Description
Book SynopsisWinner, 2003-2004 Harold Adams Innis Prize for Best English-Language Book in the Social Sciences, Canadian Federation for Humanities and Social Sciences
In the early 1990s, lawyer Beth Symes brought an equality challenge against the Canadian Income Tax Act, arguing that her childcare costs were a business expense. The case ignited public controversy. Was Symes disadvantaged on the basis of gender, or unfairly privileged on the basis of class?
This book seeks answers to those questions through close attention to the Symes case, where class and gender interests clashed over the tax treatment of childcare. It looks at the history of legislative and litigative struggles, the dynamics of courtroom discourse, and the influence of broad social debates about children and the public/private divide. It reveals how frequently the rhetoric of choice, responsibility, and selfishness is invoked in response to women''s attempts to place issues of childcare on the public agenda.
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Trade Review
"This book makes a huge contribution to the field of socio-legal studies. The scholarship is first rate, and the author has applied complex theories in a manner that is extremely accessible. It is a "great read," it tells a fascinating story, and should interest anyone attentive to issues of fairness, justice, and how these issues play out in the courts." - Claire Young, Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia, and author of Women, Tax and Social Programs
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Intersection of Power and Wound
Part 1: Prelude
1 Theoretical Foundations
2 Childcare Politics in Canada
3 Legal Manoeuvring and the Development of Litigation Strategies
Part 2: "The Play's the Thing"
4 Strategy and Practice: The Play's the Thing Part
Part 3: Sorting Out the Aftermath
5 The Limits of Judicial Power: The Court as Constrained
6 Power, Constraint, and the Rhetoric of Choice
7 Multiple Solitudes: Intersectionality in the Nonexpert Public Response
8 Class and Gender on the Terrain of Need: Intersectionality in Expert Public Response
9 Lessons to Be Learned and a Case to Be Remade
Appendices
A Selected Statutory Provisions
B Selections from the Dissent in Symes v. Canada
Notes
Bibliography
Index
