David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights

Careers in Constitutional Law
2023-03-15 12:30 - 14:00 (America/Toronto) | 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of constitutional theory is the possibility of amending the text of rigid constitutions if and when they become “outdated”.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.

Asper Centre Working Group Information Session
2024-09-12 12:30 - 14:00 | J250 Jackman Law Building Moot Court
Attention all current law students, especially 1L’s!
The Asper Centre will be convening an Information Session on Thurs Sept 12, 2024 in J140 at 12h30 to recruit volunteers for its student working groups. Please join us for lunch and learn how to work with us!
This year, we are excited to support the following student working groups:

Interveners
Encampments and the Charter
The Notwithstanding Clause

Application Due Date for Work-Study positions
2024-09-20 17:00
The Asper Centre is hiring 2 work-study students this year. See below for details.
I. Research and Communications Assistant
The student will be responsible for researching and drafting content for the Asper Centre website and social media, including case summaries and commentary. Duties will also include attending and reporting on Asper Centre events, such as workshops and conferences, and providing substantive content for online and print newsletters. Website (WordPress) experience is helpful but not essential, as training will be provided. Students must be enrolled in the JD or LLM programs at the Faculty of Law.
Apply through CLNx – Job Posting #238844
Deadline: September 20, 2024 at 5:00 p.m.
II. Research Assistant – Environmental Rights Project
The student will be responsible for researching and drafting content for a guide to environmental rights in Ontario. A draft document has been completed by student working groups. Duties will include researching and updating the law and editing the document for plain language accessibility. The Research Assistant will also be involved in liaising with our community partner and designing the final version of the guide for online publication. Students must be enrolled in the JD or LLM programs at the Faculty of Law. Strong preference for an upper year or graduate student.
Apply through CLNx – Job posting #238847
Deadline: September 20, 2024 at 5:00 p.m.

Application Deadline for Research Associate Position
2024-10-04 23:59
The Asper Centre is hiring a Research Associate limited Term (2 year Term).
More information here: https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-Research-Associate-Limited-Term-David-Asper-Centre-for-Constitutional-Rights-ON/584373817/
Application Deadline: October 4, 2024 at 11:59PM ET

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 Professor Richard Bellamy
2024-11-12 12:45 - 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 constitutional law.
The Asper Centre is pleased to present a lunchtime Constitutional Roundtable by Professor Richard Bellamy (Professor of Political Science at the University College of London) on Tuesday November 12, 2024, at 12h45 EST on “Democracy through Courts?” based on a chapter of his forthcoming book titled Defending the Political Constitution.

ABSTRACT: The democratic critique of judicial review by constitutional courts has prompted its defenders to counter that courts have democratic qualities as good as, and in certain respects even stronger than, conventional democratic politics. This article offers a critical analysis of three arguments favouring this approach. The first argues that constitutional courts operate as exemplars of democratic deliberation. In particular, they give expression to the public reasons underlying democracy and ensure democratic practice does not subvert its ideals. The second holds that rights-based litigation offers a form of democratic participation, providing a voice to those who might have been excluded from electoral democracy. The third contends that judges operate in a similar way to elected representatives, who are best conceived as trustees rather than as delegates. All three views are found wanting. Courts do possess certain limited democratic qualities. However, they are not intrinsic features of courts themselves. They arise from their being dependent upon rather than independent from the conventional democratic process.
*All are welcome * Light Lunch provided * No Registration Required*

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

Litigating Equality - Book Launch Event
2025-01-16 17:00 - 18:30 | J140 Jackman Law Building, University of Toronto
Reflections on Litigating Equality in Canada:
An Asper Centre Book Launch Event
Please join us on Thursday January 16, 2025 at 5pm for a special panel discussion to celebrate the launch of our publication, Litigating Equality (Lexis Nexis, 2024)!
Over the past decade, a number of decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada have revised the way that section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is applied to legislation and government action, leaving the jurisprudence shifting and uncertain. In light of this, the Asper Centre convened a full day symposium in 2023 to critically examine the status of equality litigation in Canada, which resulted in a collection of papers that were published by Lexis Nexis in 2024 in Litigating Equality. The book “delves into many of the resulting difficulties and offers strategies for litigators as well as carving out issues for future academic research. Contributors include leading scholars of equality and members of prominent advocacy groups for equality rights in Canada whose litigation efforts have helped to shape the concepts of substantive equality and discrimination.”
The panel event will include presentations from 4 of the contributors to the book and will be moderated by Prof Sophia Moreau, the co-editor of the book. The panelists are:
Cheryl Milne – ED of the Asper Centre, co-editor of Litigating Equality, and co-author of “Analyzing the Treatment of Multiple Charter Claims: Judicial Restraint and the Case for Section 15”
Prof Anthony Sangiuliano – Author of “Finding Fault under Section 15 of the Charter: Miller J.A.’s Court of Appeal Dissent in Sharma”
Prof Margot Young – Author of “Zombie Concepts: Contagion in Canadian Equality Law”
Adriel Weaver – Co-author or “Demonstrating Discrimination: Judicial Notice, Legislative and Social Framework Facts and the Politics of Intervention”
All are Welcome * Light Refreshments * No Registration Required
[If you cannot attend in person, please join us by Zoom via this link: https://zoom.us/j/91355322394?pwd=[REDACTED] ]

