Islamic law in Canada: Marriage and divorce

Islamic Law in Canada: Marriage and Divorce provides an analysis of how Canadian society and the Canadian judicial system have responded to the use of the Shari'a to resolve issues relating to Islamic marriage and divorce in Canada. This dissertation explores two instances where Canadian society has been forced to address the role of the Shari'a in Canada and its interaction with Canadian laws and values. The first involves the debate that took place in Ontario over the last decade concerning the use of Islamic arbitration in family matters. This public debate ultimately led to the rejection of faith-based arbitration in that province, a decision apparently consistent with traditional Canadian attitudes towards multiculturalism. The second area of interaction between Canadian and Islamic law is within the Canadian court system itself. In particular, Canadian judges are occasionally required to grapple with Islamic family law issues when rendering judgments on certain cases that appear before them. This dissertation will examine a number of such cases in order to illustrate how the Shari'a has been addressed by Canadian judges. The overall aim of this work is to situate Islamic law within Canada's liberal framework. It is argued that although Canadians are amenable to certain levels of diversity, values that fall outside mainstream liberalism are not granted recognition. This dissertation will also demonstrate that the failure to legitimize Islamic arbitration represents a lost opportunity that would have broadened the scope of Canadian justice to include minority voices. The decision to reject faith-based arbitration will motivate some Muslims to seek justice from ad-hoc bodies of authority. Devoid of government oversight, these forms of underground Islamic justice may negatively affect certain members of Canada's Muslim community.