Justice and Ethics from the Horizons of Totality and Infinity: Challenging the Violence of Obliteration in the Proposed Entry to Practice Exams in Ontario and Beyond

In this paper, I draw on the contributions of Amy Rossiter to engage the deeply tragic project and consequences of the proposed implementation of entry to social work practice examinations in the province of Ontario, Canada and beyond. Rossiterian attentions to complicities with historical forms of erasure, erosion and violence, projects of innocence making, and methodologies that obliterate attentions to colonialities offer ongoing insights for how just analyses in social work can and must be defended. Specifically, by means of unwavering opposition to racist, ableist, neoliberal/colonial examination technologies in social work. From a respect for Rossiter’s attentions to the ethics of the encounter, the Gadamerian concept of horizons of interpretation, unsettling social work, the practice of questioning the violence of totalizing methods, and the possibilities that arise from struggle, resistance and solidarity are explored for their infinite potentials for transformation. These analyses contribute from the place of proposed oblivion, to tap into the that which allows for escape and freedom, and a sense of justice beyond the logics of erosive, violent knowledge technologies operating in and through the proposed social work entry-to-practice examinations.