David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Ran Hirschl
2020-11-12 12:45 - 14:00 (America/Toronto)
“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!

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
