Search

Historical accounts of the business response to basic income proposals imply that employer attitudes have been mixed. In the 1970s and 1980s, when an array of basic income schemes was proposed, some groups were supportive and others were opposed. This paper shows that, in a number of high-profile proposals in Canada and the US, behind the apparent dissensus among business groups lays a consensus stance against universalistic and unconditional guaranteed income schemes. The disagreement among business groups comes down to either (1) a basic misunderstanding of proposal details, or (2) the fact that the policy itself can take on a wide range of concrete forms. To the extent that business has exhibited support for guaranteed income policies, the actual policies in question tended to be "two-tiered" rather than unitary, selective rather than universal, and miserly rather than generous. The income maintenance policies that garnered some support among business groups would all include explicit or implicit work requirements for "able-bodied" adults. By contrast, generous, unconditional guaranteed income policies that reduce workers' market dependence-namely, those that basic income advocates find desirable-found no audience in business circles. I close by exploring the mechanisms underlying the impact of basic income on bargaining relationships in the labour market and comment on the promises and pitfalls of a social policy that continues to be highly malleable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the bio-medically informed discursive practices of the Canadian government that aim to make the phenomenon of embodied differences intelligible as conditions possessed by people who, with the correct programmatic support and the right attitude, can be integrated as participatory "citizens with disabilities." Specifically, this paper examines In Unison documents (1998, 2000) produced by Federal/ Provincial/ Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services. These documents claim to provide a "blueprint" for the inclusion of disabled people. Employing a disability studies approach, the paper reveals that the Canadian governments' discourse on disability and inclusion is a technology by which individuals and populations are constituted as a problem, and is the mechanism through which collective relations to this "problem of disability" are governed. Finally, this paper also shows how "disability" has become a prime site for the constitution of the neo-liberal version of the individual -- "the abled-disabled" -- whose participatory power is tied to an ability to conform to normal society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is widely acknowledged that Canadian Muslims are targeted at airports and borders, few studies have focused on their actual experiences of state surveillance practices. Moreover, little attention has been paid to how these experiences impact and shape identity formation and their understanding of citizenship. To address this gap, we conducted 50 in-depth interviews with young Canadian Muslims living in Vancouver and Toronto. Our interviewees referred to being repeatedly stopped, questioned, detained, and harassed by security personnel. They felt that any evidence of their Muslim identity - name, country of birth, appearance, or clothing - makes them a target for extra surveillance, resulting in heightened fears about being stripped of their rights and a lack of ability to assert their religious identities. This paper explores the implications of racialized border practices on identity formation and citizenship depletion among Muslim Canadians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses Habermas' concept of refeudalization and the public debate over genetically modified (GM) foods in Canada. An initiative of the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee is evaluated according to Habermas' ideal-typical public sphere criteria. The author examines the ways in which political and economic conditions under a globalized system hamper prospects for rational-critical public debate, specifically with regard to the GM foods industry, and argues that international competition and economic pressures have caused the Canadian government to promote contradictory policies.