ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the way in which feminist inquiry can have a distinctive impact on the nature of political policy and political theory. Philosophers tend to think that feminist concerns can simply be "added" to traditional political theories, and that this movement is much the same in its aims and perspectives as other liberation movements. When Canada's charter was enacted in 1982, the existing law regulating voting in federal elections specified that all persons incarcerated, no matter for how long or for what reason, could not vote in any election held during their imprisonment. By the mid-80s litigation had begun, based on sections 3 and 15, challenging the denial of voting rights to prisoners. The government countered the litigation by denying that there was any discriminatory effect of the law, and by arguing that the Canadian constitution, under section 1 of the Charter, allowed that voting rights could be abridged when there was a compelling reason to do so.
