Program Descriptions
Canada: The Constitution and the Charter
Speakers:
Beverley Baines
Beverley Baines recently published The Gender of Constitutional Jurisprudence (Cambridge University Press, 2004, with Ruth Rubio-Marin) in which the contributors examine constitutional cases pertaining to women in twelve countries to explain how constitutions shape and are shaped by women's lives.
More generally, her research interests include Charter rights, human rights and judicial review. She was involved in the movement to entrench women's equality rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights; and she continues to be a strong advocate for equity issues in Canadian universities and society.
After co-coordinating the Women's Studies Program
in the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen's
University between 1991 and 1993, she served
as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law from
1994 until 1997. She has also taught Law and
Public Policy in the School of Policy Studies,
and is now Head of the Department of Women's
Studies.
Mahmud Jamal
Mahmud Jamal is a partner in Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP's Litigation Department. His national litigation practice includes class actions, commercial litigation, constitutional and administrative law litigation, competition and antitrust litigation, tax litigation and other regulatory litigation. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and Federal Court, the trial and appeal courts of Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Québec, and before many federal and provincial administrative tribunals. Mahmud clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada for the late Mr. Justice Charles D. Gonthier and at the Quebec Court of Appeal for Mr. Justice Melvin L. Rothman. He is co-author of The Charter of Rights in Litigation (2 vols., 2001+), and has spoken, written and published widely in his practice areas. He is currently a Director of Osgoode Hall Law School's LL.M. program in Administrative Law, in which he teaches Administrative Law Remedies. He has previously taught at McGill's Faculty of Law and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto and Ottawa Law Schools. Mahmud is a graduate of the University of Toronto, McGill's Faculty of Law, and Yale Law School.
The View from the Peace Tower
The general perception of Parliament is that it is the focus of Canada's federal politics. In a democracy, there can be no politics without the rule of law. Thus, a more complete portrait of the institution must include the legal and legislative work that blends seamlessly into the nation's politics. A lawyer from the House of Commons Administration will introduce you to this necessary but largely unnoticed domain: political law.
Speaker:
Greg Tardi
Gregory Tardi, B.A., B.C.L., LL. B., a Member of the Québec Bar, is Senior Parliamentary Counsel(Legal) at the House of Commons of Canada. He is a career federal public servant who has held positions in the Privy Council Office, the Department of Justice and Elections Canada. He is the author of The Legal Framework of Government: A Canadian Guide and The Law of Democratic Governing, Vols. I and II. Mr. Tardi is founding Executive Director of the Institute of Parliamentary and Political Law and founding Executive Editor of the Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law. He has been a Lecturer at Carleton University, McGill University and the University of British Columbia.
"Redressing the Right Wrong: Can Canada get it right?"
There is a long history of broken treaty promises, legalized oppression, residential schools, and unfair and immoral laws directed at Canada's Indigenous people. Over the past twenty-five years, and certainly since the inception of the Constitution Act, 1982, Canada has sought 'reconciliation' with Aboriginal people. Is reconciliation possible and how has the Canadian state sought to advance the ideas and practices that undergird a theory of reconciliation?
Speaker:
Douglas Sanderson
Douglas Sanderson earned his J.D. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and his LL.M from Columbia University, where he was a Fulbright scholar. Prof. Sanderson's research areas include Aboriginal and Constitutional law, as well as private law (primarily property law) and public and private legal theory. He is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, and he is also deeply engaged in Aboriginal issues from a policy perspective.
From 2004-2007 he was a Senior Advisor to the Government of Ontario, first in the Office of the Minister Responsible for Aboriginal Affairs, and later, to the Attorney General. From 2007 to 2009, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. During this time, in addition to serving as the Academic Advisor for Aboriginal students, he organized the highly successful 2008 Summit on Aboriginal Economic Development with the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin.
Prof. Sanderson is currently taking the lead on a number of projects, including the development of an Indigenous Commercial Code and Court of Arbitration for Indigenous Nations in Ontario, and a U of T Executive Education Program for Aboriginal leaders in conjunction with the School for Public Policy and the National Centre for First Nations Governance.
"Can Euro-Canadian law and Indigenous law find common ground?"
