David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights

Constitutional Roundtable on City of Toronto et al. v. Ontario
2021-11-09 12:30 - 14:00 (America/Toronto) | Online Zoom Webinar
Asper Centre Webinar on City of Toronto et al. v. Ontario
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights’ Constitutional Roundtable Series presents
A panel discussion on the Charter challenge to Ontario legislation reducing the number of wards in the City of Toronto’s 2018 municipal election more than half-way through the election period
on Tuesday November 9, 2021 at 12h30 EST
Background
Well into the Toronto municipal election in 2018, the Ontario government passed the Better Local Government Act, 2018 reducing Toronto City Council to 25 seats from its original 47. A number of individuals, including candidates in the 47-ward election, challenged the legislation, as did the City of Toronto. It was argued that cancelling a democratic election more than halfway through the election period breached the Charter’s guarantee of freedom of expression, without justification. The challenge was successful at the Superior Court but failed at the Court of Appeal. Toronto appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada and, in a deeply divided 5 to 4 decision released on October 1, 2021, the Court upheld the Act. The panel will discuss the differing views of the majority and dissenting judges and the implications for constitutional litigation and freedom of expression claims more generally.
Panelists
Geetha Philipupillai, Goldblatt Partners LLP, counsel for the intervener Canadian Civil Liberties Association in the SCC appeal
Lorraine Weinrib, Professor Emerita at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a specialist in constitutional law and litigation
Alexi Wood, St. Lawrence Barristers LLP, counsel for the Asper Centre in its intervention at the OCA and the SCC
The panel will be moderated by Lillianne Cadieux-Shaw, St. Lawrence Barristers LLP, co-counsel for the Asper Centre in its intervention at the SCC.
VIEW RECORDING of the WEBINAR HERE

Webinar: The Implications of Facial Recognition Technology
2022-02-15 12:30 - 14:00
The Implications of Facial Recognition Technology: An Investigation through the lens of Constitutional, Privacy, and Human Rights Law
Legal issues do not occur in a vacuum. For each new innovative leap forward, there are potential ramifications in business, privacy, strategy, criminal, constitutional, and human rights law. The best lawyers are the ones who recognize the interplay between substantive areas of law and understand how each of the individual threads connects together.
This virtual session, on February 15, 2022 at 12h30 (EST), is a collaboration between the Faculty of Law’s David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, the International Human Rights Program, and the Future of Law Lab. It will focus on Facial Recognition Technology (“FRT”) and investigate how its ripples affect various fields of law. In particular, the panel will examine the Constitutional, Privacy, and Human Rights impacts of FRT. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear our experts speak to the benefits, challenges, risks, and trends associated with this novel technology as it relates to their specialization.
PANELISTS

Vincent Chiao, University of Toronto
Vincent Chiao, B.A. (University of Virginia), Ph.D. (Northwestern), J.D. (Harvard), researches and teaches primarily in the area of criminal law and criminal justice, with a particular interest in the philosophical examination of its doctrine and institutions. He is the author of Criminal Law in the Age of the Administrative State (Oxford University Press 2018).
Carole Piovesan, INQ Law

Carole is managing partner at INQ Law, focusing her practice on privacy, cyber readiness, data governance and artificial intelligence (AI) risk management. She regularly counsels clients on a wide range of matters related to privacy, cyber readiness and breach response, data governance, ethical AI and responsible innovation. Prior to founding INQ Law, Carole was co-lead of the national Cybersecurity, Privacy and Data Management group at McCarthy Tétrault. She has represented clients before all levels of court in Ontario as well as at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Kate Robertson, Markson Law
Kate Robertson practices criminal and regulatory litigation representing both individual and corporate clients. Her practice includes both trial and appellate advocacy. She has conducted numerous criminal trials, including jury and judge-alone trials, and has advocated at all levels of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada. She is a Fellow at The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, where she consults on law and policy issues relating to privacy, law enforcement, and surveillance.

REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-implications-of-facial-recognition-technology-tickets-258030384827
See EVENT Poster here

Emergencies Act, Police Powers & COVID Protests
2022-03-02 12:30 - 14:00
We are pleased to convene an ONLINE expert panel discussion about the Emergencies Act, Police Powers & COVID Protests on Wednesday March 2, 2022 @12:30pm.
ZOOM REGISTRATION HERE

Book Forum-Remedies for Human Rights Violations by Kent Roach
2022-03-04 12:30 - 14:30
Asper Centre and IHRP online Book Forum
Remedies for Human Rights Violations by Kent Roach
Hosted by the International Human Rights Program and the Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights,
Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
Friday, March 4, 2022 at 12:30-2:30pm (EST)
REGISTER HERE
Note: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Prof Roach’s book is available through the Law Library catalog at: https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/permalink/01UTORONTO_INST/14bjeso/alma991107004593306196 or directly at: https://www-cambridge-org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/core/books/remedies-for-human-rights-violations/9336DE5D434CE91E89990EE71BBA6B6A
Read Rights Review interview with Prof Roach – https://ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/interview-professor-kent-roach-neglected-field-remedies-human-rights-violationsrof
Co-Chairs:
Rebecca Cook, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Law
Ashley Major, Research Associate, International Human Rights Program,
Cheryl Milne, Director, Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights

Clinic Information Session
2022-07-07 12:30 - 13:30 | Online Zoom Meeting
On July 7, 2022 at 12:30pm the Asper Centre will be taking part in an Information Session, for University of Toronto Faculty of Law upper year students.

