The Perils of Identity

Calls for the provision of group rights have become a common part of
Canada's political and legal landscape. Many liberal theorists
consider group identity claims a necessary condition of equality, but
do they do more harm than good?

To answer this question, Caroline Dick engages in a critical
analysis of liberal identity theories and their application in the
Supreme Court of Canada, particularly in Sawridge Band v.
Canada, a case that sets a First Nation's right to govern
community membership against indigenous women's right to
equality. She contrasts Charles Taylor's theory of identity
recognition, Will Kymlicka's cultural theory of minority rights,
and Avigail Eisenberg's theory of identity-related interests with
an alternative rights framework that takes account of both group and
in-group differences. Dick concludes that the problem is not the
concept of identity per se but rather the way in which prevailing
conceptions of identity and group rights frameworks obscure the
interests of intragroup minorities such as women.

In response to the question - what are judges to
do? - Dick proposes a politics of intragroup difference that
has the potential to transform the way the courts address group
identity claims and issues such as Aboriginal rights in Canada and
around the world.

Caroline Dick is an assistant professor in the
Department of Political Science at the University of Western
Ontario.