Emma Litschko
DARE Project: Divide and Colonize?: The Contested "Core of Indianness" Concept in Labour Law and Policy in the Federal Jurisdiction
Program(s) of Study: Indigenous Studies
Project Supervisor: Leah Vosko
This project will clarify how labour laws affect Indigenous people and help improve labour standards as well as educate policymakers and governments on the “Core of Indianness” and its implication. These findings will benefit Indigenous workers through supportive policies, applications and the enforcement of labour laws, contributing to self-determination efforts.
Project Description:
“Divide and Colonize?”, directed by Professor Leah F. Vosko and involving junior, mid-career and senior faculty members as well as postdoctoral and doctoral researchers from York, Ryerson University, Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa, is a research initiative exploring the legal and legislative structures through which Indigenous peoples participate in the Canadian labour force. It emerged an outgrowth of The Canada Labour Code-Data Analysis Infrastructure (CLC-DAI), a research project funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund. In developing the CLC-DAI as a research database tool for studying labour standards enforcement, the research team sought to clarify the boundaries of the federal jurisdiction to better understand which industries and workers are federally-regulated. In the process, researchers discovered that federal jurisdiction over labour relations and employment standards is often poorly defined, and that this issue is particularly pronounced with respect to First Nations enterprises and employees. Across the complex jurisdictional landscape of Canadian federalism, provincial and federal governments are frequently in conflict over Constitutional authority concerning Indigenous peoples, marking Indigenous labour as an ongoing site of contention and struggle. “Divide and Colonize?” is thereby undertaking an analysis of case law and policy to explore the tensions generated by Canadian courts and governments in governing Indigenous peoples and their labour through the contested legal concept known as the "Core of Indianness".The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) – Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.