This information session will provide details on how to enroll in the for-credit clinical programs at the Asper Centre Constitutional Rights Clinic and Downtown Legal Services for Fall 2022.

Cheryl Milne (Asper Centre ED) and Richard Teicher (DLS Staff Lawyer) will present at the information session with past Clinic students and there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
Students, please check the Internal events calendar listing, by logging into E-legal, for the ZOOM meeting link. Thanks!

Call for Proposals for Student Working Groups 2022/23 – Application Due Date
2022-08-11 17:00
Dear Upper Year JD Students:
We are currently accepting proposals from upper year students who are interested in leading a student working group at the Asper Centre next year. Please find the CALL for PROPOSALS for 2022-23 Asper Centre Working Groups here . The application is due on August 11, 2020.
Student working groups at the Asper Centre provide law students with the unique opportunity to conduct legal research and advocacy on Canadian Constitutional and Charter rights issues, often in partnership with an external organization. Examples of past working groups (including this year’s groups) at the Asper Centre may be found at http://aspercentre.ca/clinic/student-working-groups/.
This coming year, the Asper Centre welcomes proposals from students who would be interested in leading a working group focused on indigenous rights or children’s rights, however all proposals will be equally considered. If you would like to apply to lead a working group but need some assistance in developing your working group proposal, please contact tal.schreier@utoronto.ca.
Thank you for your interest and we look forward to working with you.
Successful groups will be notified prior to the start of Fall 2022 term.

Podcast Research Assistant position - application deadline
2022-08-30 12:00
The Asper Centre is hiring a law student to work part-time (8-10 hours/week for about 10 weeks) on its podcast, Charter: A Course, to commence in early September 2022.
The student is expected to help develop podcast episodes, including finding and inviting guests, drafting scripts and show notes, and preparing transcripts for editing. Experience is not required but preference will be given to students who have an understanding and background in podcast production. This position requires excellent research and writing skills, strong computer skills, attention to detail and an interest in constitutional law and podcasts.
To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, and a brief writing sample by e-mail to cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca by 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday August 30, 2022
Candidates must be a current (or incoming) JD student at the University of Toronto. This is paid position.

Student Working Groups Information Session (for U of T Law JD students)
2022-09-13 12:30 - 14:00 | J250 Jackman Law Building
Dear U of T Law JD students,
Please attend this important lunchtime Information session on September 13, 2022 to find out about the volunteer opportunities available this year at the Asper Centre and the IHRP. Lunch will be provided!
Please check our student working group page to learn more about the public interest programs’ joint volunteer recruitment process guidelines (which will be available soon) for more details about how to get involved with our programs.
We look forward to meeting and working with you!
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights
The Asper Centre is devoted to advocacy, research, and education in constitutional law in Canada. The cornerstone of the Centre is a legal clinic that brings together upper year students, faculty, and members of the bar to work on significant constitutional cases and advocacy initiatives for credit.
Students in all years can volunteer with one of the Asper Centre’s student working groups led by upper year students. Working groups prepare policy briefs, draft public legal information materials, organize workshops, and/or conduct research on current or emerging constitutional law and Charter rights issues. This year, the Asper Centre is pleased to support the following working groups: i) Climate Justice; ii) Consent, Sexual Assault, and Constitutional Rights; iii) Prisoners’ Rights Handbook; iv) Police Oversight; and v) Reproductive Rights.
The International Human Rights Program
The IHRP involves law students in international human rights law advocacy, knowledge exchange, and capacity-building. IHRP working groups are student-led projects that provide experiential learning opportunities in several areas of international law. The groups are led by upper year law students and are supervised and supported by the IHRP Director and Research Associates. This year, the IHRP has 5 working groups: Women’s Human Rights Resources, Global Health and Human Rights, Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Database of Atrocities, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and the Venezuela Accountability Project.

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!

