David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights

Clinic Applications Deadline 2015
2015-07-10
CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: DAVID ASPER CENTRE FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS (LAW391H1F) FALL 2015
CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: HALF TERM CLINIC – WINTER 2016
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law students wishing to apply for these courses must email a 1-2 page statement of interest to Cheryl Milne, cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca by noon on July 10, 2015. Please indicate the following:
(a) previous upper-year courses in constitutional law or human rights law or experience that you consider to be equivalent (note pre/co-requisite for half-term clinic);
(b) indicators of academic, analytical and research and writing ability, which may include grades in related classes;
(c) any experience in human rights or constitutional issues;
(d) any experience with lawyering or advocacy;
(e) why you wish to enroll in the Clinic.
Successful applicants will be notified of admission in time for the commencement of course registration.
Full course descriptions here.

Deadline: Call for Papers - December 14, 2015
2015-12-14
The State of Canada’s Constitutional Democracy
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, St. George Campus – February 27, 2016
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights invites papers for its upcoming conference examining the state of Canada’s constitutional democracy. Dramatic changes have taken place in recent years at the national level in respect to the day to day functioning of our constitutional democracy. These changes impinge on the separation of powers, the rule of law and the supremacy of the constitution.
Examples include:

the operation of the House of Commons and the Senate and the functioning of committees in both Houses in respect to the quality of deliberation, reflection on questions of constitutionality generally, and in respect to specific policy areas such as national security and crime and punishment, as it impacts on mental health, violence against women,
the expansion and increased powers of the PMO
the appointment process to the Senate and the Supreme Court
the stance taken by the government to some aspects of the Constitution and the judiciary,
the government’s approach to information creation, retention and dissemination as well as sources of expertise and scientific knowledge, as it impacts on public policy areas such as health, climate change, resource development, Aboriginal education, women’s equality
the Court’s role to strike down legislation and critique government action and the government’s response to this such as the aftermath of the PHS case, Bedford and Carter, and the SCC’s declaration in Khadr.
the professional ethics applicable to the work of government lawyers in a more politicized environment
Our interest is examining these changes is to assess their impact on the norms and processes stipulated by our written Constitution as well as by fundamental constitutional principles and conventions.

This symposium is part of a broader analysis by the Asper Centre of the state of the rule of law and Canada’s constitutional democracy comprising background papers and additional workshops that will result in a final report.The papers will be utilized as the central themes on various panels across the one day symposium and selected conference papers will be considered for publication as part of a special issue of the National Journal of Constitutional Law. Authors of papers chosen for presentation will be notified by January 1, 2016 (extended). Papers for distribution at the conference must be submitted by February 6, 2016.
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is a centre within the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law devoted to advocacy, research and education in the areas of constitutional rights in Canada. For more information about the Centre go to www.aspercentre.ca.
For those interested in participating, please send an abstract (max: 250 words) of your intended paper with a 1-2 paragraph biography to: Cheryl Milne at cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca

Deadline for Submissions: December 14, 2015 (EXTENDED)

Constitutional Roundtable - Raj Anand
2016-02-03 12:30 - 14:00 (America/Toronto)
Constitutional Roundtable
presents
Raj Anand
Constitutional Litigator in Residence with the Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
Victoria College, Room 206
Topic: Subsection 15(2) of the Charter and its Disconnection with Substantive Equality
Raj Anand is a partner and an arbitrator and mediator with WeirFoulds LLP. His practice includes the areas of administrative, human rights, constitutional and employment law, civil litigation, professional negligence and regulation. In his third term as an elected Bencher of the Law Society, he is currently the Vice-Chair of the Law Society Tribunal’s Hearing Division. He was a member of task forces or working groups on admission requirements, articling, good character, Law Society governance and Tribunal reform. He was Vice Chair of the Equity and Aboriginal Issues Committee for five years, and is currently Co-Chair of the Working Group on Challenges faced by Racialized Lawyers and Paralegals in Ontario and Chair of the Three Year Review of the Tribunal reforms. Raj graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law with the Dean’s Key in 1978. He has served as President of the U of T Law Alumni Council, the Minority Advocacy and Rights Council, the International Commission of Jurists Canada, and Pro Bono Law Ontario; Co-Chair of the U of T Tribunal; and board member of the Advocates’ Society, Legal Aid Ontario, the Law Commission of Ontario, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Justice for Children and Youth, and the Income Security Advocacy Centre. Raj was Chief Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission in 1988-89, Board of Inquiry from 1989-94, and founding Chair of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre in 2008-10. Raj has taught “The New Administrative Law” at the masters level, and “Legal Ethics: Legal Values” and “Diversity and the Legal Profession” at the JD level. He was the first recipient of the Advocates’ Society Award of Justice in 1997, and has since received the Law Society Medal, the Professional Man of the Year award of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, and the South Asian Bar Association’s Distinguished Career Award. In 2013, he was an inaugural Roy McMurtry Visiting Clinical Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School.

