Collective Diversity and Jurisdictional Accommodations in Constitutional Perspective

Research output: Chapter

Abstract

This chapter is a meditation on historical and emergent constitutional concepts of jurisdiction in the Canadian context of diversity. It explores the shifting composition of the Canadian population against the background of current constitutional values. This exploration reconsiders the constitutional accommodation of diversity in jurisdictional terms. The chapter is divided into two main parts. The first part examines the contemporary sociopolitical landscape and the nature and kind of legal conflicts generated from it. I begin by arguing that the composition of the people over whom the constitution has authority is changing. The first section describes the statistical terms of this demographic and social shift. I predict that this shift will expose new sites of tension in constitutional theory and adjudication. The old fault lines were French versus English Canada, in identitarian terms; or Quebec versus other provinces, in juridical terms. Now Quebec hosts its own set of tensions among French Québécois, English Quebeckers, Aboriginal peoples, and newcomers. These tensions can be extrapolated, albeit with slightly different cleavages, to the country at large, which is beset by new categories of conflicts. At first glance, this presents a problem of mis-mapping, in which old constitutional forms are transposed onto a new constitutional population.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Canadian Constitution in Transition
EditorsRichard Albert, Paul Daly , Vanessa MacDonnell
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press
Pages193-215
Number of pages23
ISBN (Print)978-1-4875-0394-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Bibliographical note

doi:10.3138/9781487523022.008

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