IHRP & Asper Centre book forum with Ninette Kelly - People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge
2022-10-28 12:00 - 15:00 | J140 Jackman Law Building, 78 Queen's Park Cres, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada
REGISTER
Book Forum hosted by the International Human Rights Program and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights

Friday, October 28, 2022 – 12:00pm to 3:00pm (light lunch served for those in person, at noon; program starting at 12:30pm)
Jackman Law Building, J140 or virtual

People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge (Oxford University Press 2022) by Ninette Kelley
Program

Words of welcome from Dean Jutta Brunnée
Book overview by Ninette Kelley

Commentators

Erin Simpson (JD 2013)
IHRP alumna, founding partner of Landings LLP, practicing refugee and immigration law in Toronto
Professor Yin-Yuan Chen (MSW 2005, JD 2010, SJD 2020)
IHRP and Asper Centre alumnus, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law (Common Law section), researching refugees’ access to health care
Professor Ghizaal Haress
Visiting Scholar and Scholar-at-Risk, University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy
Fen Hampson (attending virtually)
President, World Refugee and Migration Council

Response by Author
Ninette Kelley is a former senior officer in UNHCR. She recently completed a book for UNHCR to commemorate the 70th anniversaries of the creation of the Office (2020) and of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (2021). People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge (Oxford University Press, 2022). It reflects back and looks forward: drawing on the lessons of history to probe how we can improve responses to forced displacement. Prior assignments included UNHCR Director, New York (2015-2019) and UNHCR Representative, Lebanon (2010-2015).
Kelley has also held various policy and consultative roles with international humanitarian agencies focusing on development, immigration and refugee issues. In Canada she served eight years on the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). She is the author of The Making of the Mosaic: The History of Canadian Immigration Policy, University of Toronto Press, 2nd edition, October 2010 (with Michael Trebilcock) and has published in the areas of human rights law, citizenship, refugee protection, gender related persecution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. She is a lawyer by training.

REGISTER

Project Manager position - Application Deadline
2023-01-20 12:00
The Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, jointly with the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, is seeking a part-time student to supervise its Law Foundation of Ontario funded project: Toolkit for Evidence-Based Child Protection Practice.
NOTE: Job applicant must be a University of Toronto upper year/graduate law student or social work student.
Please see Job Advert HERE

Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture 2023
2023-01-26 16:30 - 17:45 | J250 Jackman Law Building Moot Court
Register at morrisgross2023.eventbrite.com

The Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture was established in memory of the late Morris A. Gross by the law firm Minden Gross LLP and by members of his family, friends and professional associates. The intention of the lectureship is to, every two years, bring to the Faculty of Law a distinguished scholar or a member of the practising bar or bench for discussion with the student body and Faculty, and to deliver the bi-annual Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture.

The 2023 Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture

The Hon. Michael H. Tulloch
Chief Justice of Ontario and President of the Court of Appeal for Ontario
Introduction by Professor Kent Roach
The Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture is convened by the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights and is open to all members of the U of T Law community.

Register at morrisgross2023.eventbrite.com

Proposal Deadline: Litigating Equality in Canada Symposium
2023-01-31
We are pleased to announce our upcoming Symposium, Litigating Equality in Canada, is due to take place on Friday, May 26, 2023.
Please see our Call for Proposals below. The Deadline for proposals is January 31, 2023.
Asper Centre CALL FOR PAPERS Section 15 Symposium

Careers in Constitutional Law
2023-03-15 12:30 - 14:00 | J140 Jackman Law Building, 78 Queen's Park Cres, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada
Are you a U of T Law JD Candidate with a passion for promoting and advancing Charter rights and Constitutional law? Do you want to learn about the numerous career paths that exist for lawyers wishing to practice constitutional law, Charter litigation or constitutional-adjacent law?
Please join the Asper Centre for a lunchtime panel discussion on the various career pathways in constitutional law. Meet and get firsthand career advice from 5 amazing U of T Law alumni:

Jessica Orkin (Asper Centre Constitutional Litigator in Residence Fall 2022), partner at Goldblatt’s LLP
Katherine Long (staff lawyer at Justice for Children and Youth)
Katrina Longo (DOJ Lawyer)
Joshua Blum (Refugee and immigration lawyer)
Zachary Biech (staff lawyer at Ecojustice)

Event for U of T Law students. Lunch provided. No registration required. Email tal.schreier@utoronto.ca

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.

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Aileen Kavanagh
2023-03-28 12:30 - 14:00 | Jackman Law Building Room J140, 78 Queen’s Park
Please join us on Tuesday March 28, 2023 at 12:30pm for an Asper Centre Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Aileen Kavanagh on her forthcoming book, The Collaborative Constitution.
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.
The Collaborative Constitution by Aileen Kavanagh
Which branch of government should we trust to protect rights in a democracy? Some take a court-centric approach to this question, arguing that the courts provide a ‘forum of principle’ which makes them uniquely situated to protect rights against the feared and fabled ‘tyranny of the majority’. Others put their faith in the democratic legislature, as a supremely dignified, diverse, and deliberative forum which can protect our rights against the oligarchic offensive of an ermined elite. Rejecting the binary options of either the courts or the legislature, this book argues that protecting rights is a collaborative enterprise between all three branches of government where each branch has a distinct but complementary role to play, whilst working together with the other branches in constitutional partnership. Instead of advocating the hegemony and supremacy of one branch over another, this book articulates a collaborative vision of constitutionalism where the protection of rights is a shared responsibility between all three branches. On this vision, protecting rights is neither the solitary domain of a Herculean super-judge, nor the dignified pronouncements of an enlightened legislature. Instead, it is a complex, dynamic, and collaborative enterprise, where each branch of government has a valuable role to play, whilst treating the other branches with comity and respect.
The Collaborative Constitution is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in June 2023. Please see the Introduction and Ch 3 of the book, which have been graciously shared by the author in advance of this Roundtable.
Aileen Kavanagh is Professor of Constitutional Governance at Trinity College Dublin and Director of TriCON, the Trinity Centre for Constitutional Governance. Formerly Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Oxford, Aileen Kavanagh has written widely on comparative constitutional law, human rights and constitutional theory. Her previous books include Constitutional Review under the UK Human Rights Act 1998 (CUP, 2009).

