Public Interest Litigation Conference

View CONFERENCE Schedule Here

The Asper Centre convened a one-day Conference on March 2, 2018 focused on legal strategies for successful public interest litigation as a means to bring together relevant stakeholders to share their challenges, successes and strategies in this field.  The Conference was aimed at both practitioners (lawyers and NGOs) who are engaged in public interest litigation and scholars and students who study and analyze the impact of these cases.

Over 25 papers in total were presented in 11 concurrent sessions throughout the day.

List of Participating Authors & Papers

1. Alexander, Basil: “Pragmatic Assorted Strategies: How Canadian Cause Lawyering Contributes to Social Change”
2. Anglin, Howard: “Public Interest Case Study: R v Comeau”
3. Bharati, Subodh and David Coté: “Scotland v Attorney General of Canada Case Study”
4. Blum, Joshua: “Ali v Attorney General of Canada Case Study”
5. Bredt, Chris & Ewa Krajewska: “Only 5 Minutes? The Supreme Court’s Approach to Interveners Requires Reform”
6. Bussey, Barry: “The Law of Intervention after the TWU case”
7. Chan, Kathryn & Howard Kislowicz: “Divine Intervention: A study of the operation and impact of NGO interveners in Canadian religious freedom litigation”
8. Giltrow, Maegan and Nathan Hume: “The Shadow Intervener: Economics and Public Interest Litigation”
9. Gold, Richard and Rachel Meland: “Litigating Patents in the Public Interest”
10. Grant, Angus: “Intervener Standing in Immigration and Refugee Cases”
11. Faraday, Fay, Tracy Heffernan & Helen Luu: “Winning the Right to Housing: A Holistic Approach to Public Interest Litigation in Three Voices”
12. Fenske, Allison and Joëlle Pastora Sala: “The Wheels of Justice for Vulnerable Individuals: Reflections from the Public Interest Law Centre of Legal Aid Manitoba”
13. Giorgio, Barbara: “Attorney General of Canada v Downtown Eastside Sex Workers: Judicially Precipitated Reform for Public Interest Advocacy”
14. Ha-Redeye, Omar: “When Public Interest Litigation is used as a Cover for Controversy”
15. Kennedy, Gerard and Lorne Sossin: “Justiciability, Access To Justice and the Development of Constitutional Law In Canada”
16. Laing, Christine: “Does Yaiguaje v Chevron Corporation change the security for costs game for public interest litigants?”
17. Latimer, Alison: “Examination of a Solitary Confinement Test Case”
18. Latner, Gabriel: “The Rights Stuff: Why Canada doesn’t have its own ACLU and how we can build one?”
19. Levesque, Anne: “The symbiotic relationship between social movements and public interest litigation: A case study of the I am a Witness Campaign and the human rights complaint of 165 000 First Nations kid”
20. Davidson, Gail and Gavin Magrath: “Balancing Act: Practical Lessons for Human Rights Interventions”
21. Mangat, Raji: “Here from the beginning: the promise of trial-level intervention”
22. Paterson, Josh: “The Carter case – Sustaining the Fight Both Inside and Outside the Courtroom”
23. Sheldon, Tess and Helgi Maki: “Trauma–Informed Strategies in Public Interest Litigation”
24. Sheppard, Dan: “Just Going Through the Motions: The Supreme Court, Interest Groups and the Performance of Intervention”
25. Silcoff, Maureen: “Party Status in Y.Z. v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)”
26. Spector, Karen: “Legal Strategies for Intervention in Cases Seeking to Advance the Rights of Persons with Mental Health Disabilities”
27. Vaughan, Eleanor: “Solicitor Client Privilege in Lizotte v Aviva Insurance Company of Canada and Alberta (Information and Privacy Commissioner) v University of Calgary”

N.B. Full day attendance at the Conference may qualify for 6.5 Substantive CPD hours.  Kindly also note that we have made an application for accreditation of Professionalism CPD hours with the Law Society of Ontario.