Canadian panopticon: a feminist and postcolonial reading of the niqab and murdered and missing Indigenous women inquiry debates during the 2015 federal election

Canada is a settler-colonial state that specially targets and others minority groups, such as Indigenous peoples and recent immigrants. This was no more apparent than during the 2015 federal election, which saw debates on whether to ban Muslim women from wearing niqabs and other head coverings and whether to hold an inquiry into the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. By examining excerpts from speeches, tweets, articles, and interviews made by politicians, citizens, and journalists, this thesis traces the shape of settler-colonial systems and their impact on Indigenous and immigrant women. Canadian society demands conformity to sexual and cultural norms that require walking a tightrope of these double-edged ideals. Conformity is maintained through societally enforced regimes, known as the Panopticon, where each individual is both prisoner and guard. This constant surveillance does not simply end there, however, as Canadian settler society has different gender structures and norms for both men and women: women are subject to far stricter social expectations than men and, as this thesis brings to light, women in minority groups, such as indigenous and Muslim women, fall under an even harsher Canadian spotlight.