The concepts of Aboriginal title and Aboriginal rights are situated in Euro-Canadian law, both in the common law and in the Canadian constitution. Canadian Courts have stated that Aboriginal rights must be understood by reference to both common law and Aboriginal perspectives, and that the purpose of the constitutional affirmation of Aboriginal rights is to reconcile the prior presence of Aboriginal peoples with the assertion of Crown sovereignty. This presentation will examine how Canadian Courts have fared in implementing this approach.
Speaker:
Roger Townshend
Roger Townshend, a partner at Othuis Kleer Townshend, practices Aboriginal, Constitutional, human rights, and administrative law, with particular stress on land claims litigation. He has a B.SC (Hons.) in Mathematics. He has appeared in Court and advised on numerous cases relating to Aboriginal law claims including claims related to Aboriginal title and other Aboriginal rights and treaty rights, and duty to consult and accommodate cases. His court work has also included challenging the legality of municipal By-laws, the legality of environmental assessment decisions, the constitutionality of the Ontario educational funding regime, and the legality of drug testing programs in the workplace.
Roger has appeared in the Courts of Appeal of Ontario and Newfoundland, the Federal Court of Appeal, and in the Supreme Court of Canada. He has provided commentary on a variety of proposed federal and provincial legislation such as the Fisheries Act, and the Limitations Act of Ontario. Prior to law school, Roger worked in the area of land claims research and negotiations for eight years on behalf of Manitoba First Nations. He has been active on the executives of the Aboriginal Law Section and the Administrative Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association (Ontario). He has authored about 40 publications, including journalistic articles, poetry, and scholarly articles about Aboriginal history, Canadian government policy, and law.
Roger is listed in The Best Lawyers in Canada 2009 in the field of Aboriginal Law and is listed as "repeatedly recommended" for Aboriginal Law by Lexpert Directory.
"Ahki, Anishinabek, kaye tahsh Crown"
Canada recognizes itself as a bi-juridical nation. Yet prior to "discovery" by Europeans, Turtle Island was already multi-juridical, home to a vast array of indigenous legal orders. Much of what are today recognized as Ontario, Québec and Minnesota were under Anishinabek legal jurisdiction. This paper examines Anishinabek-Crown jurisdictional conflict in the context of natural resource development on traditional Anishinabek territory. Beneath the surface issues, what causes Anishinabek communities to engage in direct action initiatives such as blockades and occupations? What can the Section 35 jurisprudence contribute with respect to natural resource conflicts? And what would happen to these conflicts if the Crown and third-party developers understood Anishinabek Law as well as the Anishinabek understand Canadian Law?
Speaker:
Aaron Mills
Aaron Mills is a Bear Clan Anishinaabe from Couchiching First Nation, and a recent graduate of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. While there, he received the 2009 University of Toronto's President's Award for Outstanding Native Student of the Year. Commencing August 2010, he will be articling with Olthuis Kleer Townshend. He is a past Editor-in-Chief of the Indigenous Law Journal and sits on the Board of Directors of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. Within Aboriginal Law more generally, his research interests are revitalization of indigenous law and indigenous legal history (i.e. the law of indigenous collectivities as opposed to state law in respect of same), indigenous peoples and international law, and the law and politics of colonization.
Quebec Civil Law: The C.O.D.E.
We propose a broad overview of the Civil Code of Québec in terms of content and as a system of law, consisting of:
- a narrated review of the content of the ten Books of the Code
- an assessmment of the place and limits of the Code in the context of the Canadian Legal System
In both these approaches, the purpose is to allow a correct and precise place for the Civil Code, "la loi commune des Québécois".
In doing so we hope to contribute to a better understanding of a major piece of the Canadian Legal System as a whole and put an end to an unjustified "legal separatism". We will decipher the C.O.D.E.
Speaker:
Denis Le May
Lawyer, member of the Bar of Québec. Degrees in law (LL.M.) Library and Information Sciences (MLS) and Philosophy (B.Ph.).
Lecturer in Law at the Faculty of law, Senior Reference Librarian, Law Library, Laval University (1975-2006)
Author : Les références essentielles en droit québécois (2009 English ed. Irwin Law), La recherche documentaire en droit, Méthodologie du travail juridique, Le Code civil du Québec en tableaux synoptiques and Une Grille d'analyse pour le droit du Québec, all published by Wilson & Lafleur.
Editor of the Web site of the Law Library and of two documentary bulletins
BIDDUL (= News bulletin on documentation in Law at Laval University) and
AJOUR (= Current legal news organized in reference units) until 2006.
