Law

‘Rosie has heart’: Former SCC Justice Rosalie Abella feted by her international peers at U of T event

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 16:17:10 +0000

‘Rosie has heart’: Former SCC Justice Rosalie Abella feted by her international peers at U of T event

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 09/27/2022 - 12:17

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Retired Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella, who holds two U of T degrees and is a distinguished visiting jurist at the Faculty of Law, sits in the audience during a recent event celebrating her career (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Scott Anderson

Topic

Global Lens

Alumni

Faculty of Law

Law

University College

The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law brought together some of the world’s foremost legal thinkers for a recent event that celebrated the career of retired Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella and recognized her contributions to legal thought around the world.

It was a toast by her peers before a full house at U of T’s Isabel Bader Theatre.

Three current and former supreme court justices – from Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. – praised Abella’s formidable intellect and analytical rigour, as well as her warmth, generous spirit and passion for justice.

“Rosie has heart,” said Elena Kagan, associate justice for the Supreme Court of the United States. “Of course, she also has mind… [Her opinions] reflect a brilliant intellect, a person of very deep and wide- ranging knowledge, a person of great analytic rigour, a gift for the written word.

“It’s the combination of these two things, I think, that is [her] secret sauce: the personality and the intellect combined to produce a judge with a kind of rare charisma, a sort of judicial magnetism.”

Elena Kagan, associate justice for the Supreme Court of the United States, said Abella was a judge with “a kind of rare charisma, a sort of judicial magnetism” (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Abella’s character was forged under sometimes difficult circumstances. As Lord John Anthony Dyson, a former justice of the Supreme Court in the U.K., noted, Abella was born in a displaced person’s camp in Germany in 1946; her parents had survived the Holocaust. She entered Canada as a refugee in 1950, attended U of T’s University College and Faculty of Law, and then began a meteoric rise through the court system, culminating in her appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004.

Her career was marked by a series of firsts: Abella was the first Jewish woman appointed to Canada’s top court; the first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada; and the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada.

Over 17 years on the Supreme Court, she produced countless important judgments, all “suffused with her humanity,” said Dyson.

Lord John Anthony Dyson, a former justice of the Supreme Court in the U.K., listens during a panel discussion titled “Justice Beyond Borders” (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Since her retirement last year, Abella has been working with the next generation of legal minds. She was appointed a distinguished visiting jurist at U of T’s Faculty of Law and the Pisar visiting professor of Law at Harvard Law School.

Jutta Brunnée, the dean of the U of T Faculty of Law, said Abella will work with the faculty, engaging in debates and connecting with colleagues and students.

“Mentoring law students has always been a priority and passion for Rosie,” Brunnée said.

Throughout her career, Abella has been known for paying close attention to developments in other jurisdictions and connecting Canadian law to the international legal system. This practice – a crucial piece of her global legacy – served as the basis for the night’s discussion, titled “Justice Beyond Borders” and moderated by international law Professor Stephen Toope, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge and a former director of U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Jutta Brunnée, dean of the U of T Faculty of Law, shares the stage with Stephen Toope, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge and a former director of U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Among the three panelists, Justice Susanne Baer of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany spoke most forcefully for the value of a “global conversation” among judges. She warned of attacks on the very institution of the court by populist autocrats seeking to undo the post-Second World War order. “We see withdrawals from human rights treaties in Russia and Turkey and in other countries … More and more courts refuse to refer to international law and human rights law in their arguments,” she said.

“This is why what Rosie Abella teaches us matters so urgently in this world.”

What is needed, she says, is for a country’s democratic constitution to be embedded in a kind of global, transnational approach to justice. “Look at the issues out there: climate, COVID, terrorism, migration, information, data, including hate speech and manipulated elections, trade, the war. All of these call for ‘embedded constitutionalism’ – a strong commitment to do your thing in your own country, but to look beyond borders.”

From left: Lord John Anthony Dyson, Jutta Brunnée, Elena Kagan, Rosalie Abella, Susanne Baer and Stephen Toope (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Jane Fallis Cooper, a third-year law student who attended the event, said she was inspired by Baer’s idea of promoting justice and the ideals of democracy around the world. “Justice Baer saw her role and that of other constitutional justices as part of a global enterprise, which was really interesting.”

