At the same time, people are becoming more conscious of their multiple and interwoven identities, and thus their complex attachment to a number of different social groups. These developments make it more challenging for the justice system to respond to people's needs and concerns. People more willingly question whether their governments, institutions and community leaders adequately represent them. These feelings are exacerbated as public debate is channelled through, and shaped by, the media. Some voices are amplified and others lost.
Nuance gives way to the dictates of the ten-second sound bite.
The many shades of grey we experience in daily life, with their possibilities for healing and compromise, can be overshadowed by stark representations of good and evil. The constant presentation of dramatic violent crime drowns out the fact that it is decreasing in most of the communities in which we live. Some contend that this fragmentation has been accentuated by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which has fostered a culture of individual rights. It has changed the perceptions, and expectations, of citizens about what the justice system and legislators are capable of accomplishing in a given situation. There are sharp questions raised in public debate about collective versus individual rights, and about the role of our judiciary in relation to our elected legislators.