Caroline Dick

Associate Professor

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Ph.D., Queen's University; LLB University of Western Ontario
Telephone: 519.661.2111 ext. 85167
E-mail: cdick4@uwo.ca
Office: Social Science Centre 7326

Research Interests

Professor Dick’s research interests lie at the intersection of law and politics with a specific focus on racism and sexism in state structures, including the judiciary. She has a particular interest in the rights of minority social groups, in-group minorities, and Indigenous peoples.

Current Research Projects

1. Characterizations of Indigenous Protest in Alberta

This research project focuses on the way in which public officials and media characterize protest in the context of Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Act. Assessments of media reports and Alberta Hansard transcripts are assessed to compare depictions of Indigenous protestors to depictions of Convoy protestors where protests interfere with ‘critical infrastructure’.

2. Voluntary Intoxication and Sexual Assault

On June 23, 2022, after more than two decades of championing the rights of women to protect them from gender-based violence, Parliament relented and recognized self-induced extreme intoxication as a defence to violent crimes - with one caveat. The defence would not be available to individuals who became extremely intoxicated in a negligent manner. Less than one year later, the Senate’s Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs issued a report on the new legislation, criticizing the consultation process used to enact the expedited legislation and questioning the balance struck between the rights of the accused and those of female victims. This project pursues two avenues of inquiry. The first involves an examination of the jurisprudence in which extreme intoxication has been offered as a defence. Has extreme intoxication been advanced in cases involving gender-based violence? How have Canadian courts drawn the boundary between negligent and non-negligent extreme intoxication? The second line of inquiry takes up the Committee’s call to review the legislation with a view to striking a more equitable balance between the rights of the accused and victims of gender-based violence.

3. Transparency in Judicial Discipline

The focus of this research project is judicial self-regulation and transparency in judicial disciplinary proceedings. At the federal level, Chief Justice Wagner has called on the Canadian Judicial Council to improve transparency in its misconduct proceedings. Provincially, in September 2023, news broke that two Ontario court officials (one judge and one justice of the peace) were disciplined privately for racist and anti-Indigenous comments made about individuals appearing before them. This project will critically assess the state of transparency in judicial misconduct proceedings in Canada and the arguments offered to justify non-disclosure, including the need to protect the reputation of misbehaving judges.

Selected Publications

Books

  • 2011: Caroline Dick, The Perils of Identity: Group Rights and the Politics of Intragroup Difference, Vancouver: UBC Press.

Refereed Journal Articles

  • Forthcoming 2024: Caroline Dick, “The Ascent of the Canadian Judicial Council: Bill C-9 and the Move Towards Judicialized Governance.” Canadian Journal of Political Science.
  • 2020: Caroline Dick, “Sex, Sexism, and Judicial Misconduct: How the Canadian Judicial Council Perpetuates Sexism in the Legal Realm.” Feminist Legal Studies 28, no. 2: 1-21.
  • 2017: Christopher Alcantara and Caroline Dick, “Decolonization in a Digital Age: Cryptocurrencies and Indigenous Self-Determination in Canada. Canadian Journal of Law and Society 32, no. 1: 19-35.
  • 2011: Caroline Dick, “A Tale of Two Cultures: Intimate Femicide, Cultural Defences, and the Law of Provocation,” Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 23, no. 2: 519-47.
  • 2009: Caroline Dick, “‘Culture and the Courts’ Revisited: Group-Rights Scholarship and the Evolution of s.35(1),” Canadian Journal of Political Science 42, 4: 957-979.
  • 2008: Kiera L. Ladner and Caroline Dick. “Out of the Fires of Hell: Globalization as a Solution to Globalization – An Indigenist Perspective,” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 23: 63-91.
  • 2006: Caroline Dick, “The Politics of Intragroup Difference: First Nations’ Women and the Sawridge Dispute,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 39, no. 1: 97-116.

Reports

Awards and Distinctions

  • 2011; 2008; 2007: Recipient of the University Students’ Council Teaching Honour Roll for excellence in teaching.
  • 2010: Finalist for the CPSA’s Jill Vickers Prize for the best paper on gender and politics presented at the 2009 CPSA conference.
  • 2009-2010: Member of the CPSA’s Executive Committee.
  • 2009-2010: Member of the CPSA’s Committee on Professional Ethics struck to investigate and report on the advisability of the Association adopting a professional code of ethics.
  • 2008-2010: Member of the CPSA’s Board of Directors.      
  • 2007: Finalist for the CPSA’s John McMenemy Prize for the best article to appear in the Canadian Journal of Political Science in 2006.