Judging and Equality: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

"Equality," like law, politics, and life itself, displays myriad aspects. Reflections on equality, therefore, must take many differentforms, as this volume will subsequently demonstrate. Now that Canada has entrenched equality as a constitutional value, facets of the issue seem to proliferate, almost without end. Questions abound: Will the equality guarantees be confined to public action only? What constitutes public action? Will the enumerated categories protected against discrimination be supplemented by incorporation of unenumerated categories? Will a conventional liberal point of view inform the development of equality under the Charter? What part will a crystallizing feminist perspective play in the process? For women, what mixture of problems, opportunities, advantages, and dilemmas will ensue from implementation of the guarantees of equality under the Charter? How will the Charter affect public policy on contentious social issues involving prostitution, pornography, and homosexuality? Will it remain constitutionally admissible for an income-based pension system to deprive women of economic security and personal dignity in the fullness of their years? Number, variety, and intricacy obviously characterize the questions raised by entrenchment of equality.