Read the piece on Canada Employment Equity myths. Employment Equity is Canada’s version of ‘affirmative action’.
A fundamental characteristic of liberalism is the notion ‘equality before the law’. After all, liberalism largely was a rejection of the notion of aristocracy and hierarchy where individuals had different rights under the law.
THEREFORE – is it really ‘liberal’ to have government affirmative action programmes which categorize people according to race or sex and give certain individuals benefits (eg. hiring quotas) because of race or sex?
1/ In other words, is affirmative action anti-liberal (a return to unequal rights) or is it still consistent with the idea of equality? Please go into some detail with your answer.
NOTE: You may be for affirmative action yet agree that it violates the principle of liberalism. Please state whether you also personally agree or disagree with affirmative action (and why).