Law, Social Control, and How the Law Discriminates

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to how Canadian law has historically and continues to discriminate, focusing on concepts from Critical Race Theory, colonial legacies, and specific discriminatory acts and policies.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

A framework that emphasizes how law constructs and maintains racial hierarchies, shifting criminology’s focus from individual acts to the structural role of law in producing inequality, and arguing law is never neutral.

Traditional Criminological Perspectives (before CRT)

Approaches that often assumed color-blindness or equality before the law, explaining racial disparities through subcultural, social, or economic differences rather than systemic racism.

Key Thinkers in CRT

Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Williams, and Richard Delgado, who emphasized how law constructs and maintains racial hierarchies.

Colonial Rule (in Canada)

The imposition of British law and policy on Indigenous nations, displacing existing systems, framing Indigenous peoples as “uncivilized,” and using law as a main tool for land dispossession and racialized categories of belonging.

The Indian Act (1867-Present)

A central piece of Canadian colonial legislation still in force that criminalized Indigenous cultural practices, outlawed Indigenous governance, established the reserve system, and enforced assimilation under the guise of 'civilizing' Indigenous peoples.

Alcohol prohibitions (Indigenous peoples)

Discriminatory laws applied only to Indigenous peoples, barring them from purchasing, possessing, or consuming alcohol, which constructed racialized stereotypes and reinforced their status as subjects of state control.

Continuous Journey Regulation (1908)

A Canadian immigration law that required immigrants to arrive by an uninterrupted journey, practically impossible for passengers from India, designed to ensure racial exclusion and support a 'White Canada' policy.

Komagata Maru (1914)

A ship carrying mostly Sikh passengers that was denied entry to Vancouver due to the Continuous Journey Regulation, serving as a clear example of Canadian law used to create a 'White Canada' policy.

Chinese Immigration Act (1885)

Canadian legislation that imposed a head tax on Chinese entrants (rising to $500 by 1903) explicitly designed to deter Chinese immigration after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).

Chinese Exclusion Act (1923)

Canadian legislation that effectively banned Chinese immigration, enshrining racial exclusion and reinforcing a racialized hierarchy of belonging to Canada.

The Opium Act (1908)

Canada’s first drug law, directly tied to anti-Chinese sentiment, which criminalized opium smoking (a practice linked with Chinese Canadians) and was influenced by racialized fears and moral panic.

Emily Murphy

A prominent Canadian magistrate and writer whose book, The Black Candle (1922), sensationalized fears of racialized men using drugs, fueling moral panic and heavily influencing the expansion of Canada’s drug laws.

The 'Criminal Other'

A contemporary category that replaced earlier explicit colonial classifications (e.g., 'savage') in Canadian law, reproducing racial hierarchies through supposedly neutral processes like policing, bail, and sentencing.

Indigenous Over-Incarceration

The disproportionate representation of Indigenous peoples in Canadian prisons (e.g., ~5% of population but ~30%+ of federal prison population), demonstrating how colonial legacies remain embedded in the criminal justice system.

War on Drugs (Canada)

Canada's first National Drug Strategy (1987) that prioritized enforcement, expanded police powers, and intensified surveillance in urban communities, disproportionately impacting Black Canadians through racial profiling.

Anti-Terrorism Act, 2001 (Bill C-36)

Canadian legislation enacted post-9/11 that granted law enforcement expanded powers, including preventive arrests, disproportionately targeting Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian communities and reframing racial surveillance as national security.

Law as a Vehicle of Inequality (CRT perspective)

The understanding that Canadian law, even in neutral terms, produces unequal outcomes in practice by hiding colonial ideas of racial superiority under contemporary labels like 'criminal' or 'threat', institutionalizing racism.