Research Job Applications Due Date
2023-03-29 12:00
Attention U of T Law JD students and Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work students, please see job adverts for the following positions:
Project Manager
Research Assistant
Deadline for both applications is Wednesday March 29, 2023.
Email: cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca for questions

Litigating Equality in Canada Symposium
2023-05-26 09:00 - 17:00 | Jackman Law Building, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto 78 Queen’s Park, Room J140, 78 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
In the past decade, several decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada have articulated a revised understanding of the way that section 15 of the Charter is to be applied in Charter litigation. In particular, Fraser has been interpreted by some as modifying the approach by claimants in establishing a section 15 breach and placing more focus on the government’s burden of justification. Most recently, Sharma has articulated an evidentiary burden as part of the test. The Courts have also been challenged to examine the implication of equality rights in Charter challenges and sentencing cases in the criminal law context in ways that place a heavy focus on racial inequities. The events of the summer of 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement have highlighted the importance of cases such as R v Sharma and R v Morris, that have recently been considered by our courts. The Supreme Court of Canada has also shown an increasing interest in scholarship in the analysis of the law, while at the same time, we are seeing an increased interest and influence of interveners in these cases.
In light of the above developments, the Asper Centre convened a one-day Symposium (in-person and via Webinar) on Friday May 26th, 2023, to critically examine the status and future of equality litigation in Canada. The Symposium 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.
Some of the themes that were covered in the Symposium include an analysis of the recent Supreme Court rulings under s.15 of the Charter and their impact on litigation strategies on behalf equality seeking groups and the government; whether and how interveners have made an impact on these cases; the nature of the evidence required to successfully argue or defend these cases; and, lessons from successful as well as unsuccessful litigation in this area extracted from individual cases.
This Symposium builds on some of the themes explored in the Asper Centre’s 2018 Public interest Litigation Conference (and the publication following that Conference) in order to contribute to the practical scholarship on equality litigation in Canada and to produce a follow-up publication to this earlier work.
The Symposium included a morning plenary session on the role of interveners in equality litigation in Canada, a closing panel offering reflections and perspectives from the bench, as well as a full day of panel discussions by academics and practitioners focusing on the above-noted issues.
Link to the BOOK published following the Symposium
View Symposium AGENDA with Speakers Bios and Abstracts
View archived webcast of the Symposium

Application Deadline for Clinical Legal Education Course
2023-07-09 23:59
Attention upper year JD students at U of T Law!
Re: Applications for Asper Centre Clinical Legal Education: Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights (LAW391H1F)
The Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is devoted to advocacy, research and education in the area of constitutional rights in Canada. Its cornerstone is a legal clinic bringing together students, faculty and members of the bar to work on significant constitutional cases. Appellate level cases that invoke the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in innovative ways to promote social justice will be selected. It is expected that students will have the opportunity to work alongside practitioners and faculty in developing written and oral arguments, for academic credit. Daily casework could include case theory formulation, constitutional legal research, appellate brief and factum writing and attendance at oral argument. Projects may also include policy advocacy and research along with public legal education.
Substantive and procedural issues arising in advocating for constitutional rights will be explored through seminars and experiential learning. You will be exposed to skills-building seminars and case work and explore some of the legal, procedural, strategic, ethical and theoretical dimensions of issues that arise in cases and other forms of legal advocacy. The program challenges students to examine issues in significant constitutional cases and advocacy initiatives in a critical way, while at the same time allowing them to develop the professional and ethical literacy which is essential to the practice of law. Through their clinical work, written reflections, and weekly seminars, students will test relationships between constitutional principles and the practical realities of the advocacy process, and develop a conceptual and empirical understanding of constitutional lawyering.
Part of each session will be organized as a seminar, which will focus on substantive issues in constitutional advocacy (eg. constitutional jurisdiction of various courts and tribunals; substantive basis for claims; roles of the various parties in Charter litigation; effective advocacy strategies) or on skills building (eg. research, drafting of pleadings, effective brief writing, analysis of legislation). Part of each session will be organized as discussions of the issues raised by the student’s casework and the issues involved in constitutional advocacy. Casework may include formulating case theories and advocacy strategies, legal research, drafting of briefs, facta or reports, or attending hearings.
Examples of past projects include: research and meetings with an advocacy organization on an election rights test case; litigation support (research and legal drafting) for the Centre’s Supreme Court interventions; and, research memorandum exploring advocacy alternatives for redress of rights infringements arising in situations such as the conditions in federal prison and the detention of refugee claimants.
To register for this course, you must email a 1-page statement of interest* to Cheryl Milne, cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca by July 9, 2023 at 11:59pm.
Applications will still be accepted after this date, but priority will be given to any applications received by July 9 at 11:59pm.
*Please indicate the following: (a) previous upper-year courses in constitutional law or human rights law or experience that you consider to be equivalent; (b) any experience in human rights or constitutional issues; (c) any experience that you consider relevant for the course; (e) why you wish to enroll in the Clinic.
Successful applicants will be notified by July 13th of their placement in the clinic.

