Abid Jan

Just came across the website of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The balanced approach under “Social Justice and Democracy” is impressive:

Unlike the criticism of the social justice movement that we started hearing from some quarters, CLC’s take on issues that Canadians face is pragmatic and balanced.

This shows that, like any other concept, there are different opinions emerging about social justice as well. Simply put, social justice is simple. It’s about fairness in societies. It’s grounded in the idea that every human being – regardless of their race, religion, gender, age, ability, level of education, economic situation, geographical location or anything that’s beyond their control – deserves the full spectrum of political, economic and social rights and opportunities. To withhold this access is the opposite of social justice. It is discrimination.

According to social justice principles, society should never withhold rights and opportunities because of the listed factors. Of course, there are always elements that take such movements to the extreme. For clarity, let’s remember:

1) The social justice movement does not exclusively support or promote the rights and cause of any particular group or undermine or exclude any other group and their right to protection from all forms of prejudice, hate, violence, and discrimination.

2) The values of social justice didn’t emerge in the past few years. They date back as far as the Old Testament of the Bible.

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