The State of Canada's Constitutional Democracy
2016-02-26 08:00 - 2016-02-27 17:00
SYMPOSIUM
February 26 – 27, 2016
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto (Room: Solarium, FA2)
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, University of Toronto and the Centre for Constitutional Studies, University of Alberta, co-organized this symposium examining the state of Canada’s constitutional democracy. Dramatic changes have taken place in recent years at the national level in respect to the day to day functioning of our constitutional democracy. These changes impinge on the separation of powers, the rule of law and the supremacy of the constitution.
Examples of topics covered included:
• the operation of the House of Commons and the Senate and the functioning of committees in both Houses in respect to the quality of deliberation, reflection on questions of constitutionality generally, and in respect to specific policy areas,
• the increased powers of the PMO
• the appointment process to the Senate and the Supreme Court
• the stance taken by the government to some aspects of the Constitution and the judiciary,
• the government’s approach to information creation, retention and dissemination as well as sources of expertise and scientific knowledge, as it impacts on public policy areas such as health, climate change, resource development, Aboriginal education, women’s equality
• the Court’s role to strike down legislation and critique government action and the government’s response to this such as the aftermath of the PHS case, Bedford and Carter, and the SCC’s declaration in Khadr.
• the professional ethics applicable to the work of government lawyers in a more politicized environment
Our interest in examining these changes was to assess their impact on the norms and processes stipulated by our written Constitution as well as by fundamental constitutional principles and conventions.
This symposium was part of a broader analysis by the Asper Centre of the state of the rule of law and Canada’s constitutional democracy comprising background papers and additional workshops that resulted in a now available final report.
Symposium Agenda
READ MORE ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM HERE

Constitutional Roundtable - Susan Williams
2016-02-29 12:30 - 14:00
Constitutional Roundtable
presents
Susan Williams
Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law and Director, Center for Constitutional Democracy Maurer School of Law Indiana University
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Solarium, Falconer Hall
Topic
Legal Pluralism, Gender Equality and Parity of Participation: Constitutional Issues Concerning Customary Law in Liberia
Susan Williams is the author of Truth, Autonomy, and Speech: Feminist Theory and the First Amendment (NYU Press 2004). Her current book project, Constituting Equality: Comparative Constitutional Law and Gender Equality, is a collection of essays growing out of a spring 2007 conference she organized. She has also written numerous articles on constitutional law and feminist legal theory. She is actively involved in constitutional advising for the Burmese democracy movement. She is a constitutional advisor to the Women’s League of Burma, the Federal Constitution Drafting Coordinating Committee, and the state constitution drafting committees of all of the states of Burma. In this capacity, she teaches workshops, produces educational materials, and works on drafting and revising constitutional language. At Indiana Law, Williams teaches Property, First Amendment Law, Feminist Jurisprudence, and a seminar on Comparative Constitutional Law on Gender Equality. She believes that the best lawyers do not conduct legal analysis in a vacuum. “We must train our students to think and argue clearly and critically,” she says. “But at the same time, we must encourage them to bring their own values and experiences to bear on the legal issues they are studying. Law is a mirror in which we can read our character as a society, both as it presently exists and as we would ideally like it to be.”(Bio drawn from Susan Williams’ profile at Maurer School of Law)

Constitutional Roundtable - Richard Albert
2016-03-15 12:30 - 14:00
Richard Albert
Associate Professor of Law and Dean’s Research Scholar at Boston College
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Solarium, Falconer Hall
The Conventions of Constitutional Amendment in Canada
Commentators have suggested that the unsuccessful national referendum to ratify the 1992 Charlottetown Accord has created an expectation of popular participation requiring national referendal consultation in major reforms to the Constitution of Canada. In this Article, I inquire whether federal political actors are bound by a constitutional convention of national referendal consultation for formal amendments to the basic structure of the Constitution of Canada. Drawing from the Supreme Court of Canada’s Patriation Reference, I suggest that we cannot know whether federal political actors are bound by such a convention until they are confronted with the question whether or not to hold a national referendum in connection with a change to the Constitution’s basic structure. I conclude by suggesting, perhaps counterintuitively, that layering a conventional requirement of national referendal consultation onto the existing requirements for formal amendments to the Constitution’s basic structure could well undermine democracy, despite our common association of referenda with democratic legitimacy.
Richard Albert is an Associate Professor at Boston College Law School, where he specializes in constitutional law and comparative constitutional law. He holds degrees from Yale University, Oxford University, and Harvard University.

Clinic Information Session
2016-03-30 12:30 - 14:00
This information session for University of Toronto, Faculty of Law students, provides information on how to enroll in the for credit clinical programs at the Faculty including the Asper Centre Constitutional Rights Advocacy Clinic. Representatives from Downtown Legal Services, the International Human Rights Program and the various externship programs will be on hand to answer your questions.
This is a bring-your-own-lunch event. Room location is yet to be confirmed.

(2016)

Work for the Asper Centre
2016-04-18 08:00 - 17:00
PROGRAM COORDINATOR
POSITION DESCRIPTION:
The Program Coordinator will support the educational mission of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights by organizing educational events such as conferences, roundtables and symposia; coordinating publications which promote the Centre and provide educational content to students, academics, the practising bar and the general public; and supporting the work of volunteer students in working groups focused on particular issues in constitutional law in Canada.
QUALIFICATIONS:
(Minimum)
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree or an acceptable equivalent combination of education and experience. A Law degree (LLB or JD) or graduate degree in constitutional or human rights law (MA) is highly desirable.
Experience:
Minimum 2 years’ experience related to program design, implementation and coordination, preferably in the area of human rights
Demonstrated experience coordinating a volunteer-based program
Demonstrated experience working closely with students or young professionals
Understanding of Canadian constitutional and human rights law and institutions
Understanding of law schools and the legal profession
Experience with public outreach through newsletters, web design, social media, blogs, etc.
Ability to work with and motivate diverse stakeholders, including law students; faculty; and community partners such as inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (in Canada), and other civil society actors
Demonstrated commitment to human rights and social justice
Skills:
Excellent computer skills with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications. Proven skill in organizing and maintaining web pages and social media presence. Bilingual in French strongly preferred.
Other:
Excellent administrative and organizational skills, including problem solving and ability to manage conflicting priorities and deadlines
Excellent oral and written communication skills
Excellent relationship building skills, including ability to work independently and in a team
Strong attention to detail
Ability to positively represent the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights and the Faculty of Law at all times, and maintain existing relationships with partnerships and collaborations with diverse external stakeholders
Willingness to be flexible with work hours as the programs and deadlines demand, including working some overtime, and including travel in Canada