President 1991/1993 of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL/ACBD).
Recipient 2003 of the Denis Marshall Award for Excellence in Law Librarianship of CALL/ACBD.
Canadian Courts and the Judiciary
Speakers:
Julie A. Thorburn
The Honourable Julie Alexandra Thorburn, is a judge of the Superior Court of Justice in and for the province of Ontario. She is bilingual and hears proceedings in both English and French, in Toronto.
Madam Justice Thorburn received a Bachelor of Laws (cum laude) in 1988 from Queen's University and a Baccalauréat en Interpretation Chant (magna cum laude) in 1985 from l'Université de Montréal. She was admitted to the Bar of Ontario in 1990. Madam Justice Thorburn's practice expertise is in commercial litigation, entertainment law and technology law. Prior to her appointment to the bench Justice Thorburn was a partner with the firm of Cassels Brock LLP.
Sean Harrington
Appointed Judge of the Federal Court and ex officio member of the Federal Court of Appeal, 16th September, 2003. Appointed as a Judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada on March 23, 2004. Born 24th April, 1944 in Montréal, Québec. Educated at Loyola College of University of Montreal and McGill University Law School. Called to the Québec Bar in 1969 and the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1978. Partner with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Past President of the Canadian Maritime Law Association, Past Chairman of the Average Adjusters Association of Canada, Past Treasurer of the Bar of Montreal, Vice President of the Association of Maritime Arbitrators of Canada.
The Application of International Law in Canadian Courts
Speaker:
Joseph Neuberger
Joseph Neuberger is a partner in the firm Neuberger Rose LLP in Toronto and has an active criminal defense practice. He is also retained by government agencies on high profile public inquiries and inquests and was recently lead counsel for the provincial government in the Cornwall Public Inquiry into historical allegations of sexual abuse in the community. He is a leading expert in the areas of cross-examination and expert witnesses and is a frequent speaker and media commentator.
"Transparency and Access to Information"
Historically, transparency in government is a relatively recent concept, and is still reluctantly embraced by government administrators. The public increasingly expects a high degree of transparency from elected officials and bureaucrats; it also has begun to demand transparency of government sanctioned institutions such as large corporations and professions. Access to information legislation in Canada is used by the media and others to obtain copies of documentation which governments would often prefer to keep confidential; refusal to disclose information readily is usually interpreted by the population as an indication of impropriety and a cover-up. This has significance for persons contracting with governments such as construction companies, engineering concerns and even lawyers.
Speaker:
John Gomery
Justice John Gomery is best known as Commissioner of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities (informally, the Gomery Commission) to investigate the Sponsorship scandal in Canada. He is a graduate of McGill University where he received Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degrees. Since 1957, Gomery worked at the law firm Fasken, Martineau and Dumoulin and became a partner there in 1966. In 1972, he was appointed Queen's Counsel (QC) and subsequently to the Quebec Superior Court Montreal district in 1982. From 1999 to 2005 served as President of the Copyright Board of Canada (renewed in 2002).
Justice Gomery retired from the court bench on August 9, 2007. He was recently elected President of the Quebec Press Council.
"Governance and Ethics in the Legal Profession"
Speaker:
Derry Miller
W.A. Derry Miller is the current Treasurer of the Law Society of Upper Canada and a partner in the firm of WeirFoulds LLP in Toronto. During his term as Treasurer he has been travelling throughout the province taking part in sessions discussing the importance of civility and professionalism in the administration of justice. He is known as a skilled and dedicated advocate with a broad civil litigation and administrative law practice who brings his skills in dispute resolution and as an advocate to his work as an arbitrator and mediator.
"Sovereignty and Shipping in the Northwest Passage"
One of the major impacts of global warming has been possibility that the Northwest Passage will be open to shipping year round in the not-to-distant future. A viable shipping route through the Northwest Passage would greatly shorten the transit time between Western European ports and Asian Ports. This brings again to the surface i ssues relating to Canada's claims of sovereignty over the Arctic in general and the Northwest Passage in particular. Canada is faced with competing claims by other Arctic nations and the position by several of these nations that the Northwest Passage constitutes international waters.
