Sujith Xavier
Research Associate
Faculty of Law
University of Toronto
E/ sujith.xavier@gmail.com
The Hyphenated Other:
The Ontology and Responsibility of Being the Other
Saturday, June 2nd
| 12:30 - 2:30 PM
Within any plural normative framework, the existence
of the multiple identities often leads to conflicts and contradictions.
The Canadian multicultural framework, with the hyphenated identities, is
the perfect example in which the multiple ethno-cultural communities
assert themselves and cohabitate within the plural nation state. In this
environment, there are number of questions that must be asked of the
communities and within the communities, especially within the post 9/11
context. Whilst being centred in the leftist paradigm, I am interested
in asking the Tamil-Canadian/Canadian-Tamil community, a number of
questions that have yet to be asked.
Often, the discourse of belonging and identity are expounded by those
that are not part of the communities that they are trying to “save”.
Thus the metaphor of a legitimate argument of identity politics is left
in the hands of those from a majoritarian milieu and the “Other”, the
ethno-cultural community member, does not really have a voice.
Consequently, the first question that must be dealt with in trying to
grapple with the hyphenated identity is: who can speak for us. From
this general platform, the second issue to consider is what are the
implications for speaking for self and in doing do so, is there any
ethical responsibility that is owed? Thus ultimately, my aim is to move
the dialogue away from the “savage-victim-saviour” metaphor of human
rights to one that is premised on agency. Essentially, the narratives
of ethno-cultural communities until now have been largely that of
victims: the nation state discriminates; the nation state does not meet
the needs of the marginalized, are two such examples. Yet what about our
responsibility to the state? Do we as citizens and members of our
communities, have an ethical responsibility? The final question, based
on the preceding conclusions, examines whether the reassertion of the
ethnic identity perpetuates the stereotypes of the nation state.
By using post-modern thought (namely Levinas), I will conclude that the
image of the Other, as seen by the Self, is not only based on the
ontology of Self, but also on the ontology of the Other. In other words,
the way the nation state views the Tamil community is not only premised
on its bias but also based on the image that “we” project and construct.
The more we reassert our Tamilness, the more the nation state will view
us as that: the “Other” (the terrorist, the thug) that must be
controlled and tolerated.
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Sujith Xavier, BA 1999 (Ottawa), LL.B. and Human Rights 2005 (Essex),
LL.M. 2007 (McGill), is a Research Associate in Health Law at the
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Sujith has worked as a Legal
Researcher for the McGill Clinic for the Sierra Leone Special Court and
McGill University’s Faculty of Education. He spent some time in Pisa,
Italy working for the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna on an European
Commission initiative in fundamental rights and private law. Prior to
undertaking his legal studies, Sujith worked in the field as a
researcher and documentation officer for an advocacy NGO in Sri Lanka
documenting human rights violations in the conflict zones.