APPOINTMENT DETAILS:
This posting is for a part-time (60%) appointment ending two years from the date of hire. There is a possibility of renewal for one additional year
This position is part of the United Steelworkers Union Local 1998 employee group
The pro-rated hiring rate is $31,895.40 with an annual step progression to a maximum of $40,788.60

HOW TO APPLY:
Please visit the following link and click the “Apply Online” button:
https://utoronto.taleo.net/careersection/10000/jobdetail.ftl?job=1600392
Job posting close date: April 18, 2016
—
Canada’s leading teaching and research university, the University of Toronto is recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers, and one of Canada’s Top Employers for Canadians Over 40. U of T offers employees challenging work, flexible, family-friendly programs and opportunities for professional and career development. To learn more about the University of Toronto, please go to http://www.utoronto.ca/. To learn more about U of T as a place to work and develop a career, please visit http://www.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/
The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of sexual minority groups, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

Clinical Legal Education Conference
2016-07-10 08:00 - 2016-07-13 17:00
THE RISKS AND REWARDS OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
The Asper Centre is collaborating with the Association for Canadian Clinical Education and the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education in the organization and hosting of the 2016 Clinical Legal Education Conference at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law.
Dates: July 10- 13, 2016
Registration open here on the Eventbrite page. Early Bird Registration closes on April 30 (regular price applies after that date).
Read the Conference Brochure

Working Group Call for Proposals
2016-08-15
2016-2017 WORKING GROUPS
University of Toronto, Faculty of Law students wishing to propose a 2016/2017 Working Group must email a proposal to Cheryl Milne, cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca by 5 p.m. on August 15, 2016. Applications should include the following:
a) The name/title of the Working Group
b) The issue the group will be working on, and why the issue is important
c) Name(s) of the student leader(s) and brief background information
d) Name and description of partnership organization, and letter of support from the organization (if applicable)
e) Description of proposed research or advocacy project for the year, including project goals and expected outcomes.
Successful groups will be notified prior to the start of term.
For more detailed information on how to lead a Working Group, read the full call for proposals here.

Call for Asper Centre students 2016/2017
2016-08-26
The deadline for applications for the is August 26, 2016.
Call for Asper Centre students 2016-2017

Asper Centre at Law Clubs week
2016-09-13
Visit the Asper Centre’s information booth to learn more about our work.

(2016)

Asper Centre Information Session
2016-09-15 12:30
Learn how to apply for an Asper Centre summer fellowship to work in an organization within Canada that focuses on constitutional / human rights advocacy.

(2016)

Asper Centre / IHRP 2017 Summer Fellowship Information Session
2016-10-24 12:30 - 14:00
Information about how to apply for an Asper Centre summer fellowship to work in an organization within Canada that focuses on constitutional / human rights advocacy.

(October 2016)

Asper Centre and Aboriginal Law Program Presentation: Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe
2016-11-14 12:30 - 14:00
Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada
In Aamjiwnaang First Nation (near Sarnia, Ontario) the female to male birthrate is 2:1. Community members experience abnormal incidences of miscarriage, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. This workshop will explore if law has thus far failed this community and what Canadian and Indigenous governments are doing now to protect the land.
Monday, November 14, 2016
12:30pm – 2:00pm
Jackman Law Building J125
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
78 Queens Park, Toronto
Light lunch will be provided
Dr. Sarah Marie Wiebe, Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Victoria and SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow, will lead students through a conversation covering:

The chemical manufacturing around Aamjiwnaang First Nation and the damage it has done to the land and community members
Canada’s dark legacy of inflicting harm on Indigenous bodies and how the system fails to adequately address health and ecological suffering
The challenges jurisdictional issues pose for the creation of sound environmental justice policy
The clash between Indigenous and scientific knowledge
The 2011 Chemical Valley Charter challenge brought by two members of Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Ecojustice which was, in April 2016, withdrawn

Please RSVP so we have enough food!
To RSVP or for further information, please contact Amanda Carling at amanda.carling@utoronto.ca

Constitutional Roundtable - Claudia Geiringer
2016-11-16 12:30 - 14:00 | Jackman Law Building Room J140, 78 Queen’s Park
CONSTITUTIONAL ROUNDTABLE
presents
Claudia Geiringer (Victoria University of Wellington School of Law, New Zealand)
moderated by Professor Kent Roach
Wednesday November 16, 2016 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM
Falconer Hall Solarium (room FA2)
84 Queen’s Park
Topic: The Strange Antipodean Afterlife of John Hart Ely’s Democracy and Distrust
This paper tells the strange, and little known, story of how John Hart Ely’s process-perfecting theory of constitutional interpretation (of the United States Constitution) became a blueprint for the design of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The paper reflects on Ely’s antipodean afterlife as an instance of the migration of constitutional ideas. It examines the processes of de- and re-contextualization by which Ely’s theory was remodelled and repurposed, during the process of migration, in order to re-fit it for the new legal system. And it suggests that this process of transmogrification augmented the problems of coherence already associated with Ely’s theory. The paper will be of relevance both to those constitutional theorists with an interest in the coherence and legitimacy of process theories generally, and to scholars of comparative constitutional law, who care about the pathways by which constitutional ideas migrate between legal systems.
Professor Claudia Geiringer holds the Chair in Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington School of Law, and is the Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre of Public Law. Her research interests include the constitutional protection of human rights in New Zealand and comparator Commonwealth nations, the laws and procedures of Parliament, and the domestic reception of international law. She currently holds a grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand to write a book on the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
A light lunch will be provided.