Due Date for Student Working Group Proposals
2023-08-11 17:00
Dear Upper Year JD Students at U of T Law:
We are currently accepting proposals from upper year students who are interested in leading a student working group at the Asper Centre next year. Please find the Call for Proposals for 2023-24 Asper Centre Working Groups HERE. The application is due on Friday August 11, 2023.
Working groups at the Asper Centre provide law students with the unique opportunity to conduct legal research and advocacy on Canadian Constitutional and Charter rights issues, often in partnership with an external organization. Examples of past working groups (including this year’s groups) at the Asper Centre may be found at http://aspercentre.ca/clinic/student-working-groups/.
This coming year, the Asper Centre welcomes proposals from students who would be interested in leading a working group focused on indigenous rights or children’s rights, however all proposals will be equally considered. If you would like to apply to lead a working group but need some assistance in developing your working group proposal, please contact tal.schreier@utoronto.ca.
Thank you for your interest and we look forward to working with you.
Successful groups will be notified prior to the start of Fall 2023 term.

Asper Centre Student Working Group Information Session
2023-09-12 12:30 - 14:00 | J250 Jackman Law Building Moot Court
Attention U of T Law Students!
JD students in all years can volunteer with one of the Asper Centre student working groups, that are led by upper year law students. Working groups prepare policy briefs, organize workshops, and conduct research on current or emerging constitutional issues.
Find out more about these working groups at the Asper Centre & IHRP (International Human Rights Program) Student Working Group Information Session on Tuesday September 12, 2023 at 12:30PM in the Moot Courtroom, J250.
To learn more about the process to join one of these working groups, read the 2023 Public Interest Programs’ Volunteer Recruitment Guide.
This year, the Asper Centre is convening and supporting the following working groups:
Bail Reform
This working group will be drafting a submission to Parliament about the constitutionality of Bill C-48 An Act to Amend the Criminal Code (Bail Reform). The Bill has added and strengthened reverse onus provisions in the Criminal Code whereby some classes of accused would be required to show why they should be granted bail rather than the prosecution showing why the accused must be held in detention. Amongst these amendments to the Criminal Code is a change to s.515(6)(b.1). This change is designed to “broaden the existing reverse onus regime for victims of intimate partner violence (IPV)”. The working group’s submissions will focus on whether the Bill properly addresses the enhanced risks posed by intimate partner violence (IPV) in relation to section 11(e) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Climate Justice
This working group is a continuation of the previous year’s working group that identified a need for accessible information to help ensure that governments are doing all they should to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and to give communities the practical legal and advocacy tools to help hold governments to account. The group is drafting a Know Your Environmental Rights guidebook that will cover the various sources of environmental rights in Ontario, the relevant Canadian caselaw, and the legal mechanisms available for people who want to advocate for action on climate change. The guidebook will also comprehensively map out the tools available to those concerned about climate change for exercising their environmental common law, statutory, and constitutional rights and pursuing legal remedies.
Indigenous Child Welfare & Self-Government
Over the past few years, both Canadian and American courts have decided cases that effect how Indigenous Nations are able 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 upcoming Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) Attorney General of Québec, et al. v. Attorney General of Canada, et al decision are of paramount importance to Indigenous futurity and safety. Both cases address federal legislation introduced to address the historical and present 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 working group will study the cases and convene a workshop and podcast episode for the law school community about the issues arising from these cases, in particular the Quebec Reference case and its meaning for Indigenous rights and the interpretation of Section 35 of the Constitution of Canada.
Responding to 2SLGBTQI+ Hate
This working group focuses on the intersection of hate, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly issues of 2SLGBTQI individuals, who are increasingly targeted by hate. While legal protections exist, they are often inaccessible to those without a strong understanding of the legal system. A significant trend over several years has been to use defamation lawsuits to silence those speaking out against homophobic or transphobic rhetoric. Many Canadian jurisdictions have passed anti-SLAPP legislation, which provides a preliminary basis for dismissing a lawsuit deemed to be a “strategic lawsuit against public participation” (SLAPP). This working group is partnering with EGALE (Canada’s leading 2SLGBTQI charity, which has taken active involvement in a variety of public interest litigation in service of the queer community in Canada) to make recent court decisions based on this anti-SLAPP legislation more accessible to local 2SLGBTQI+ organizations and activists by developing a toolkit and delivering a training workshop that explains the anti-SLAPP protections.
Find out more about these working groups at the Asper Centre & IHRP (International Human Rights Program) Student Working Group Information Session on Tuesday September 12, 2023 at 12:30PM in the Moot Courtroom, J250.