Lord Dyson, of the U.K., also said he saw value in reviewing the decisions of international courts, particularly those of other leading common law jurisdictions, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. “As to how persuasive it is,” he said, in terms of influencing his own ruling, “it depends on the quality of the reasoning.”

Retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella, far right, speaks while a panel of her international peers looks on (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

On this question, Kagan was the panel’s sole dissenter. She argued that justice is highly dependent on national context and history. Even among the world’s liberal democracies, she said, “I’m not very sure that judges of different national traditions really have that much to say to each other.”

Kagan, who was recognized with an honoarary degree from U of T in 2018, added that she had read all of Abella’s major opinions for the “fine writing” and “magnificent thinking,” but that, “I don’t do so with any expectation or intention of adopting her way of judging as my own.”

Then, with a smile: “Sorry, Rosie.”

She went on to explain that, while many American justices were likely to read some decisions from other countries, she reckoned it would have little or no impact on their judging decisions. It’s difficult enough to make sense of 250 years of legal tradition in the U.S., without drawing from “countries with very different histories, traditions,” she said, adding that she was well aware her views on the subject made her an outlier on the panel.

“When I come to conferences like this, I always feel a bit like a skunk at the garden party.”

Rosalie Abella and Elena Kagan stop to chat at the edge of the stage (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Abella, who spoke briefly at the end of the evening, said prior to the event Kagan had encouraged her to take the stage. “I thought, OK, once in my life, I’m going to follow the American Supreme Court.”

Not surprisingly, Abella endorsed the panel’s majority opinion, explaining that as a judge she had regularly sought out relevant jurisprudence from other courts. “I want to read it – not because I want to follow it, but because these are smart people who have spent their lives thinking about what justice means in their context. And even if I decide not to apply it, it’s informative.”

“It stretches the mind to think about law differently.”

Hussein Fawzy, a third-year law student who attended the event, said he was convinced by Abella’s argument, noting that “in an interconnected world, we are under more of an obligation to see what other countries are doing.”

U of T expert examines crime, punishment and late-Victorian justice

geoff.vendeville — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 15:31:07 +0000

U of T expert examines crime, punishment and late-Victorian justice

geoff.vendeville Thu, 07/21/2022 - 11:31

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Catherine L. Evans started work on Unsound Empire as she began her PhD dissertation at Princeton University in 2010 (photo courtesy of Evans)

Cynthia Macdonald

Topic

Breaking Research

Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies

Faculty of Arts & Science

Humanities

Law

In 1885, during the conflict known as the North-West Resistance, three Cree men in Manitoba were sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly woman from their community.

Although colonial justice was often severe – killing was punishable by death, and that year leader Louis Riel and eight other resistance fighters were executed – the three men were imprisoned but never hanged.

The fate of Charles Ducharme, Wawasehowein and Wahsahgamass epitomizes much about British justice in the late 19^thcentury, according to Catherine Evans, an assistant professor at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science. The story is one of many tales of imperial crime and punishment described in her new book, Unsound Empire: Civilization & Madness in Late-Victorian Law (Yale University Press).

In her study of justice in the late Victorian era, Evans takes a broad view of what made criminal responsibility. “For me, it's also about personhood and subjecthood more generally," she says, “and thinking about who belongs in the empire: who is a full subject, and who can claim to be free and a free-choosing person.”

Questions of race and gender often factored into whether an accused person was deemed criminally responsible. “There were all these different ways where if you were a white Victorian man, you represented the pinnacle of freedom and rationality. Yet it was believed that the vast majority of human beings didn’t meet that threshold. And if that is sort of an axiomatic part of what it means to be an imperialist, how does that translate into responsibility and the law?” Evans says.

In the 1885 case involving the three Cree men, the accused believed the woman they killed was a “wendigo,” or cannibal spirit. “That case is really interesting because it shows a few things quite well,” Evans says. “One is the existence and vitality of Cree law. The evidence is pretty convincing in my view that the Cree community knew what was going to happen, and these men who were appointed to execute her did it as part of their judicial system. She was agreed to be unwell – and even she thought she was unwell.”

Colonial authorities appeared to concur with the Cree community, and as a result the three defendants had their death sentences commuted. But this action, says Evans, was not taken out of respect for Cree law. Rather, it spoke to the colonial system’s condescending view of the accused.

