No Place for the State
The Origins and Legacies of the 1969 Omnibus Bill
Published on 31. August 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
300 pages
978-0-7748-6243-1 (ISBN)
Description
"There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation," Pierre Elliott Trudeau told reporters. He was making the case for the most controversial of his proposed reforms to the Criminal Code, those concerning homosexuality, birth control, and abortion.
In No Place for the State, contributors offer complex and often contrasting perspectives as they assess how the 1969 Omnibus Bill helped shape sexual and moral politics in Canada by examining the bill's origins, social implications, and repercussions. The new legal regime had significant consequences for matters like adoption, divorce, and suicide. After the bill passed, a great many Canadians continued to challenge how sexual behaviour was governed, demanding much more exhaustive changes to the law. Fifty years later, the origins and legacies of the bill are equivocal and the state still seems interested in the bedrooms of the nation. This incisive study explains why that matters.
In No Place for the State, contributors offer complex and often contrasting perspectives as they assess how the 1969 Omnibus Bill helped shape sexual and moral politics in Canada by examining the bill's origins, social implications, and repercussions. The new legal regime had significant consequences for matters like adoption, divorce, and suicide. After the bill passed, a great many Canadians continued to challenge how sexual behaviour was governed, demanding much more exhaustive changes to the law. Fifty years later, the origins and legacies of the bill are equivocal and the state still seems interested in the bedrooms of the nation. This incisive study explains why that matters.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Vancouver
Canada
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
740 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7748-6243-1 (9780774862431)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Christopher Dummitt is an associate professor in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University. His book Unbuttoned: A History of Mackenzie King's Secret Life was a finalist for the Shaughnessy-Cohen Prize for best book on Canadian politics, as well as for the Canada Prize and the J.W. Dafoe prize. He is also the creator of the Canadian history podcast 1867 & All That. Christabelle Sethna is a professor in the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa, and the lead investigator for a research study on transnational travel for abortion services from the 1960s to the 1990s. Her most recent book is Abortion across Borders: Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services, co-edited with Gayle Davis.
Contibutors: Katrina Ackerman, Lori Chambers, Scott deGroot, Bruce Douville, Jessica Haynes, Steve Hewitt, Tom Hooper, Rachael Johnstone, Gary Kinsman, Karen Pearlston, Isabelle Perreault, Shannon Stettner
Contibutors: Katrina Ackerman, Lori Chambers, Scott deGroot, Bruce Douville, Jessica Haynes, Steve Hewitt, Tom Hooper, Rachael Johnstone, Gary Kinsman, Karen Pearlston, Isabelle Perreault, Shannon Stettner
Content
Introduction / Christopher Dummitt and Christabelle Sethna
Part 1: Regulation, Rupture, and Continuity
1 Because It's 1969: The Omnibus Bill and the New Morality of the Self / Christopher Dummitt
2 "Is Abortion Ever Right?": The United Church of Canada and the Debate over Abortion Law Reform, 1960-1980 / Katrina Ackerman, Bruce Douville, and Shannon Stettner
3 Not a Gift from Above: The Mythology of Homosexual Law Reform and the Making of Neoliberal Queer Histories / Gary Kinsman
Part 2: Activist Responses
4 "The State's Key to the Bedroom Door": Queer Perspectives on Pierre Elliot Trudeau's "Just Society" in an Era of Bathhouse Raids / Tom Hooper
5 Law Reform, Liberal Democracies, and the Transnational History of Gay Liberation / Scott deGroot
6 Seeing Red: The Toronto Women's Caucus, the RCMP Security Service, and the Campaign to Repeal the 1969 Abortion Law / Christabelle Sethna and Steve Hewitt
Part 3: Beyond the Omnibus Bill
7 Insulated from the Law: Married Women, the Pill, and the "Public Good" / Jessica Haynes
8 "Something More": The State's Place in the Bedrooms of Lesbian Nation / Karen Pearlston
9 Life Interrupted: The Biopolitics of Abortion and Attempted Suicide in Canada in the Late Sixties and Early Seventies / Isabelle Perrault
Part 4: Back to the Future
10 The Law (and) Unintended Consequences: Adoption and the Omnibus Bill of 1969 / Lori Chambers
11 Is That Really Necessary? The Regulation of Abortion in Canada and the Framework of Medical Necessity / Rachael Johnstone
Index
Part 1: Regulation, Rupture, and Continuity
1 Because It's 1969: The Omnibus Bill and the New Morality of the Self / Christopher Dummitt
2 "Is Abortion Ever Right?": The United Church of Canada and the Debate over Abortion Law Reform, 1960-1980 / Katrina Ackerman, Bruce Douville, and Shannon Stettner
3 Not a Gift from Above: The Mythology of Homosexual Law Reform and the Making of Neoliberal Queer Histories / Gary Kinsman
Part 2: Activist Responses
4 "The State's Key to the Bedroom Door": Queer Perspectives on Pierre Elliot Trudeau's "Just Society" in an Era of Bathhouse Raids / Tom Hooper
5 Law Reform, Liberal Democracies, and the Transnational History of Gay Liberation / Scott deGroot
6 Seeing Red: The Toronto Women's Caucus, the RCMP Security Service, and the Campaign to Repeal the 1969 Abortion Law / Christabelle Sethna and Steve Hewitt
Part 3: Beyond the Omnibus Bill
7 Insulated from the Law: Married Women, the Pill, and the "Public Good" / Jessica Haynes
8 "Something More": The State's Place in the Bedrooms of Lesbian Nation / Karen Pearlston
9 Life Interrupted: The Biopolitics of Abortion and Attempted Suicide in Canada in the Late Sixties and Early Seventies / Isabelle Perrault
Part 4: Back to the Future
10 The Law (and) Unintended Consequences: Adoption and the Omnibus Bill of 1969 / Lori Chambers
11 Is That Really Necessary? The Regulation of Abortion in Canada and the Framework of Medical Necessity / Rachael Johnstone
Index