Senator Kim Pate: "The Need to Correct Corrections: The Case for Judicial Oversight"
2017-10-16 12:30 - 14:00
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is hosting a lunchtime discussion with Senator Kim Pate.
“The Need to Correct Corrections: The Case for Judicial Oversight“
Monday October 16th at 12:30pm in Jackman Law Building J140
Kim Pate was appointed to the Senate of Canada on November 10, 2016. First and foremost, the mother of Michael and Madison, she is also a nationally renowned advocate who has spent the last 35 years working in and around the legal and penal systems of Canada, with and on behalf of some of the most marginalized, victimized, criminalized and institutionalized — particularly imprisoned youth, men and women.
A light lunch will be provided.
For more information, contact tal.schreier@utoronto.ca

Asper Centre Immigration & Refugee Law student working group presents Senator Ratna Omidvar
2018-03-07 12:30 - 14:00 | J140 Jackman Law Building, 78 Queen's Park Cres, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada
The Asper Centre’s Immigration & Refugee Law Student Working Group is honoured to host Senator Ratna Omidvar for a lunchtime seminar on Wednesday March 7, 2018 at 12h30. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Senator Omidvar will share her personal story of coming to Canada from India, and she will discuss issues related to inclusion and diversity in Canada, immigration and refugee law and policy, the Charter and progressive law reform. She will then take questions from the audience. This will be a great opportunity to get some insight from her inspiring career.
Light lunch will be provided
Email tal.schreier@utoronto.ca for further information.
About Senator Omidvar:

The Honourable Ratna Omidvar, C.M., O.Ont.
Senator for Ontario, The Senate of Canada
Ratna Omidvar is an internationally recognized voice on migration, diversity and inclusion. In April 2016, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Ms. Omidvar to the Senate of Canada as an independent Senator representing Ontario. As a member of the Senate’s Independent Senators Group she holds a leadership position as the Scroll Manager.
Senator Omidvar is the founding Executive Director and currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Global Diversity Exchange (GDX), Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University. GDX is a think-and-do tank on diversity, migration and inclusion that connects local experience and ideas with global networks. Previously, Senator Omidvar was the President of Maytree, where she played a lead role in local, national and international efforts to promote the integration of immigrants.
Senator Omidvar is the current Co-Chair of the Global Future Council on Migration hosted by the World Economic Forum and serves as a Councillor on the World Refugee Council. She is also a director at the Environics Institute, and Samara Canada. Senator Omidvar is the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council’s Chair Emerita and was formerly the Chair of Lifeline Syria.
Senator Omidvar is co-author of Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada (2015), an Open Book Toronto best book of 2015 and one of the Toronto Star‘s top five good reads from Word on the Street. She is also a contributor to The Harper Factor (2016) and co-editor of Five Good Ideas: Practical Strategies for Non-Profit Success (2011). Senator Omidvar received an Honorary Degree, Doctor of Laws, York University in 2012.
Senator Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011, with both honours recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and devotion to reducing inequality in Canada. In 2014, she received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of German-Canadian relations.

Asper Centre's 10th Anniversary Celebration
2018-10-17 17:00 - 19:00 | Jackman Law Building, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 78 Queens Park
View the event photo gallery
Read our “Celebrating 10 Years” Magazine
Read the Asper Centre’s 2017 – 2018 annual report
Watch the video of the event on YouTube
It’s been a full decade since the Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights opened its doors!
To celebrate 10 years of dedicated advocacy, education and research, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Thomas Cromwell will moderate a conversation between Mary Eberts and Joseph Arvay, two of our former Constitutional Litigators-in-Residence
on October 17, 2018 at 5:00pm
Reception to follow
The Honourable Thomas Albert Cromwell, C.C. received law degrees from Queen’s and Oxford, practised law in Kingston and Toronto and taught law at Dalhousie University. During his time at Dalhousie, he was active as a labour arbitrator and served as Vice-chair of the Nova Scotia Labour Relations Board. After serving as Executive Legal Officer to the Chief Justice Canada from 1992 – 1995, he was appointed a judge of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 1997, serving there until his appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada in 2008. Mr. Cromwell was the first recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s Louis St. Laurent Award of Excellence and is an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford and of the American College of Trial Lawyers. A holder of four honorary doctorates in law, he has also had an award established in his name at the Queen’s Faculty of Law, The Honourable Thomas Cromwell Award for Public Service. He is the chair of the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters, a director of the International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice and of Access Pro Bono British Columbia. He retired from the Supreme Court of Canada on September 1st, 2016. A member of the Bars of Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia, he now serves as senior counsel with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Ottawa and Vancouver. He is a recipient of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice’s Justice Medal and of the Medal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law. In 2017, was named a Companion of the Order of Canada for his “illustrious service as a Supreme Court justice, and for his leadership in improving access to justice for all Canadians.” In 2018, he was named by the Canadian Lawyer Magazine as of one Canada’s most influential lawyers.