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Dwight Newman
2023-10-03 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.
Professor Dwight Newman presented the following paper (click link):
Between Individuality and Sociality in the Charter: Reengaging the Significance of the Section 2(b) Freedom of Thought and Section 2(d) Freedom of Association
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 – 12:30pm to 2:00pm

Location: FL219 John Willis Classroom, Flavelle House, Faculty of Law
Abstract “This paper bridges some of my recent and ongoing work on freedom of thought, freedom of association, and, more generally, what I have called the ‘forgotten freedoms’ (those section 2 freedoms that have been underdeveloped in scholarship and jurisprudence relative to others), connecting to a broader theme in my work that many rights instruments are less individualistic than they first appear and instead involve a complex mediation of individuality and sociality. In the paper, I make an argument for the significance of the underdeveloped section 2(b) freedom of thought provision, showing how the history of human rights instruments, emerging international discussion of freedom of thought, and emerging contemporary challenges(including a brief romp through some particular issues from AI) can help to highlight the relevance and potential paths forward for the provision. In doing so, I contest doctrinal arguments by the likes of Peter Hogg and philosophical arguments by Fred Schauerthat would challenge the appropriateness of regarding freedom of thought as an independent freedom, and I claim that associated path dependence has resulted in a misshaping of Charter interpretation. This underdeveloped individual freedom, protecting the forum internum, sits textually alongside an underdeveloped social freedom, the section 2(d) freedom of association. On section 2(d), I will argue that Canadian case law that has developed section 2(d) principally in the context of labour unions has similarly missed the underlying philosophical richness of the provision, with path dependence in litigation power dynamics contributing to a provision failing to be developed across the full range of its appropriate applications (something highlighted in problems arising amid recent events associated with COVID-19 and its aftermath). On my argument, the careful balance of freedoms within the Charter and the individual-social axis within the Charter have faced distortion within the limited parameters of Canadian judicial and scholarly engagement with the Charter, with judicial engagement understandably hemmed in by what is litigated and scholarly engagement unnecessarily limited but potentially more open to new imaginative endeavours that can seek to reengage the full potential of the Charter.”

Dwight Newman, KC is an academic visitor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in September-October 2023 and will be Professeur invité at the Faculté de droit of l’Université Laval in November 2023. Normally, he is Professor of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, where he has been on faculty since 2005, and where he has also served a term as Associate Dean Academic and a 2013-2023 term in a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Rights in Constitutional and International Law. He has over 200 publications of various types, including 15 books. His writing is regularly cited as an authority in judicial decisions in Indigenous rights and constitutional law cases. He has been a fellow or visitor at Cambridge, Oxford, McGill, Princeton, l’Université de Montréal, and the University of Western Australia (UWA). He is a member of the bars of Ontario and Saskatchewan and maintains a small part-time constitutional law practice. He was a law clerk to Chief Justice Antonio Lamer and Justice Louis LeBel at the Supreme Court of Canada and has also worked for Justice Canada and for human rights organizations in Hong Kong and South Africa. His initial studies were in his home province of Saskatchewan (BA in Economics at Regina and JD at Saskatchewan), and he completed his legal graduate studies at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (BCL, MPhil, DPhil). He recently completed two additional graduate degrees that deepen his interdisciplinary understandings and sense on the social place of law (MATS in History of Christianity and MSc in Finance and Financial Law). He has served in various board or committee roles, including at different times as Co-Chair of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Rights of Indigenous Peoples Interest Group, member of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on the Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, voting member of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) national council, Vice-President of the Canadian Law and Society Association, and member of the boards of organizations involved in public interest litigation (Advocates for the Rule of Law and the Canadian Constitution Foundation). He also has a longstanding role as a volunteer judge for the international rounds of the Jessup International Law Moot.

