Over the past few years there has been an increase in scholarly attention to the politics, the theorization and the logic of difference as a site of contestation; as a cultural value, as a measure of liberalism's capacity for tolerance and inclusion, and as a subject of state action for protection. The debate has been joined by two contributors to this JOURNAL: Avigail Eisenberg in 1994 and Katherine Fierlbeck in 1996. Their thinking is fairly representative of the important debate about the political significance of difference, especially in view of Aboriginal rights and contemporary treaties in Canada, and deserves closer scrutiny.