Mary Eberts received her legal education at Western and the Harvard Law School, and is a member of the Bar of Ontario. She joined a Bay St. law firm after several years of teaching at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, and was a partner at that firm until opening a small firm specializing in Charter and public law litigation. From this base in Toronto, she has appeared as counsel to parties and interveners in the Supreme Court of Canada, Courts of Appeal and Superior Courts in Ontario and other provinces, the Federal Court and Court of Appeal, and before administrative tribunals and inquests in Ontario and other provinces. She was active in securing the present language of section 15 of the Charter, and was one of the founders of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF). Since 1991, she has been litigation counsel to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC). Mary held the Gordon Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the University of Ottawa in 2004-2005 and the Ariel Sallows Chair in Human Rights at the College of Law, University of Saskachewan in 2011 and 2012, where she taught courses in test case litigation. Mary was the Constitutional Litigator in Residence in 2014-15 and a McMurty Fellow at Osgoode Hall Law School in 2015-16. Recognition of her work includes the Law Society Medal, the Governor-General’s Award in Honour of the Persons’ Case, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal and several honourary degrees. In 2017, Mary was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Massey College, University of Toronto.
Joseph Arvay, who co-founded the firm of Arvay Finlay Barristers in 1990 with offices in Vancouver and Victoria, is recognized as one of this country’s most highly respected lawyers. His practice emphasizes constitutional and administrative law matters, as well as Indigenous rights litigation.. He has been counsel in scores of important Supreme Court of Canada cases. His exceptional commitment to human rights in this country has been recognized with numerous awards and tributes. He was awarded honourary doctorates of law from both York University and the University of Victoria. In 2017 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada as well as a Member of the Order of British Columbia.

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Ran Hirschl
2020-11-12 12:45 - 14:00
“City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity” by Ran Hirschl

The Asper Centre is pleased to present a Constitutional Roundtable on Thursday November, 12 2020 at 12:45p.m. with Professor Ran Hirschl about his new book: City, State: Constitutionalism and the Megacity (Oxford: 2020).
This book:

Addresses a major scholarly gap – the great constitutional silence concerning urban agglomeration and the rise of megacities.
Provides a detailed, first-of-its-kind, comparative analysis of the constitutional status of cities across time and place.
Probes the origins and consequences of the constitutional (dis)empowerment of the metropolis.
Advances novel arguments for granting the metropolis adequate constitutional standing while mitigating the urban/rural divide.

Ran Hirschl is Professor of Political Science & Law at the University of Toronto. As of 2016, he holds the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Comparative Constitutionalism, having been granted a coveted AvH International Research Award (the most highly-endowed research award in Germany) by the Humboldt Foundation. From 2006 to 2016 he held the Canada Research Chair in Constitutionalism, Democracy and Development at the University of Toronto. In 2014, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC)–the highest academic accolade in that country. The official citation describes him as “one of the world’s leading scholars of comparative constitutional law, courts and jurisprudence.”
Many of the themes of this book can be found in this recent paper by Prof Hirschl: Cities in National Constitutions:
Northern Stagnation, Southern Innovation.

VIEW RECORDING of the WEBINAR HERE

Charter @ 40 Webinar
2022-10-21 12:00 - 14:00 | Online Zoom Webinar
Forty years ago, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was adopted with the signing of the Proclamation of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Charter protects the rights and freedoms of all Canadians and is built on the shared values of equality, justice and freedom. This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, which recognizes and affirms Indigenous and Treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.
On October 21, 2022 at noon, please join us for a stimulating discussion (via Zoom Webinar), hosted by the Asper Centre’s Executive Director Cheryl Milne, who will be joined by 9 of the Centre’s past Constitutional Litigators in Residence, for a reflection on the Charter’s anniversary – how far have we come in the last 40 years to uphold the Charter’s rights and values and what we can hope for in the next 40 years?
The following esteemed guests will take part in this special conversation:

Raj Anand
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2015
Senior partner at Weir Foulds LLP, focused on litigation, administrative and human rights law. Former Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and Bencher for the Law Society of Ontario.
Justice Breese Davies
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2017
Appointed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2018. Prior to her appointment, she maintained a criminal, constitutional, and human rights law practice.
Mary Eberts
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2014
Canadian constitutional lawyer and human rights advocate. Recipient of Order of Canada. Influential in creation of Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and founding member of Women’s Legal Action and Education Fund (LEAF).
Nader Hasan
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2020
Partner at Stockwood LLP, Nader practises criminal, regulatory and constitutional law at the trial and appellate levels.
Janet E. Minor
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2016
Former General Counsel in the Constitutional Law Branch of the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario and former Treasurer of the Law Society of Ontario.
Justice John Norris
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2013
Appointed to the Federal Court of Canada in 2018. Prior to his appointment, he maintained a trial and appellate practice in the areas of criminal, constitutional and national security.
Jessica Orkin
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2022
Partner at Goldblatt Partners, with a broad litigation practice including criminal, civil and administrative law matters, with an emphasis on constitutional rights, human rights, and Aboriginal rights.
Jonathan Rudin
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2021
Program Director and senior lawyer at Aboriginal Legal Services, Jonathan has written and spoken widely on issues of Indigenous justice.
Susan Ursel
Constitutional Litigator-in-Residence, 2018
Senior partner with the law firm of Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP. Labour and human rights lawyer and frequent speaker, teacher and writer on human rights and Charter issues.

Register for this virtual event at charterat40.eventbrite.com
All welcome!

