(Im)possible citizens: Canada's ‘citizenship bonanza’ and its boundaries

This article discusses a recent amendment to the Canadian Citizenship Act, which retroactively restores or gives Canadian citizenship to ‘hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting foreigners, most of them Americans’ (P. Dvorak, 2009. Canada issues a wake-up call: you may be a citizen. The Wall Street Journal, 17 April. Available from: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993183347727843.html) while also restricting the inheritance of Canadian citizenship to the first-generation born abroad. Aiming to redress past discriminations based on gender, marital status and dual citizenship while simultaneously curtailing modern citizenship's dubious ius sanguinis provision, the new law might be interpreted as perpetuating Canada's reputation as a world leader in interethnic relations and human rights. A contextual analysis of the new law, by contrast, shows that the opposite is the case: the boundaries that are being drawn by Canada's new citizenship regime follow the now common trend of re-ethnicization and securitization. Specifically, they conflate kinship and Whiteness, thereby leading, on the one hand, to the construction of possible citizens whose authenticity and loyalty to the nation are unquestioned. On the other hand, within the logic of the new laws and their surrounding discourses, non-White, non-Christian ‘impossible citizens’ emerge, whose lack of loyalty and instrumental use of their Canadian passport are said to be eroding the value of citizenship from within.     

Biogasanlagen – Herausforderungen für das Umweltrecht

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The modern trends in alcohol, drugs and driving research

Research on alcohol, drugs and driving can be broadly separated into experimental and epidemiological studies. Every approach has its inherent advantages and disadvantages. Experimental studies can result in an interpretation by single cause, but can only identify potential risks, and the results can sometimes be of limited value because of the use of non-realistic doses or because of the drug use history or inter-individual differences of the volunteers. Recent studies have used higher, more realistic doses and paid more attention to the combination of alcohol and drugs and have shown that the chronic use of illicit drugs can be associated with some cognitive and/or psychomotor impairment, and can lead to a decrease in driving performance even when the subject is no longer intoxicated.Epidemiological studies include roadside surveys, studies in a subset of drivers, accident risk studies, responsibility analyses, surveys and pharmaco-epidemiological studies. Between studies, results may be incomparable due to testing different populations, different kinds of samples, etc. More large-scale roadside studies are conducted now.Advances in analytical toxicology have also contributed to a better understanding of the risks associated with driving under the influence. While older studies measured the inactive metabolite THC-COOH and did not show an increased risk in cannabis-positive drivers, more recent studies measured the active THC in blood and did show a concentration dependent increase in crash risk. The use of LC–MS/MS has allowed more broad-range screening as this technique can measure many different drugs in a small sample volume. While some older studies used saliva but had many analytical problems (including an insufficient sample volume in up to a third of the cases), newer methods of saliva sampling and analysis give better results. The use of saliva for roadside surveys allows non-invasive sampling, but the lack of correlation with the concentrations in blood makes interpretation of results difficult.The results of both epidemiological and experimental studies should be combined to obtain a good estimate of the impact of certain drugs on driving performance and accident risk. In 2006–07 a committee of international experts drafted guidelines for future research into drugs and driving. These have been taken on board by the DRUID project, a large-scale EU funded project on driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medicines.     

Histological examination of carotid artery tissue in cases of ligature strangulation and hanging

Violence against the neck can result in a range of macromorphological and micromorphological findings. However, the forensic relevance of the carotid sinus in cases of violence against the neck remains controversial. In this follow-up study of 22 cases of suicidal and accidental strangulations, carotid bifurcations were examined histologically for morphological changes implying direct trauma, including haemorrhage and immunohistochemical expression of heat-shock proteins 27, 60, and 70 and aquaporin-3. These cases were compared with a control group (82 cases) without neck compression or head trauma and with variable causes of death. No relevant histopathological findings implying direct trauma of the carotid bifurcation were found. No cases showed positive aquaporin-3 staining and only five cases showed positive heat-shock protein-27 staining, all of which were hangings. Without massive trauma of the carotid bifurcation, histological alterations cannot be expected. Without signs of rapid death, findings of acute circulatory failure, macromorphological and micromorphological findings of neck compression, and reliable markers indicating relevant impact on the carotid bifurcation the diagnosis of a lethal reflex cannot be verified.

Key points

• Among 22 cases of strangulation causing death, there were 16 cases of hanging and 6 cases of ligature strangulation
• Few cases showed small haemorrhages located predominantly in the surrounding fat and connective tissues; however, the haemorrhages did not have any effects on the tissues
• Neck compression had minimal effects on heat shock protein 27 expression in carotid artery tissue
• Aquaporin-3 staining suggested it is not a useful marker for relevant neck pressure, or that there had not been any relevant neck impact
• Our findings suggested no direct evidence for reflex cardiac death resulting from a brief force against the neck