Constitutional Roundtable with Professor Michael Beenstock
2023-10-10 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 and comparative constitutional law.
Professor Michael Beenstock (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) will present the following paper (click on title for paper):
The ‘Battle between the Branches’: Positive and Normative Theories of Judicial Review
“My paper is related to the debate in legal philosophy between the legal positivists (and Dworkin), who are in favor of judicial review and the political constitutionalists, who are against it. I use formal methods from game theory and statistical theory to study the tension between the legislature and the judiciary, when the latter is empowered with judicial review. In the positive theory the legislature and the judiciary are adversarial; the judiciary may be more or less activist, and the legislature may engage in override, politicize appointments to the judiciary, or simply ignore rulings of the supreme court. The positive theory predicts that the outcome of the battle between the branches is Pareto inefficient in terms of infringement of the constitution and the public benefit from legislation.
Under the normative theory the legislature and the judiciary cooperate. As expected, the outcome is Pareto superior. The normative theory provides a structural basis for enhancing the efficiency of judicial review. It also sets a benchmark for comparing efficiency under political constitutionalism with the best possible outcome under judicial review.
Whereas the positive theory characterizes the world as it is. The normative theory refers to an ideal world. In a follow-up paper I plan to study efficiency under political constitutionalism and to compare it with efficiency according to the positive and normative theories of judicial review.
By using formal methods and clearly stated axioms, such as rationality, the robustness of these comparisons is transparent axiomatically and methodologically. Legal philosophers who disagree should be able to pin-point the source of their disagreement.”
Michael Beenstock is a Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University where he teaches graduate econometrics. Although his main concern is with economics, he has strayed into other disciplines such as epidemiology, psychology, climate science and criminology. As a result of the constitutional crisis in Israel, Prof Beenstock has also recently strayed into judicial review. Apart from his theoretical paper on positive and normative theories of judicial review, he is currently engaged in testing its empirical predictions using data from the Comparative Constitutions Project (University of Chicago).
Some of Prof Beenstock’s recent books are: Heredity, Family and Inequality: A Critique of Social Science, MIT Press, 2012, Econometric Analysis of Nonstationary Spatial Panel Data, with D. Felsenstein, Springer, 2019, Recurrence Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, NY, 2021, Zero Interest Policy and the New Abnormal: a Critique, Oxford University Press, 2022. Some of Prof Beenstock’s papers related to jurisprudence are: The Productivity of Judges in the Courts of Israel, Israel Law Review, 35: 249-65, 2001, with Y. Haitovsky, Does the Appointment of Judges Increase the Output of the Judiciary?, International Review of Law and Economics, 24: 351-69, 2004, and, with J. Guetzkow, Plea Bargaining and the Miscarriage of Justice”. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 2021.
Open to the public. No registration required. Light lunch provided.
Email tal.schreier@utoronto.ca for information.

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 Professor Alison Young
2024-01-11 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. The Constitutional Roundtable series promotes scholarship and aims to make a meaningful contribution to intellectual discourse about Canadian and comparative constitutional law.

On Thursday January 11, 2024, the Asper Centre presented a lunchtime Constitutional Roundtable with
Professor Alison Young
The Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law & Director of Research at the Cambridge University Faculty of Law, about her new book, Unchecked Power? How Recent Constitutional Reforms Are Threatening UK Democracy (2023, Bristol University Press)
Time: 12:30pm to 2:00pm
Location: (Room FA2), Falconer Hall 84 Queen’s Park, Faculty of Law
All Are Welcome * No Registration Required * Light Lunch Provided

About the Book
Is the UK government really acting for the people? Or does this rhetoric simply justify an executive power-grab? For some, Boris Johnson’s premiership epitomised how far the UK’s democracy has been captured by populism and the Prime Minister seemed more concerned about fulfilling the wishes of the British people than with following the rules or listening to Parliament.
Events like ‘Partygate’ grabbed the headlines. Criticisms of Boris Johnson’s actions eventually led to his resignation and replacement as leader of his party and Prime Minister. Some feel that this shows that the UK’s constitution is healthy, with checks and balances in place to prevent any possible abuse of power.
While these events attracted much media attention, other constitutional changes have been taking place with little public awareness. These have strengthened governmental powers and weakened political and legal checks over governmental actions. Deliberation is being replaced by rhetoric and principles of good government no longer seem to restrain the actions of those in power.
Alison Young provides the first consolidated account of these changes, arguing that the UK is currently on a constitutional cliff-edge which endangers democracy and good constitutional government. She argues that more is needed to shore up the UK’s post-Brexit constitution to prevent it collapsing into a system of unchecked power.
From https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/people/academic/al-young/77940:
“Professor Young’s Interests
I research in all aspects of public law, both of the UK and the EU. My main interest is in constitutional theory, particularly dialogue theory, where I draw comparisons between different means of protecting human rights. I’m also interested in comparative public law, specifically drawing comparisons between UK law, EU law, the law in other commonwealth countries and France. I also have research interests in freedom of expression and in the protection of human rights through private law.
I have published widely in all of these areas, and am the author of Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Human Rights Act (Hart Publishing, 2009). I was the recipient of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2015. The Fellowship enabled me to write a book on dialogue theory, Democratic Dialogue and the Constitution (OUP, 2017), which was a runner up for the main Inner Temple Book Prize, 2018.
Professor Young’s CV / Biography
I am the Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Robinson College. I am also currently a legal advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution and an academic associate at 39 Essex Chambers. I am a member of the Editorial Board of European Public Law, and of Public Law. I’m also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I’m a trustee of The Constitution Society and a member of the UK Constitution Monitoring Group. I’m affiliated with the Oxford Human Rights Hub and with the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government, both at the University of Oxford. I am also an Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford.
Before joining the University of Cambridge I studied for a Law (with French) degree at the University of Birmingham, spending a year at the Université de Limoges as part of my degree. I then completed the BCL and D Phil at Hertford College, University of Oxford. I spent three years as a Tutorial Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, before returning to Hertford as a Fellow in Law and later Professor of Public Law at the University of Oxford. At Oxford I completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and received awards for Teaching Excellence and Innovation from the University of Oxford.”