Constitutional Roundtable with Prof David Vitale
2025-02-11 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.
The Constitutional Roundtable Series is pleased to present a Roundtable with Professor David Vitale on February 11, 2025 at 12:30pm
Title: Trust, Courts and Social Rights: A Trust-Based Framework for Social Rights Enforcement
Summary: Trust, Courts and Social Rights proposes an innovative legal framework for judicially enforcing social rights that is rooted in public trust in government or ‘political trust’. Interdisciplinary in nature, the book draws on theoretical and empirical scholarship on the concept of trust across disciplines, including philosophy, sociology, psychology and political theory. It integrates that scholarship with the relevant public law literature on social rights, fiduciary political theory and judicial review. In doing so, the book uses trust as an analytical lens for social rights law – importing ideas from the scholarship on trust into the social rights literature – and develops a normative argument that contributes to the controversial debate on how courts should enforce social rights. Also global in focus, the book uses cases from courts in Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America to illustrate how the trust-based framework operates in practice.
Bio: David Vitale is Associate Professor at the University of Warwick, School of Law. He is also currently the UK Principal Investigator for a multi-institution, Trans-Atlantic Platform project on ‘Open Constitutional Democracy’ funded by the ESRC (UK), SSHRC (Canada) and SNSF (Switzerland) . His work has been published in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Legal Studies and Global Constitutionalism, among others. David holds law degrees from the UK (LSE), the US (NYU) and Canada (Osgoode Hall Law School), as well as a degree in psychology (University of Toronto). He has worked as a judicial clerk to the Justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Israel, has held various research positions globally and has practised as a litigator in Canada.

The Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture with Kim Murray
2025-02-25 17:00 - 18:30 | Jackman Law Building, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto 78 Queen’s Park, Room J140, 78 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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 Asper Centre is pleased to convene the Morris A. Gross Memorial Lecture for the law school community.

This year, Kimberly Murray will present the special lecture on Tuesday, February 25, 2025 at 5pm. Murray was the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools until December 2024 and is now an Associate Professor, Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University.
Crimes Against Humanity and Indian Residential Schools in Canada

Abstract: The buildings, burials grounds, and cemeteries on the sites of former Indian Residential Schools are etched deeply in Survivors’ memories. Once places of silence and suffering, they are now sites of truth. Once places of brutal violence and genocide, they are now sites of conscience. Survivors can never forget the memories of trauma and death held in these sites; now Canada, and all Canadians, must do so as well by recognizing that genocide and crimes against humanity were perpetrated on Indigenous Peoples.

Kimberly Murray BA, LLB, LLM, IPC, LL.D. (honoris causa) commenced her new role as Queen’s National Scholar in Indigenous Legal Studies on January 1, 2025, after completing a federal appointment as the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools.

Murray has dedicated much of her legal career to promoting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and advocating for Indigenous communities. She was the Province of Ontario’s first ever Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Indigenous Justice (2015-2022), where she worked to support communities revitalize their Indigenous laws and expanded legal services and programs for Indigenous people.

In 2018-2019, Murray chaired the Expert Panel on Policing in Indigenous Communities, which produced the report Toward Peace Harmony, and Well-Being: Policing in Indigenous Communities.

