SOCL 1430: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Canada

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, theories, legislation, and identity frameworks of SOCL 1430: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Canada across Weeks 2 through 6.

Equity

A principle based on fairness, justice, access, opportunity, and advancement for everyone, while recognizing historically underserved and unrepresented populations, identifying conditions needed to provide effective opportunities for all groups, and eliminating barriers to their full participation.

Diversity

Differences in the social identities, lived experiences, and perspectives of people, which may include race, ethnicity, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political beliefs, religion, marital status, physical disability, mental disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, class, and/or socio-economic situations.

Inclusion

An active, intentional, and continuous process to address inequities in power and privilege, and to build a respectful and diverse community that ensures welcoming spaces and opportunities to flourish for all.

Equality (in EDI)

The assumption that everyone benefits from the same supports, which is considered equal treatment regardless of differing baseline needs.

Justice (in EDI)

A condition where everyone can participate without external supports or accommodations because the root causes of inequity have been addressed and the systemic barrier has been removed.

Reality vs. Equality vs. Equity vs. Justice

A four-stage framework illustrating disparity: Reality reflects unequal supports where one gets more than needed and another gets less; Equality provides everyone identical supports; Equity distributes supports according to individual need; Justice eliminates the barrier entirely.

Oppression

The intentional or unintentional domination of non-dominant groups by those in power, occurring when a person's membership in a group results in their exclusion from full participation in society.

PCS Model of Three Levels of Oppression

A theoretical model developed by Mullaly (2010) demonstrating that oppression operates across three interrelated levels: Personal, Cultural, and Structural.

Personal Level of Oppression

Negative stereotypes or prejudice directed toward members of a non-dominant group that can be intentional and aggressive (such as bullying or harassment) or unintentional.

Cultural Level of Oppression

The creation and maintenance of hierarchical divisions (such as race, class, and gender) by dominant groups where their own culture—including norms, beliefs, values, customs, symbols, and language—is understood as superior.

Structural Level of Oppression

The institutionalization and legitimization of oppression within society through laws, policies, social institutions, the economy, and political systems.

Internalized Oppression

A phenomenon that occurs when targeted people internalize or begin to believe the negative stereotypes and misinformation communicated to them by the larger society, either as individuals or as part of a larger group.

Privilege

Unearned advantages individuals possess due to their membership within a dominant social group (such as race, gender, or sexual orientation) that do not negate personal struggles, but represent access that everyone should possess.

Wheel of Power and Privilege

A visual model illustrating intersecting social identity categories that position individuals closer to power and privilege at the center (e.g., citizen, cis-man, white, rich) or toward marginalization on the outer rim.

Five Faces of Oppression

A framework identifying five distinct forms through which oppression is enacted: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.

Exploitation

A face of oppression involving the unfair use of people's time or labour and the failure to compensate them fairly (e.g., working conditions of Amazon warehouse workers during the pandemic).

Marginalization

An act of exclusion that forces minority groups to the fringes of society, such as racialized newcomer communities experiencing disproportionate rates of homelessness in Canada ($1\text{ in }5$ racialized families vs. $1\text{ in }20$ non-racialized families).

Powerlessness

A condition occurring when the dominant group leaves a subordinate group with virtually no access to the rights, privileges, and decision-making authority enjoyed by the powerful (e.g., Texas Senate Bill 8 / Heartbeat Act banning all abortions after $6\text{ weeks}$).

Cultural Imperialism

A condition occurring when the dominant group establishes their own beliefs, values, and practices as the societal norm, thereby marginalizing others (e.g., Quebec's Bill 21 banning public servants from wearing visible religious symbols).

Violence (Face of Oppression)

A face of oppression involving physical attacks, constant fear that violence will occur, or the stigmatization of subordinate group members through harassment, ridicule, and intimidation (e.g., state enforcement of modesty rules against Iranian women).

Stereotypes

Labels that may possess some basis in fact but are grossly over-generalized and applied to a group, forcing simple patterns on a complex mass and assigning limited characteristics to all members.

Prejudice

A negative attitude based on learned notions about members of selected groups determined by their physical, social, or cultural characteristics; frequently functions as a precursor to discrimination.

Discrimination

The unequal treatment of individuals or groups based on their characteristics or behaviours, carried out through actions or practices of dominant group members that exert a harmful impact on subordinate group members.

Systemic (Institutionalized) Discrimination

Policies, practices, and institutional patterns of behaviour that appear neutral, non-discriminatory, or unintentional on the surface, but produce a discriminatory effect on individuals based on protected grounds.

Ableism

A set of ideas and attitudes that define 'normal' human abilities and allocate inferior status and value to individuals with developmental, emotional, physical, or psychiatric disabilities.

Ageism

The stereotyping of and prejudice against individuals or groups based on their age.

Classism

The systematic oppression of subordinate socio-economic classes by dominant class groups in order to gain advantage and reinforce their own positions of power.

Genderism

The cultural belief that gender is strictly binary (male and female only) and determined solely by the sex assigned at birth, producing prejudice and discrimination against non-binary, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, agender, gender fluid, or transgender individuals.

Heterosexism

The belief in the natural superiority of heterosexuality as a way of life and its right to social dominance, leading to the oppression of non-heterosexual identities, behaviours, relationships, and communities.

Sexism

The belief that one gender is superior to another, resulting in discrimination against and the systematic devaluation of the subordinate gender and its associated societal roles.

Racism

A set of ideas asserting the supremacy of one group over others based on biological or cultural characteristics, backed by the power to enact these beliefs through systemic and interpersonal practices.

Sizeism

Prejudice directed toward individuals based on their body size, height, and weight, most commonly manifesting as discrimination against individuals considered overweight.

Social Identity

The segment of an individual's identity derived from attributes and characteristics of social groups with which they align (e.g., race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age, and religion).

Dish With One Spoon Wampum Agreement

An agreement governing shared traditional lands between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee based on three core stewardship principles: take only what you need, leave enough for others, and always keep the dish clean.

Turtle Island

An Indigenous term referring to North America, representing lands original to diverse Indigenous nations across present-day Canada and the United States.

Inuit

The smallest of the three recognized Indigenous groups in Canada, whose territories comprise over $\frac{1}{3}$ of Canada's landmass, who maintain deep ties across the Arctic (including Alaska, Greenland, and Russia), and the majority of whom speak Inuktut.

The Métis

A sovereign nation of Indigenous people whose distinct origin and culture formed after European contact, who developed the Michif language, and who make up approximately $\frac{1}{3}$ of the Indigenous population in Canada.

First Nations

The original inhabitants of present-day Canada and the United States since time immemorial, comprising more than $1{,}000$ distinct communities across Turtle Island.

The Gradual Civilization Act, 1857

Colonial legislation designed to dismantle Indigenous legal rights through voluntary enfranchisement, offering men over age $21$ up to $50\text{ acres}$ of land and money if they were literate in English or French, educated, moral, and debt-free; only $1$ person volunteered.

The Gradual Enfranchisement Act, 1869

Legislation that shifted enfranchisement from voluntary to forced in order to reduce the recognized Indigenous population and absorb Indigenous peoples into the body politic to secure control over land and resources.

The Indian Act, 1876

Sweeping Canadian federal legislation granting the government unilateral authority to define Indian status and eliminate treaty rights, imposing restrictions such as stripping status from women who married non-Indigenous men, forbidding cultural ceremonies, and requiring passes to leave reserves.

Mary Two-Axe Earley

A Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) activist from Kahnawà:ke who spearheaded the movement against gender discrimination in the Indian Act, fighting to restore legal Indian status to Indigenous women who had been stripped of their identity upon marrying non-Indigenous men.