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In the Shadow of Canada’s Camps

Queen’s University, Canada

States engaged in the war on terror have pursued war-time domestic security policies, as reflected by special anti-terror legislation enacted, for instance, in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Taking Canada as a case study, this article argues that the pursuit of these policies exacerbates existent racial fissures in the social body. Using elements of Giorgio Agamben’s theory of the state of exception as an analytical framework, this article interprets empirical interview and survey data, as well as the Canadian government’s national security policy. It highlights some of the surveillance methods used by Canadian security forces and concludes that the convergence of these methods with the spectacle of extraordinary detention evinces a shift towards totalitarianism. For some, it is not the conditions of parliamentary democracy that constitute the backdrop of political life, but the conditions of the detention camp.

Key Words: Agamben • biopolitics • racism • security • surveillance • war

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