From 2010-2015, Murray was Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission working to ensure that Survivors were heard and remembered, and she promoted reconciliation across the country.
During her previous 15-year career with Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, she was staff lawyer and then Executive Director, conducting numerous law reform and public legal education activities, and appeared before all levels of court.
She has also served on numerous boards, public committees, and councils; provided advocacy in high-profile public inquiries; published numerous works, position and conference papers; taught law and undergraduate students; and has been recognized with numerous awards.
Murray, is a member of Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Nation, holds an LLM and LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School, a BA from Carleton, and honorary LLDs from Guelph/Humber, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, and the Law Society of Ontario.
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REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Call for Papers: Positive Rights Litigation Symposium
2025-06-30 17:00
Call for Papers
Re-Opening the Door: Litigating Positive Rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights (the Asper Centre) invites papers for a one-day symposium on litigating positive rights under the Charter. The symposium’s goal is to develop our understanding of positive rights in Canada, especially the challenges they currently face and the issues that might arise if positive rights were more robustly recognized under the Charter. The symposium, which will add to the decades-long conversation in Canada among scholars and courts about positive rights, will take place on Friday January 16, 2026, at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.
Two decades ago, in Gosselin, the Supreme Court of Canada left the door open to an expansive view of positive rights claims under the Charter. Since then, however, courts across the country have failed to recognize them. Underpinned by caution and concern, this pattern holds across diverse contexts, from the welfare context to the asylum context. Yet, climate change and growing economic inequality have renewed the push for positive rights. Take Mathur v Ontario, for example, the first Charter case concerning climate change to be decided after a full hearing, or the recent housing cases testing the precedent of Tanudjaja v Attorney General of Canada et al. In both contexts, litigants have sought relief for urgent and wide-ranging social issues that are difficult to conceptualize or remedy via a purely negative rights framework. These issues, and the litigation they have spawned, invite a closer inspection of positive rights under the Charter.
Against this backdrop, the Asper Centre is seeking submissions from both scholars and practitioners that address the following key questions:

Is there truly a distinction between positive rights and negative rights under the Charter?
What role should Canadian courts play with respect to positive rights, specifically vis-à-vis Parliament and provincial legislatures? How is this affected by the principles underpinning the separation of powers?
What practical challenges does litigating positive rights pose in areas such as climate change and equality rights?
What is the nature of the social science evidence required to argue or defend these cases?
What does constitutional experience abroad teach us about the potential for positive rights under the Charter?
What are the remedial options for positive rights claims?
What lessons or impacts could be drawn from international law examples?

Located within the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, the Asper Centre is devoted to advocacy, research, and education on constitutional rights in Canada. Since its inception in 2008, the Asper Centre has hosted many conferences and symposia focused on various aspects of Charter and public interest litigation. In 2018, the Asper Centre convened a Public Interest Litigation Conference, focusing on legal strategies for successful public interest litigation and similarly in 2023 held a symposium focusing on equality rights litigation. The resulting papers were published by LexisNexis Canada in the books Public Interest Litigation in Canada and Litigating Equality, with corresponding volumes of the Supreme Court Law Review. This symposium seeks to build on the themes explored in earlier events to contribute to the practical scholarship on public interest litigation and to produce a follow-up publication to these earlier works.
Those interested in participating should send an Abstract (250 words maximum) of your intended paper to Tal Schreier (tal.schreier@utoronto.ca), the Asper Centre’s Program Coordinator. Papers may be at any stage of development, but participants will be expected to circulate a paper of at least 5000 words (final papers should be 5000-10,000 words). Alternatively, we welcome shorter case comments of approximately 2500 words that focus on a single court decision.
Deadline for proposals: June 30, 2025.

Due date for Asper Centre Clinic (for U of T Law students)
2025-07-18 12:00
Attention current Upper Year students at U of T Law who are interested in applying to the Asper Centre Fall clinic for-credit course!
This year, the course will be co-taught by our Executive Director, Cheryl Milne and our 2025 Constitutional Litigator in Residence, Megan Savard.
Please send your one-page statement of interest to Executive Director Cheryl Milne (cheryl.milne@utoronto.ca) by noon on July 18, 2025.

Application due date for Student Working Group Proposals
2025-08-15 17:00
Attention Upper Year JD Students at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law:

We are currently accepting proposals from 2Ls and 3Ls who are interested in leading a student working group at the Asper Centre next year. Please find the CALL for PROPOSALS here.

Student working groups at the Asper Centre provide law students with the unique opportunity to conduct legal research and advocacy on current Canadian Constitutional and Charter rights issues, often in partnership with an external organization. Examples of past working groups (including this year’s working groups – listed in the image) at the Asper Centre may be found here.

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.
Applications are due at EOD on August 15, 2025. Successful groups will be notified prior to the start of Fall 2025 term.

We look forward to working with you.

Asper Centre Working Group Information Session
2025-09-11 12:30 - 14:00 | Jackman Law building P120
Attention all current University of Toronto Faculty of Law students, especially 1L’s!
The Asper Centre will be convening an Information Session on Thurs Sept 11, 2025 in P120 at 12h30 to recruit volunteers for its student working groups.
Please join us for lunch and learn how to work with us!
This year, we are excited to support the following student working groups:

Accessible Sex Education (with Egale Canada)
Charter Issues in AI and Predictive Policing (with the Future of Law Lab)
Encampments and the Charter
Indigenous Rights, Environmental Protection, and the Duty to Consult

Come join us for some 🍕🍕🍕 and learn more!