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Eleonora Bottini
2023-03-23 12:30 - 14:00 | TBD
Please join us on Thursday March 23, 2023 at 12:30pm for an Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Eleonora Bottini on her forthcoming paper titled “Modernizing Constitutions: A comparative analysis of justifications for constitutional reforms.”
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights’ Constitutional Roundtables are an annual series of lunchtime discussion forums that provide an opportunity to consider developments in Canadian constitutional theory and practice. The Constitutional Roundtable series promotes scholarship and aims to make a meaningful contribution to intellectual discourse about Canadian constitutional law.
All are welcome. No Registration or RSVP required. Light lunch will be provided.
Venue: John Willis Classroom FL219, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Abstract: The idea, dear to Thomas Jefferson, that a people cannot be subjected by the laws of the previous generations is in direct contrast with the intention of the constituent power to make the constitution– as opposed to ordinary legislation – last for more than one generation. One way to conciliate this paradox of constitutional theory is the possibility of amending the text of rigid constitutions if and when they become “outdated”. Therefore, a very effective argument to legitimize constitutional amendments has been that they serve the modernization of the constitution, making it compatible with current times without having to substitute it entirely, which could be politically impossible or undesirable. This paper critically examines the uses of the constitutional modernization argument (CMA) from a comparative perspective, by studying examples of constitutional reforms from 2000 to 2022 in various countries. The paper’s contribution is firstly to unpack the structure and assumptions of CMA and to divide it into sub-arguments in order to provide a better understanding of those types of justifications. The paper concludes on a critique of CMA as an unjustified objectivization of constitutional reforms which can mask the changed political preferences that amendments convey.
Eleonora Bottini is Full Professor of Public Law at the University of Caen-Normandy (France) and is currently the Martin-Flynn Global Law Professor at University of Connecticut School of Law. She served previously as associate professor at Sorbonne Law School in Paris and was the Alliance Visiting Professor at Columbia University. She specializes in comparative constitutional law, French constitutional law and legal theory. She has published several articles and book chapters in French, Italian and English and she is the author of a book based on her PhD thesis, “Constitutional sanction: study of a doctrinal argument” (Dalloz, 2016, in French), on the theoretical origins of judicial review.

Asper Centre's 15th Anniversary Celebration
2023-11-15 17:00 - 19:30 | J140 Jackman Law Building, 78 Queen's Park Cres, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is celebrating 15 years of advocacy, research and education with a special anniversary event taking place on November 15th, 2023.
Please join us for an in-person live podcast recording of Charter: A Course, featuring U of T Law Dean Jutta Brunnée interviewing Cheryl Milne (Executive Director, Asper Centre), followed by Ewa Krajewska (the Asper Centre’s current Constitutional Litigator in Residence) interviewing Asper Centre Alumni: Neil Abraham (JD 2016), Ryan Deshpande (JD 2021), Keely Kinley (JD 2021), and Geetha Philipupillai (JD 2017).
The live podcast recording will be followed by an intimate cocktail reception. Registration Required.
REGISTER HERE

Constitutional Roundtable with Professors Kerri Froc and Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin on the QCCA decision in Hak v. Attorney General of Quebec
2024-03-13 12:30 - 14:00 | Jackman Law Building Room J140, 78 Queen’s Park
The Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtables are an annual series of lunchtime discussion forums that provide an opportunity to consider developments in Canadian constitutional theory and practice. The series promotes scholarship and aims to make a meaningful contribution to intellectual discourse about Canadian and comparative constitutional law.

We are pleased to host Associate Professor Kerri Froc (UNB Law) in conjunction with Assistant Professor Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin (U of T Law) for a Constitutional Roundtable on March 13, 2024 in the Solarium, Falconer Hall, Faculty of Law.
Professors Froc and Bédard-Rubin will break down the Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision in Hak et al. c. Procureur général du Québec, concerning the constitutionality of Bill 21, An Act Respecting the Laicity of the State. This appeal concerns freedom of expression, freedom of religion and equality rights, as Muslim women in Quebec who wear religious symbols such as the niqab or hijab would be prohibited from working in certain professions and in most parts of public administration, and prevented from benefitting from some public services because the law requires them to do so with their faces uncovered. The government of Quebec also pre-emptively used the override clause to prevent any constitutional challenges to the legislation. This Constitutional Roundtable will cover what this decision means for Charter rights, gender equality, and state use of the “notwithstanding clause.”
Kerri Froc is an Associate Professor at UNB Law, as well as a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar. She has taught courses at Carleton University, Queen’s University and University of Ottawa on feminist legal theory and various aspects of public law, among others.
Kerri received her PhD from Queen’s University in 2016 and holds a Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa, a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Regina.
Before completing her doctorate, she spent 18 years as a lawyer, as a civil litigator in Regina, a staff lawyer for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and as a staff lawyer in the areas of law reform and equality at the Canadian Bar Association. She is a member of the Saskatchewan and New Brunswick bars.
Assistant Professor Jean-Christophe Bédard-Rubin’s work explores Canadian constitutional culture from historical and comparative perspectives. He studied law, political science, and philosophy at Université Laval, Yale University, and the University of Toronto. During his doctoral studies, Jean-Christophe was the McMurty Fellow of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History and a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Scholar. He has done consultancy work on constitution-building for International IDEA and, prior to his graduate studies, he worked in litigation for the Quebec Department of Justice.
Bédard-Rubin currently pursues two main research projects. The first is an intellectual history of the foundations of public law in French Canada. This project seeks to reconstruct the intellectual networks in which French Canadian public lawyers participated to excavate the transatlantic influences on the formation of Quebec’s legal syncretism. This genealogical reconstruction recovers the conceptual and theoretical innovations that allowed French Canadians to articulate a genuine theory of the state outside of the revolutionary framework. In so doing, this work sheds a different, somewhat oblique light on Canada’s constitutional experience and questions its status in comparative constitutional scholarship.
The second research project investigates judicial bilingualism in Canada. Using mixed social science methods, this project explores the various empirical impacts of bilingualism on judicial behaviour, the normative significance of legal bilingualism for the authority of judicial decisions, and the ways in which language shapes the dominant conception of the judicial role in Canada’s French and English public spheres.
Jean-Christophe’s work has been published in English and French in the Review of Constitutional Studies, the Canadian Journal of Law & Society, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, the Bulletin d’histoire politique, and the International Journal of Canadian Studies, amongst others.
All are welcome * Light lunch provided * No registration required