“One of the generative tensions is the clash between what it means to be a responsible person and an irresponsible person,” Evans says. “So if you are not responsible, then that seems to line up with a lot of the broader civilizational, racial, pseudoscientific theories that were floating around at this time.

“The idea that if you are not white, not English and not male, then you are more primitive and you don’t understand as well as other people do. That’s an idea that really activates and justifies empire. But in the criminal court, that can often act as a shield to maximum punishment and maximum liability – because if you don’t understand in principle, then the law should treat you more gently.”

That rationale also seemed to apply in cases involving women who killed their children. Their lives were often spared because they were thought to be too fragile and emotionally unstable to bear full responsibility for their actions.

In the same era, British justice was also becoming increasingly influenced by a changing understanding of human psychology and the principles of liberalism.

“Ideas about interiority became important,” Evans says. “This is the age where we see the birth of the novel and the growth of liberalism. The autonomous liberal subject starts to become more politically and culturally important.”

In the mid-19th century, the M'Naghten rule was established, determining if and when an accused could be held criminally responsible, or if they were entitled to a defence on the grounds of insanity. The rule says a person can be declared legally insane if it's proven that a mental illness prevented them from understanding “the nature and quality of the act,” or that what they were doing was wrong.

Evans started work on Unsound Empire as she began her PhD dissertation at Princeton University in 2010. Her ongoing interest in the subject of justice in the British Empire emanates both from her extensive legal training – she has a law degree from Oxford University – and from her family background; her neuroscientist father was originally from Wales, and she spent many childhood summers with family in the U.K.

This fall, she will be teaching a course called “Crime and Mind,” which explores legal issues such as criminal intent, self-defence and transcultural psychiatry.

She is also working on another book dealing with the historical intersection of fire, crime and the law. The book will continue to examine the contradictory and often complex nature of colonial justice –which, to present-day readers, may appear influenced by both modern and shockingly outdated ideas.

That contradiction also surfaces in another case that Evans discusses in Unsound Mind: the story of Charles Kirk Clarke, a psychiatrist (or “alienist”) at the Kingston asylum. Clarke worked with patients who were deemed mentally incapable of understanding their crimes. “Clarke was very big into the idea that his asylum was a hospital, not a prison; that his patients should be allowed to perform in musicals, and go skating and decorate for Christmas,” Evans says.

However, later in his career, Clarke turned toward eugenics. “He became a really important proponent of the mental hygiene movement, which was trying to bar 'mental defectives' from entering Canada. So I think it’s important to hold both those things in your mind at the same time: the way that people can be so humane in one way – and so brutal in another.”

Schwartz Reisman Institute teams up with Canada School of Public Service to offer AI course to public servants

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:38:55 +0000

Schwartz Reisman Institute teams up with Canada School of Public Service to offer AI course to public servants

geoff.vendeville Mon, 01/31/2022 - 11:38

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(Illustration by Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images)

Dan Browne

Topic

Our Community

Institutional Strategic Initiatives

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Artificial Intelligence

Faculty of Arts & Science

Law

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Rotman School of Management

The University of Toronto's Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society has partnered with the Canada School of Public Service to teach federal public servants about artificial intelligence, a technology transforming sectors ranging from health care to law.

More than 1,000 Canadian public servants have so far signed up for the online course's events so far. They include a mix of recorded lectures and moderated live panel discussions with scholars and industry leaders that are designed to explain what AI is, where it’s headed, and what public servants need to know about it.

The eight-part series – called “Artificial Intelligence is Here” – launched in November 2021 and runs through May 2022, with sessions delivered virtually in both English and French. It was developed by Gillian Hadfield, director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute (SRI) and a professor in the Faculty of Law, and Peter Loewen, SRI's associate director, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

In addition to Hadfield and Loewen, the roster of speakers includes Avi Goldfarb, an SRI faculty associate and professor of marketing at the Rotman School of Management; Phil Dawson, SRI policy lead; and Janice Stein, political science professor and founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Panel discussions feature academic and industry experts: Wendy Wong, SRI research lead and professor in the department of political science; Cary Coglianese of the University of Pennsylvania's law faculty; Daniel Ho, a law and political science professor at Stanford University; and Alex Scott, business development consultant at Borealis AI.

