Going Statistical: Mothers, Fathers, and Trociuk v. British Columbia

The Centre for Feminist Legal Studies is pleased to present a talk by Hester Lessard

Thursday, November 13, 2003
12:30-1:30pm
Room 157 Curtis Law Building, UBC

The Talk: The presentation will focus on the framing of inter-parental relations as equality rights in the context of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Trociuk. In Trociuk, a father successfully challenged provisions in vital statistics law which give mothers ultimate control over acknowledgement of paternity on birth registrations and, as a consequence, over the surnaming of children. Taking the historic tension between formal and substantive equality as a starting point, Professor Lessard will explore the extent to which this classic opposition is a relation of mutual reinforcement. The Trociuk decision is a disheartening endorsement of formal conceptions of equality and of "biological" conceptions of parenthood which naturalize an explicitly heterosexual and implicitly gendered familial unit. In addition, both formal and substantive versions of equality analysis contribute to the ideological erasure of the role of the state in ordering familial relations through vital statistics law. The erasure is significant. Birth registration and naming rules provide the administrative foundation for implementing the defining and deeply gendered public/private relation between the state and family recently reinvigorated by the entrenchment of neo-liberalism in the political sphere. As well, vital statistics law is central to structuring citizenship within the modern Canadian state. As such, vital statistics law not only reflects the gendered, heterosexist and class dimensions of the state encapsulated in the neo-liberal privatization agenda but also, at particular historical junctures, has manifested its racial and colonialist dimensions as well. The Bio: Professor Hester Lessard teaches feminist theory, constitutional law and equality rights at University of Victoria Faculty of Law. She has written about the interplay between rights discourse under the Charter and familial ideologies, with a particular focus on parental rights and the construction of parenthood.

The Centre for Feminist Legal Studies hosts a weekly Lecture Series during the academic year. Everyone is welcome. For the full schedule, visit our website at http://faculty.law.ubc.ca/cfls or for more information email cfls@law.ubc.ca or call (604) 822-6523.