Asper Centre Panel on Indigenous Child Welfare & Self-Governance
2024-10-31 12:30 - 14:00 | J130 Jackman law building, 78 Queen's Park, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, Jackman Law Building Atrium, Toronto, Canada
Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtable Presents a Panel on
Indigenous Child Welfare & Self-Governance
with Prof John Borrows (the Loveland Chair of Indigenous Law, UofT Law), Prof Maggie Blackhawk (NYU Law) & Sara Mainville (JFK Law LLP)
Moderated by Asper Centre ED, Cheryl Milne
Thursday, October 31, 2024 at 12:30pm – 2:00pm (in person or virtual)
Room J130, Jackman Law Building, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
All are welcome * Light lunch will be provided * Registration Required
REGISTER HERE
Background
Over the past few years, both Canadian and American courts have decided cases that impact Indigenous Nations’ ability to care for Indigenous children. Both countries have histories and present realities of removing Indigenous children from Indigenous homes, thereby jeopardizing the safety of Indigenous children and undermining Indigenous Nations’ sovereignty and governance. With this context in mind, the recent Supreme Court of the United States Haaland v Brackeen decision, and the Supreme Court of Canada Attorney General of Québec, et al. v. Attorney General of Canada, et al decisions are of paramount importance to Indigenous sovereignty and safety. Both cases address federal legislation introduced to address the historic and ongoing harms caused by the apprehension of Indigenous children by settler governments. In both countries, these decisions also demonstrate how child welfare is closely connected to Indigenous assertions of and rights to self-government.
The Asper Centre Indigenous Rights Working Group is pleased to present a panel event to unpack the significant legal issues and potential future implications of these cases, with a focus on the Quebec Reference case and its meaning for the interpretation of Section 35 of the Constitution and Indigenous self-governance.
Panelists
Maggie Blackhawk (Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe) is professor of law at NYU and a prize-winning scholar and teacher of federal Indian law, constitutional law, and legislation. Blackhawk was awarded the American Society for Legal History’s William Nelson Cromwell Article Prize and her research has been published or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Supreme Court Review, American Historical Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Journal of the Early Republic, and Journal of Politics. Much of her scholarship explores the relationship between law and power, with a particular emphasis on the ways that subordinated peoples leverage law to shift power to their communities—especially outside of rights and courts-based frameworks. Her recent projects have focused on the laws and legal histories of American colonialism and the central role of the American colonial project, including the resistance and advocacy of Native and other colonized peoples, in shaping the constitutional law and history of the United States.
Sara Mainville is a partner at JFK Law LLP and has been a member of the Ontario bar since 2005 and she is a member of the BC bar (2022) with specific matter approvals to practice in Nunavut and Quebec. Sara has a Management/Public Administration degree (Lethbridge) and a Bachelor of Laws from Queen’s University. She has a LLM from the University of Toronto and an Advanced Negotiations certificate from Harvard University, and a Certificate in Entertainment Law (Osgoode PD). In 2014, Sara was elected as Chief of Couchiching First Nation after the sudden death of her friend and mentor, Chief Chuck McPherson. Sara uses this experience as a former Chief to help leadership work past difficult issues, within Indigenous forms of dispute resolution, and walk the community through processes to encourage discourse and grassroots solutions to long-held problems. Sara has completed Advanced Negotiations training at Harvard University and dispute resolution, legislative drafting, and mediation training at professional institutes in order to advance her clients’ long held goals for self-determination and truer treaty partnerships in Canada. Sara is generally seen as a subject-matter expert about Crown-Indigenous relations, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaty 3, and Anishinaabe Inakonigewin. However, Sara sees herself as a life-long learner willing to meet in community, read voraciously, and listen intently to better understand Indigenous knowledge systems across Canada.
John Borrows B.A., M.A., J.D., LL.M. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.D. (Hons., Dalhousie, York, SFU, Queen’s & Law Society of Ontario), D.H.L, (Toronto), F.R.S.C., O.C., is the Loveland Chair in Indigenous Law at the University of Toronto Law School. His publications include, Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (Donald Smiley Award best book in Canadian Political Science, 2002), Canada’s Indigenous Constitution (Canadian Law and Society Best Book Award 2011), Drawing Out Law: A Spirit’s Guide (2010), Freedom and Indigenous Constitutionalism ((Donald Smiley Award best book in Canadian Political Science, 2016), The Right Relationship (with Michael Coyle, ed.), Resurgence and Reconciliation (with Michael Asch, Jim Tully, eds.), Law’s Indigenous Ethics (2020 Best subsequent Book Award from Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, 2020 W. Wes Pue Best book award from the Canadian Law and Society Association). He is the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences and the 2019 Molson Prize Winner from the Canada Council for the Arts, the 2020 Governor General’s Innovation Award, and the 2021 Canadian Bar Association President’s Award winner. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020. John is a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada.
REGISTER HERE