The need for new regulatory approaches

One of the key topics explored in the course is the need for new regulatory approaches to AI tools.

“AI and machine learning are new technologies that are not like anything we’ve seen before,” said Hadfield in the series’ introductory session. “The forms of AI that are transforming everything right now are systems that write their own rules. It is not easy to see or understand why an AI system is doing what it is doing, and it is much more challenging to hold humans responsible... That’s why figuring out how to regulate its uses in government, industry and civil society is such an important challenge.”

Increased regulation is essential to deal with the potential negative consequences of AI, such as bias and a lack of transparency, Hadfield added. Since AI's impact ripples across society, the development of AI systems shouldn't be left to computer scientists alone, she said. Policymakers should engage with AI and seek to understand it, Hadfield said.

“If AI is going to help us solve real human problems, we need more AI built to the specs of the public sector,” she said. “We’ll need to get creative to make sure the AI we get is the AI we need.”

The centrality of consent and judgement

Another major challenge to the use of AI in government is public acceptance.

In the series' second lecture, Loewen identified four key obstacles to the implementation of automated decision-making systems in public services:

Citizens don't support a single set of justifications for the use of algorithms in government.
A status quo bias causes citizens to hold a skeptical view of innovation.
Humans judge the outcomes of algorithmic decisions more harshly than decisions made by other humans.
Apprehension towards the broader effects of automation – especially concerning issues of job security and economic prosperity – can generate increased opposition to AI.

Since consent is fundamental to effective government, Loewen said these obstacles must be factored in for AI to be implemented in ways that meet with public approval.

Later in the course, Loewen delved into concerns around automation replacing human labour, demonstrating a wide range of cases in which AI would not only help governments better serve the public, but do so without replacing human workers.

In some contexts, the application of automated systems could help governments expedite decisions that are delayed due to capacity issues, enabling organizations to serve more people with greater speed and consistency.

In other areas, the use of AI could enhance the work of public servants by distinguishing between cases in which a verdict can be easily obtained, on the one hand, and contexts that require more nuanced consideration.

“Isn’t it a potentially better use of resources if we take those who would have previously interacted with every case, and re-deploy them to situations which require more judgement – or maybe just more empathy?” Loewen said.

What are the challenges of implementing AI in government?

The complexities of AI technologies and extensive roles and responsibilities of government mean there are many challenges to consider when putting AI to use in government: biased data inputs in machine learning models, concerns around data privacy and data governance, and questions regarding consent and procedural fairness – to name a few.

Hadfield observes that, given the pace and scale of AI advancement, the sector will require innovative new tools and systems that can assess, monitor and audit AI systems to ensure that they are appropriately deployed, effective, fair, responsible and sufficiently contained within democratic oversight.

These challenges may seem immense, but so are the potential benefits, she said, when considering the positive impact AI could have in improving economic and social policies.

A constitutional crisis if Trump chooses to pardon himself: U of T law professor

ullahnor — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 19:46:28 +0000

A constitutional crisis if Trump chooses to pardon himself: U of T law professor

ullahnor Mon, 07/24/2017 - 15:46

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U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested pardons, including for himself, over probes into Russia's role in last year's election (photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

When U.S. President Donald Trump asserted his “complete power to pardon” on Twitter last week, speculation erupted over whether he planned to pardon relatives, aides or possibly even himself.

Professor David Schneiderman of the Faculty of Law says that while the president does have the power to pardon aides and relatives, the ability to pardon himself is up for debate.

“There is no precedent – indeed, it would likely lead to constitutional crisis – for a president to pardon himself,” says Schneiderman, who is also associate professor of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Below Schneiderman speaks to U of T News about the constitutional law behind what is already becoming a highly contentious issue.

How broad is the president’s power to pardon?

The president has the constitutional power to "grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” The president cannot forestall impeachment proceedings nor can he issue pardons for violation of state law. Otherwise, the power is expansive and seemingly unlimited.

Under the U.S. constitution, can he pardon relatives and aides close to the investigation? Can he pardon himself?

