura Sabia, who, at the time, was president of the Canadian Federation of University Women (Encyclopædia Britannia). Sabia called a meeting of the coalition in Toronto in May of 1966 to discuss concerns surrounding the status of women in Canada. Because of the coalition’s lobbying efforts, mounting pressure in the media, and a threat from Sabia to lead a women’s march...

Words: 2594 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

The Three Waves of Feminism

...Feminism in Canada has been shifting, reforming and reinventing itself since its inception in the late nineteenth century in an effort to bring a genuine sense of equality to both men and women across the country. Though feminism takes many different forms – classical feminism, liberal feminism, post-modern feminism etc. – each definition maintains commonalities which attempt to shed light on issues related specifically to the historical disadvantages of women and the goal of egalitarianism. In Canada, feminism has unfolded in three distinct stages often referred to as the three waves of feminism: (i) the first wave started in the late nineteenth century characterized by basic demands for equality via suffrage and recognition as persons; (ii) the second wave originated during World War II taking a more proactive approach to women’s workforce and reproductive rights; and (iii) the third wave began in the 1990’s challenging broader issues of equality such as racism, capitalism and colonialism. The following essay will analyse each wave based on their chronological time frame, ideological foundation and the social movements which emerged as a by product. First wave feminism started the general movement and, even though its goals and fundamental ideology may seem drastically different from second and third wave feminism, it should be credited with forming the foundation in which the fight for gender equality originated. First wave feminists were primarily driven by maternal feminism...

Words: 840 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Canada in the 1970s

...discrimination, and language rights. A few of the political issues were immigration, refugees seeking asylum in Canada, and the challenge of humanitarianism of Canadians. Economically, Canada faced the most problems here; “oil price shock”, “supply shocks”, stagflation, and inflation. Throughout the 1970s, Canadians were changing Canada’s society to become more equal in the context of racism, gender discrimination, and language rights. Pierre Elliott Trudeau was trying to build Canadian society to a “just” society where it is multicultural and everyone would live in harmony. Throughout the 1970s federal government implanted new social programs and expanded the old ones. In the 1960s women's rights activists demanded the establishment of the Royal Commission on the status of women. In December of 1970 that document included new recommendations such as; providing daycare services for working women, prohibiting gender discrimination bias or marital status, unemployment benefits to working women on maternity leave, and wages established based on skills and responsibility rather than gender. The Women's movement was a defining moment for Canada’s society in the 1970s. Canadian women all agreed on the basic need to improve the situation of women; to fight racism and sexism. Women demanded affirmative action in the workplace; many employers created programs to create better equality between males and females job categories. During 1974 women began to make their place in politics, 14 women...

Words: 1112 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Pierre Trudeau's Role In Shaping Canada

...Many hands were responsible in shaping Canada into what it is today. One significant political figure who contributed in this was Pierre Trudeau. Winning a majority government with his Liberals, Trudeau became the 15th Prime Minister of Canada in 1968 (Whitaker 13). Effectively taking advantage of his authority, he helped strengthen Canada as a country, all the while assuring its unity as a nation. He maintained stability between French and English speaking Canadians and recognized Canada's stand globally as an independent country, as he continued to protect the rights and freedoms of all his citizens. All these aspects establish Pierre Trudeau as a positive defining leader who marked his stand in Canadian history. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau...

Words: 921 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Canadian Identity

...Democracy is a form of government or accord by society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges. Canada exhibits a democratic government that protects the interests and demands of minority groups, who are free from discrimination and their rights and privileges are valued equally to those of the majority. Through political, human and cilvil rights, social well-fare systems, and international relations, Canada has formed a strong governmental institution that fosters an inclusive democracy. Between 1945-2014, the Canadian identity transitioned to an inclusive democratic society defined by domestic social reforms and international commitments to the global community In the last seventy years, Canada developed lawful political, human and civil rights within the nation and in the global community. In May of 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organizations, to draw up the United Nations Charter. Canada participated in the San Francisco conferences as a founding member of the Unite Nations. The Charter strived for collective security to avoid war, to develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international co-operation in solving international problems and promoting and encouraging respect for human and civil rights. Canada’s participation in the United Nations was instrumental in a global reputation of humanitarian contributions. Canada’s dedication to fundamental human rights internationally...

Words: 819 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Justin Trudeau's Argumentative Analysis

...Equality— there is a common source of argument. In 2015 Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada when he was elected, he had made his liberal party 50 percent men and 50 percent women as a cabinet for the parliament party. And when he was asked that question why from a reporter he PM Trudeau made a statement saying “ It’s 2015” PM Trudeau is trying to create gender equality in Canada. However, if we look at gender equality, it has not changed much. Looking from a perspective, as a sports enthusiast and a player point of view. If you notice in Canada and the USA we have four major sports industries. National Hockey League (NHL), National Basketballs Association (NBA), Major Baseball League (MBL), and also National Football League (NFL) all these sports are played and performed by men. Yes, there is Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and as well as the Women National Hockey League (WNHL) but the media often does not promote these sports. Is it because women should not be allowed to play men dominated sports and play sports with “sexual appealing clothing” as you see in the Women’s National Football League (WNFL)....

Words: 441 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Citizenship

...Sample Research Paper on Citizenship Introduction Citizenship is being defined as the relationship between the state and individuals. Historically citizenship is being inevitably linked with the state formation. Originally citizenship was denoting residence of people within protected walls of a city. Thus, whoever belonged to a community residing inside the boundaries was considered a citizen. Later this term has acquired a different meaning and the standards and definitions of citizenship have changed. There were many reasons that have caused such changes: history proceeded with its migrations, wars and annexation and along on its way brought new meanings to citizenship. Such change in definition, for example, can be found in suffrage granted to women and the nonpropertied classes. Paupers, convicts and soldiers are another example of how political and civil rights were once a privilege of certain classes only (Dahrendorf, 1974, p. 11). With the introduction of mass democracy and social protection as well as introduction of welfare state a need in the new conception that would look on the relationship on an individual and the state appeared consequently. The norms of citizenship, therefore, have improved with the development of state and citizenship became a multination concept, which implies different things to different nations (Dahrendorf, 1974, p. 12). According to Michael Ignatieff (1995), the introduction of the welfare state can be explained as an attempt to make citizenship...

Words: 5963 - Pages: 24