Constitutional Roundtable with Prof Margot Young
2025-01-14 12:30 - 14:00 | Flavelle FL219 – John Willis Classroom
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights’ Constitutional Roundtables are an annual series of lunchtime discussion forums that provide an opportunity to consider developments in Canadian constitutional theory and practice. The Constitutional Roundtable series promotes scholarship and aims to make a meaningful contribution to intellectual discourse about Canadian constitutional law.
We are pleased to be hosting Professor Margot Young (Peter A. Allard School of Law, UBC) for a Constitutional Roundatble on January 14, 2025, about her book chapter in our recent publication Litigating Equality (Lexis Nexis, 2023). The presentation and book chapter is titled: Zombie Concepts: Contagion in Canadian Equality Law.
ABSTRACT: Jurisprudence under section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has not forged an easy or seemingly consistent path. The most recent decision about equality from the Supreme Court of Canada, R v Sharma, is illustration of this assertion. Here, the equality harm the claimant, an Indigenous woman, faces could not be starker: a toxic mix of racism, sexism, and the legacy of settler colonialism. Yet, the majority judgment finds no evidence of discriminatory harm. While claiming adhenrence to past doctrinal formulations, this judgment recasts significantly recent tests for section 15, scaffolding their rejection of the equality claim with much criticized and, in many instances, disavowed concepts from equality law’s history. These are the zombie concepts of equality thought: causation, arbitrariness and negative obligation. The metaphor of the zombie highlights the continual dismissal and then resurrection of these notions as markers of a deep judicial anxiety stalking equality rights law. The repeat appearance of thee somnambulist concepts reveals another haunting – the transformative promise of substantive equality is itself spoiled by judicial anxieties around both social change and institutional role.
BIO: Margot Young is Professor in the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. After studying at the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, and the University of California, Berkeley, Professor Young began her teaching career at the Faculty of Law at the University of Victoria. In 2002, she moved to the University of British Columbia.
Professor Young teaches in the areas of constitutional and social justice law. She was the Director of the Social Justice Specialization at the law school and has organized the Law and Society Speakers Series for close to a decade. Professor Young served three terms as Chair of the university-wide Faculty Association Status of Women Committee. She is a research associate with Green College, the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies, and the Centre for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at UBC.
Professor Young’s research interests focus on equality law and theory, women’s economic equality, urban theory, and local housing politics and rights. She is also working on the intersections between environmental justice, social justice, feminism, and human rights. Professor Young was co-editor of the collection Poverty: Rights, Social Citizenship and Legal Activism and was Co-Principal Investigator of the Housing Justice Project (HousingJustice.ca). She is widely published in a variety of journals and edited books.
Professor Young is a member of the editorial boards of the Canadian Journal of Women and Law, the Review of Constitutional Studies, Studies in Housing Law and is on the advisory board of the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice. In 2016, she became co-editorship of the Law and Society Review.
Professor Young is active in a variety of professional and community organizations. She sits on the boards for Justice for Girls and the David Suzuki Foundation. She is Research Associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-BC Office. Professor Young works with provincial and national women’s equality groups during United Nation committees’ periodic reviews of Canada’s human rights record, travelling as an NGO representative to these meetings in New York and Geneva. More specifically, she works with the BC CEDAW Group and the Feminist Alliance for International Action.
Professor Young is a frequent commentator in the media on a variety of issues to do with social justice and socio-economic rights issues. Interviews include local, national, and international print, television, and radio coverage of key constitutional, equality, and civil liberties issues.
All are welcome * No RSVP Required * Light lunch provided

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor David M. Rabban
2025-11-13 12:30 - 14:00 | Jackman Law Building Room J140, 78 Queen’s Park
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights’ Constitutional Roundtables are an annual series of lunchtime discussion forums that provide an opportunity to consider developments in Canadian constitutional theory and practice and comparative constitutional law. The Constitutional Roundtable series promotes scholarship and aims to make a meaningful contribution to intellectual discourse about Canadian constitutional law.
We are pleased to be hosting author and Professor David M. Rabban of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law for an in-person Constitutional Roundtable on Thursday November 13, 2025 at 12h30. A light lunch will be provided.
The presentation is titled: The Meaning of Academic Freedom as a First Amendment Right
ABSTRACT: This talk will trace the judicial development of academic freedom as a First Amendment right of professors, beginning in 1957, and the judicial extension of the First Amendment right of academic freedom to universities, beginning in the 1970s. It will point out that the courts have clearly recognized academic freedom as First Amendment right, but have disagreed about its coverage. Nor have courts developed its meaning, as judges themselves have often complained. I will assert that academic freedom should be understood as a distinctive First Amendment right that protects the expert academic speech of professors and the educational decisions of universities. Academic freedom is related to but differentiated from general First Amendment rights of political expression. I will conclude by applying this understanding of academic freedom to recent intervention by federal and state governments into university affairs.

BIO: Professor Rabban joined the Texas Law faculty in 1983. He served as counsel to the American Association of University Professors for several years; later, served as its general counsel and as chair of its committee on academic freedom and tenure. His teaching and research focus on free speech, academic freedom, higher education and the law, and American legal history. He was a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2016 and of the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University in 2016-17. His most recent book, Academic Freedom: From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right, was published in 2024.

All are welcome * No RSVP required * Light Lunch provided
