It would be futile to conclude from this that an idiom with such a popular purchase as human rights should be abandoned. Difficult as it may be, the idea of human rights has to be conceived in both its inexorable division and its universal affirmation. Only if something like this is done can human rights avoid becoming the expression of a singular and dominant subjectivity which is symbiotically tied to the totalizing thrust of globalization. Racism still maintains a significant presence within the psychology of police officers, crown attorneys and judges within the Ontario criminal justice system. It is clear that when police officers, crown attorneys and judges exercise their discretion, it usually leads to more harsh consequences for the non-white accused than it does for the white accused.
Racism adversely affects the non-white accused throughout the process of jury selection.
Jury selection within the Canadian criminal justice system is, at the moment, highly controversial, and does not afford the non-white accused the same level of justice that it affords white accuseds. The context is Canada and its national myth of being a land of peacekeepers. In 1993, Canadian soldiers were involved in the torture and murder of Somalis. A Public Inquiry was launched in 1995 and shut down in 1997. Somali Canadians and other citizens of colour contested the official story that was told of the events in Somalia.