An Analysis of Canada's Moral Economy of Punishment Through Terri-Lynne McClintic's Transfer to Okimaw Ohci

Abstract

One of the more popular areas of study in recent times is public opinion research, in the context of prisons, punishment, and other penal practices. Some of the most notable Canadian literature on this topic was published during the Harper era government, which further transitioned Canada into an increasingly neoliberal society. The gap that can be identified from this literature is that the relationship between politicians and members of the public is the central focus, despite the public not being a monolith of morality, and the obvious reality that there are many social actors who have a stake in punishment and penal practices in Canada. This research analyzed punishment discourses in Canada using the transfer of Terri-Lynne McClintic in 2018 from a medium security penitentiary, to a medium-minimum security Indigenous healing lodge as its case study. Didier Fassin’s moral economy was used to frame this research, combined with a set of three analytical tools; Evelien Tonken’s citizenship regime, Arlie Russel Hochschild’s framing rules and feeling rules, and Jonathan Haidt’s moral emotion families. These concepts were used to make sense of the complex emotions and values that circulate within a moral economy. In order to examine Canada’s moral economy of punishment, 13 news media sources, 4 online comment threads, and 6 Hansard Transcripts were collected and analysed. This research demonstrates how the moral economy of punishment that citizens participate in is actively influenced by neoliberal governance and economics.