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

Launch of “Improving Access to Abortion Services in Canada: A What We Heard Report"
2024-03-14 12:30 - 13:30 | P115 Jackman Law Building, 78 Queen's Park Cres, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C5, Canada
Celebrating the Launch of “Improving Access to Abortion Services in Canada: A What We Heard Report”
The Asper Centre’s Reproductive Rights Working Group produced a report to be used as an advocacy tool to improve access to abortion services in Canada. The report covers the critical findings and recommendations of an Expert Panel convened in 2023 and includes an overview of the current landscape of reproductive rights in Canada.
On Thursday March 14, 2024 @12:30-1:30pm EST (this is a hybrid event, also available by Zoom) in room P115, Jackman Law Building, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 78 Queens Park Cres, we celebrated the lunch of the report with an introduction from 2 of the report authors, U of T Law JD students Ian T. D. Thomson and Lauren Di Felice and comments by:

Prof Rebecca Cook (Professor Emerita, U of T Law and Co-Director, International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program at the University of Toronto)
Prof Brenda Cossman (U of T Law)
Kat Owens (Project Director, LEAF)
Prof Charmaine Williams (Dean & Professor, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto)

About the Asper Centre & Background to the report
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights is devoted to realizing constitutional rights through advocacy, research, and education. The Asper Centre aims to play a vital role in articulating Canada’s constitutional vision to the broader world. The Asper Centre regularly convenes student working groups that prepare policy briefs, draft public legal information materials, organize workshops and conduct research on current or emerging constitutional law issues. The Asper Centre’s Reproductive Rights Working Group was convened in September 2022.
The Reproductive Rights Working Group originated as a reaction to the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in which the United States Supreme Court overturned the holding of Roe v Wade that previously maintained abortion access as a constitutional right. The Working Group sought to investigate and respond to the growing concern of how Dobbs may implicate reproductive rights in Canada and whether the Canadian regime is similarly vulnerable. Accordingly, the Working Group organized an expert panel of leading minds in the field, the purpose of which was to investigate these pressing issues and to yield recommendations for policy makers.
VIEW THE WEBCAST OF THE EVENT HERE

Clinic Information Session - for U of T Law upper year students
2024-06-25 12:30 - 13:30 | Online Zoom Meeting
On June 25, 2024 at 12:30pm the Asper Centre’s Executive Director, Cheryl Milne, will be taking part in a Clinic Information Session (via Zoom), for University of Toronto Faculty of Law upper year students.

This information session provided details on how to enroll in the for-credit clinical programs, including the Asper Centre Clinic, for Fall 2024. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions at this Zoom Meeting.

View the recording of the event HERE

Application due date for Student Working Group Proposals
2024-08-15 17:00 | N/A
Dear Upper Year JD Students at U of T Law:
We are currently accepting proposals from upper year students who are interested in leading or renewing a student working group at the Asper Centre next year. Please find the Call for Proposals for 2024-25 Asper Centre Working Groups HERE. The application is due at EOD on Thursday August 15, 2024.
Working groups at the Asper Centre provide law students with a unique opportunity to conduct legal research and advocacy on Canadian Constitutional and Charter rights issues, often in partnership with an external organization and members of the bar. Examples of past working groups at the Asper Centre and more information about our working groups may be found at http://aspercentre.ca/clinic/student-working-groups/.
This coming year, the Asper Centre welcomes proposals from students who would be interested in leading a working group focused on indigenous peoples’ rights or children’s rights, however all proposals will be equally considered. If you would like to apply to lead a working group but need some assistance in developing your working group proposal, please contact tal.schreier@utoronto.ca.
Thank you for your interest and we look forward to working with you.
Successful groups will be notified prior to the start of Fall 2024 term.

Extended Deadline for Asper Centre Clinic Course
2024-08-19 17:00
Attention current Upper Year students at Uof T Law!
There are spaces available in the Asper Centre Fall clinic for upper year students.
Please send your one-page statement of interest to Executive Director Cheryl Milne (cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca) by 5:00 p.m. Monday, August 19th.
