AnnuAl ConferenCe ProCeedings CAnAdiAn AssoCiAtion for the study of Adult eduCAtion/ l’AssoCiAtion CAnAdiAnne Pour les é’tude de l’éduCAtion des Adults

Distributive justice is best known to us through the liberal-democratic principles of individual freedom and the equal distribution of material and social goods. In this view, social justice is about who gets how much of the social good. For Rawls (1971), fairness is justice, which advocates a culturally neutral state, where citizens deal fairly with each other and the state deals equally with all, regardless of how we conceive our ends. Rawls ’ “justice as fairness ” was criticized as “un-realistic”, “unacceptably thin”, and “unfair ” because govern-ments cannot be culturally neutral; indeed, all states are cul-turally biased (Bloemraad, 2000; Tamir, 1995; Taylor, 1994). It is clear that there is no explicit place for immigration in Rawls ’ theory because he predicated his whole discussion on a closed society where members neither leave nor enter. As a nation that has thrived on immigration, Canada ha