Degree

Master of Laws

Program

Law

Supervisor

Professor Christopher Sherrin

Abstract

Guided by prison abolition ethic and intersectional feminism, my key argument is that Charter section 15 is the ideal means of eradicating solitary confinement and its adverse impact on women who are Aboriginal, racialized, mentally ill, or immigration detainees. I utilize a provincial superior court’s failing in exploring a discrimination analysis concerning Aboriginal women, to illustrate my key argument. However, because of the piecemeal fashion in which courts can effect developments in the law, the abolition of solitary confinement may very well occur through a series of ‘little wins’. In Chapter 11, I provide a constitutional analysis, arguing that solitary confinement unduly violates Aboriginal women’s Charter section 15 right against discrimination, and therefore, Aboriginal women must not be subjected to it. Hopefully, a discrimination challenge against solitary confinement spearheaded by Aboriginal women will pave the way for future discrimination challenges by other vulnerable women.

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