Book Review: Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life

Several times each month, we are pleased to republish a recent book review from the Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR). CLLR is the official journal of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD), and its reviews cover both practice-oriented and academic publications related to the law.

Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life. By Colleen Sheppard. Toronto: Irwin Law, 2021. 222 p. Includes table of contents, bibliographic references, and index. ISBN 9781552215371 (softcover) $39.95; ISBN 9781552215388 (PDF) $39.95.

Reviewed by Julia Forward
Lawyer
Guelph, ON

Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life by Colleen Sheppard provides an incisive look into discrimination in a Canadian context. The book is accessible and engaging in its explanation of key concepts through real-life examples and case studies. While rigorous in its examination of complex legal and constitutional issues, the pages turn easily because of the uniquely human stories of tragedy and hope that are recounted.

The book comprises eight well-organized chapters. The first chapter defines terms through the heartbreaking story of a girl with a disability who loved to bowl and sought to compete. The following chapters tackle discrimination at the micro, meso, and macro levels in the context of employment, sexual violence at universities, race, and hurtful speech. Each chapter provides an overview of how discrimination operates and proposes solutions for overcoming discrimination.

This book looks to the future. Throughout, Sheppard provides concrete examples of how change can occur and makes suggestions for implementing change. She calls on the collective to accept responsibility for discrimination rather than relying solely on institutional or government responses, although she advocates strongly for both of those, too.

Because of the clear way in which solutions are provided, this book would be useful to a broad audience. First, the book would well serve any institution that is developing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives. It provides a solid and nuanced foundation to introduce complex topics. In particular, Chapter 4, “Taking Positive Steps: Equity Initiatives,” provides a basic blueprint to develop institutional equity initiatives and proactive measures to address inequality. Second, the book is an excellent resource for law students and human rights lawyers. Sheppard draws on scholars in a broad range of fields, including constitutional law and human rights law. She weaves together disciplines that can often be siloed into an overarching framework for understanding discrimination. Third, the book is simply an enjoyable read for anyone who wishes to understand the challenges we face in Canadian society today.

One interesting aspect of the book is the shift from concepts of equality to concepts of “equitable freedom.” For example, Sheppard notes that protection from sexual violence is generally associated with equality rights. Yet, she posits that what is also at stake is a freedom “to be and live in a world that is not pervasively and structurally constrained by the risks and realities of sexual violence” (p. 85). Later in the book, Sheppard extends this concept to traditional notions of hate speech, which she redefines as “harmful speech.”

Through the story of James Komar, an elderly gay man who received anti-gay flyers in his mailbox that had been distributed by a group called the Christian Truth Activists, Sheppard notes that the case is traditionally understood as a conflict between equality rights and freedom of expression. She proposes reframing the issue as a matter of competing freedoms, “the freedom to live in this world without fear of violence or hate, versus the freedom to say whatever you want, even if it causes fear or harm, or is hateful” (p. 132). By framing the dilemma in terms of conflicting freedoms, she explains that someone’s freedom is undermined. Sheppard is deeply critical of concepts of individual freedom that fail to consider the impact of one’s acts or speech on others in the community. She concludes that “it is impossible and even undesirable for the government to try to regulate harmful aspects of a wide range of communication. It is, instead, a responsibility that each one of us needs to assume” (p. 147).

Equity initiatives within the employment context are another issue that Sheppard tackles with clarity. She uses the early examples of preferential policy initiatives beginning in the aftermath of World War I that involved special programs for returning veterans. She notes that those policy initiatives advanced the rights of persons with disabilities, since many veterans had been disabled in the war. The “fairness” of policies was generally not questioned, as veterans are usually recognized as deserving of benefit from their sacrifices. Sheppard extends this historical context to the challenges faced by other groups seeking access in the workplace. Through this discussion, Sheppard addresses “reverse discrimination” and explains the Canadian jurisprudential context for equity initiatives as the beginning of equality.

This slender volume is full of difficult concepts that are rendered easily understood, and the discrimination stories of real people provide power to the more abstract concepts. I recommend Discrimination Stories: Exclusion, Law, and Everyday Life for institutions developing EDI initiatives, law students, human rights lawyers, and anyone wishing to understand contemporary and ongoing challenges surrounding discrimination. In a world that seems increasingly divisive, Sheppard speaks about kindness and helps readers understand that competing interests may be addressed.