The transformation of Canadian equality rights law

This dissertation evaluates Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence under s. 15 the equality rights guarantee of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The goal is to assess the openings for, and the impediments to, advancing the equality of disadvantaged groups.;The dissertation begins with an analysis of selected scholarly challenges to rights, as a point of departure for developing a framework for inquiry which posits that certain conceptions of equality rights are inimical to the aspirations of disadvantaged groups, and which understands equality rights litigation in Canada as an important terrain of contestation about the meaning of equality itself.;The questions considered are: (1) what progress has been made in the ongoing struggle to displace formal equality thinking? (2) how have conceptual boundaries been disputed and manipulated so as to allow some equality claims to be recognized while others have been kept at bay? (3) what are the obstacles to forward movement in the jurisprudence? The principal focus is on the construction of 'equality' and 'discrimination' as concepts within equality rights doctrine.;The claim is that formal equality has been disrupted, but not displaced. The Supreme Court's equality jurisprudence contains vestiges of classical legal thought and the attendant values of nineteenth century liberalism. The cases also indicate signs of a shift towards a conception of equality fights that is less hostile to groups, confirming that the view, held by some scholars, of Canadian courts as permanently locked into a United States Supreme Court 1905 Lochner mindset is inaccurate. But the transition is uneven and incomplete.;The social conservatism of some members of the Court, cloaked in the language of relevance and judicial deference, is one issue for equality rights theory. The more significant threat is the persistence of neutral treatment as the equality paradigm. The Court's attachment to the ideal of neutrality is in conflict with the goal of reducing disparities between groups because it requires blindness with respect to the very characteristics that are frequently associated with inequality.;Recent decisions of the Court provide fresh encouragement to the struggle to move equality jurisprudence forward.