The presentation will examine the nature of Canada's claim that the Northwest Passage is part of its territorial waters with an emphasis on the United Nations 1982 Convention on the Law of the Seas and the Montego Bay Convention. The strength of Canada's claim of sovereignty will be discussed in light of the criteria established under international law and the Convention of the Law of the Seas and the response of other members of the international community will also be considered. Finally, possible solutions and mechanisms to the settlement of the disputes over the Northwest Passage will be considered.
Speaker:
Jean-Marie Fontaine
A biographical profile of Jean-Marie Fontaine is available here.
Presentations by Legal Information Specialists
"Building a Transsytemic Law Library Collection"
Since 1999, McGill University's Faculty of Law developed a unique transsystemic model of legal education which ensures that students graduate with a global understanding of the law, transcending specific jurisdictions and legal traditions. The Facutly of Law program enables students to graduate at McGill with both civil law and common law degrees, in other words, to study the world's greatest legal traditions in an integrated fashion and in a bilingual setting. McGill's Nahum Gelber Law library worked closely with the Faculty of Law for the last ten years in building a library collection to meet these specific research needs of our professors and students. In addition, the transsystemic model has provided innovation for librarians to deliver thematic seminars within the classroom and consultation at the reference desk to discover library resources from different civil law and common law traditions from the different regions of the world. This presentation will cover the results of a unique opportunity to rethink the services offered by the law library towards the needs of its clients.
Speaker:
Maryvon Côté
Maryvon Côté is a liaison librarian at the Nahum Gelber Law Library at McGill University since 2007 where he teaches legal research and is responsible for collection development. Prior to joining McGill's Law Library team, Maryvon worked at the Humanities & Social Sciences Library at McGill Library as the Political Science and Communication Studies liaison librarian. Maryvon is a graduate from the University of Ottawa in History (B.A.) and from McGill University in Library and Information Studies (M.L.I.S).
"CAIJ : Making legal information available to lawyers anytime, anywhere"
The CAIJ network of courthouse libraries was created in December 2001. Its mission statement is to "make legal information available, with priority given to members of the Barreau du Québec and Judiciary, and to ensure that access is the same regardless of geographical location or work environment".
Beyond its effort to make available to any lawyer in the province books in both languages and covering international legal systems, the CAIJ sees itself not as a "book broker" but as an "information broker". Each day, the CAIJ strives to reduce the time, effort and cost of accessing legal information. Beyond the catalogue, innovative uses of traditional library technologies allowed the CAIJ to create a topical research database, an information portal and a periodical index, at a lesser cost. New search technologies were used to create a natural language search engine to find case law, legislation and legal texts. To achieve its goal of offering a true 24/7 access, the CAIJ offers these products in a mobile version since April 2009.
The CAIJ will present the tools and services it uses to provide heightened access to legal information.
Speaker:
Monique Stam
Monique Stam is a Quebec lawyer who has been involved in the CAIJ web projects since 2003. She has been involved in many projects such as managing the CAIJ|mobile implementation, heading the research and training teams and creating the legal links and JuriBistro THEMA information portal. Before joining the CAIJ, Mrs. Stam worked for LexUM as a Conference director and a CanLII associate editor.
Mrs. Stam has a civil law degree from Université de Sherbrooke and a common law degree from Queen's University.
Current Projects at LexUM
The presentation will focus on two very recent LexUM projects.
Enterprise search for CLEBC: After modernizing the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia's (CLEBC) publication platform for its online manuals, LexUM is now working to implement an enterprise search infrastructure based on its ELIIsa search engine for all of CLEBC's online resources. This infrastructure will offer advanced search functions for CLEBC's practice manuals, practice notes, case digests, course materials, webcast archive and online store.
Monitoring system for CPAC: The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer is an independent organization accelerating action on cancer control across Canada. LexUM is currently developing an online document monitoring and management mechanism in order to assist CPAC's portal team in monitoring online policy and legislative information relevant to the fight against cancer in Canada. LexUM is also designing advanced management interfaces to enable the portal team to update its prevention policy database.
Speaker:
Ivan Mokanov
Ivan Mokanov is Executive Director of LexUM - a legal technology firm. LexUM designs, operates and enhances the CanLII website. LexUM is also involved in various projects in electronic legal content management, legal publishing, knowledge management and consulting in Canada and abroad. Ivan is a graduate from Sofia University (B.C.L.), the University of Montreal (LL.M.) and he is currently enrolled at HEC Montreal (M.B.A).