June has been a busy month for Dominique Clément. His latest book, Equality Deferred, was recently awarded the Clio Book Award by the Canadian Historical Association, received honourable mention by the Canadian Law Society Association and was shortlisted for a book award by the Canadian Political Science Association.
Around the same time, a paper Dominique presented at a panel on human rights was featured on the front page of the National Post as well as an editorial. In his paper, Dominique suggested that the expansion of human rights has watered down its transformative power and may soon become nothing more than empty rhetoric. This argument is the focus of his book, Rights Inflation and the Crisis of Canada's Rights Culture, which will be published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in 2017. Another book, Human Rights in Canada: A History, will be published with WLU Press in 2016.
Having the chance to present his ideas in advance of the book was a great experience, according to Dominique. "It gave me the chance to debate opposing perspectives", he noted. "And it motivates me even more to keep digging deeply into issues around human rights."
Dominique is the Principal Investigator on a major SSHRC grant for a research team across Canada that is studying the impact of state funding on social movements. With his ongoing involvement in this project, there is no doubt that Dominique will deliver many more important insights about human rights in Canada in the coming years.
Want to keep up with what is happening with Dominique Clément? He has launched a new website that profiles his work and acts as a research and teaching portal on human rights: http://HistoryOfRights.ca
Link to article and editorial in the National Post:
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/national-post-view-too-many-rights-make-wrong