Abstract
This article deals with the 2002–2005 controversy over faith-based arbitration tribunals in Ontario. It seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the question by looking at new empirical sources. The analysis focuses specifically on the public discourse of social actors who opposed the creation of arbitration tribunals for Christians, Jews and Muslims. The majority of those who opposed arbitration tribunals did not formulate their position in terms of an opposition between religion and feminist values. Rather, they focused their arguments on the danger of Islam, which they perceived as an oppressive and alien religion. The controversy over religious arbitration becomes a way to claim a Western, secular and Judeo-Christian Canadian identity. From this perspective, the Ontarian controversy can be likened to European debates on Islam that have emerged over the last decade (e.g. caricatures of Muhammad in Denmark, minarets in Switzerland and the burqa ban in Belgium).
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Alain-G Gagnon, Director of the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la diversité (CRIDAQ) and Will Kymlicka for their pertinent advice during the preparation of this article. I also wish to thank Jean Baubérot and Michel Wieviorka for their constructive comments about certain aspects of the argument develop here.
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©2016 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- A Comparison of the Economic Growth of the Baltic States between the Two World Wars
- The Controversy over Religious Arbitration Tribunals in Ontario: Unspoken Identity-Based Justifications?
- Human Rights, Institutions and the Division of Moral Labor
- From Parliamentarisation Towards Presidentialisation: Institutional Aspects of Local Political Leadership in Slovenia
- Mixed Electoral Systems: A Hybrid or a New Family of Electoral Systems?
- Signaling Legitimacy: Self-legitimation by the G8 and the G20 in Times of Competitive Multilateralism
- Central European MEPs and Their Roles: Behavioral Strategies in the European Parliament
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- A Comparison of the Economic Growth of the Baltic States between the Two World Wars
- The Controversy over Religious Arbitration Tribunals in Ontario: Unspoken Identity-Based Justifications?
- Human Rights, Institutions and the Division of Moral Labor
- From Parliamentarisation Towards Presidentialisation: Institutional Aspects of Local Political Leadership in Slovenia
- Mixed Electoral Systems: A Hybrid or a New Family of Electoral Systems?
- Signaling Legitimacy: Self-legitimation by the G8 and the G20 in Times of Competitive Multilateralism
- Central European MEPs and Their Roles: Behavioral Strategies in the European Parliament