The president can pardon aides and relatives. The interesting and unresolved constitutional question is whether the president can pardon himself. Constitutional opinion is divided. There is no limitation mentioned in the constitutional text other than “Cases of Impeachment.” If only impeachment is mentioned, can he pardon his own criminal conduct? The better view is that the U.S. Constitution is structured so that no one can be a judge in his or her own cause. This is a power, then, exclusively about pardoning others.

Do you know if there’s a precedent for this? Has any U.S. president ever been in a similar position and considered pardoning close aides or relatives?

There is not a great deal of precedent. The most notorious example of a president wielding the power to absolve a political ally is President Gerald Ford issuing a pardon to his former superior, President Richard Nixon.

Another example is George W. Bush pardoning former defence secretary Caspar Weinberger over the Iran-Contra affair. There is no precedent – indeed, it would likely lead to constitutional crisis – for a president to pardon himself.

U of T launches free MCAT prep course for students in financial need

hjames — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 19:59:07 +0000

U of T launches free MCAT prep course for students in financial need

hjames Mon, 04/24/2017 - 15:59

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Students at a Faculty of Medicine conference promoting diversity within the profession (photo by Justice Achampong)

Hannah James

Author legacy

Hannah James

Topic

Subheadline

“We hope for greater diversity within our MD program”

This spring U of T's Faculty of Medicine has offered 30 high potential, low-income students the chance to take a free course to help them prepare for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

Designed by students in the Faculty of Medicine, the MCAT Student Support Program or MSSP doesn't just follow other popular college prep courses. It offers a regimented study program as well as opportunities to network and meet mentors in the medical community.

“We want to alleviate barriers to doing well on the MCAT,” says Ike Okafor, who came up with the idea at the Faculty of Medicine, and then found students to help design it.

Okafor, who is senior officer of service learning and diversity outreach at the Office of Health Professions Student Affairs, says the program is part of the faculty's Community of Support initiative and part of a broader strategy to increase the number of medical students from underrepresented communities. In designing the program, he also consulted with U of T's Faculty of Law, which runs a similar program for the LSAT called, the Law School Access Program (LSAP) for high potential, low income students.

“The cost of the MCAT is something that I personally really struggled with,” says Tal Milman, a second-year medical student who helped work on the Faculty of Medicine's program. He and other students in the Communications Populations and Public Health class were approached by Okafor to help design the program.

Milman and his classmates wanted to go beyond coming up with a study plan and hiring facilitators to oversee student progress for the program.

“A big thing for me is not only the financial capital but the social capital. Another barrier is not being connected with anyone who can help,” he says.

Dawn Maracle, Indigenous undergraduate medical education program coordinator at U of T, says the program is a great support for Indigenous and other marginalized students.

“Many privileged groups have doctors in their families or doctors to guide them,” says Maracle. “Typically Indigenous students are first generation in their family in postsecondary education so they don’t have the same networks of experiences and mentors who can assist them in the process.”

The MCAT support program provides access to medical students, physicians and mentors to “keep students on track, inspired and motivated,” says Milman.

The program has secured funding from the Faculty of Medicine as well as the Canadian Medical Association’s MD Financial.

The program also offers mentors. The Summer Application Support Initiative (SASI) – launched last summer by the Black Medical Students Association (BMSA) and Communities of Support (COS) – matches students with mentors who can help with medical school applications.

Students who weren't able to take advantage of the MSSP program this year can still sign up for the SASI.

“Last year, we connected 97 students to mentors, and we’re hoping to see our numbers increase this year because the MSSP will bring new students to this program,” says Rahel Zewude, a second-year medical student and co-director of the BMSA.

The MCAT support program will begin May 1st and runs for 11 weeks.

“We're focused on creating greater access for underrepresented students – Black, Indigenous, economically disadvantaged,” says Okafor.

“We hope for greater diversity within our MD program and in the medical profession.”

More than 200 Canadian children housed in Toronto immigration detention facility, says new U of T report

ullahnor — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 17:30:11 +0000

More than 200 Canadian children housed in Toronto immigration detention facility, says new U of T report

ullahnor Thu, 02/23/2017 - 12:30

Topic

City & Culture

Law

Human Rights

international human rights program

Children

Detention

Canada has housed more than two hundred Canadian children in detention since 2011 in Toronto’s Immigration Holding Centre, alongside hundreds of formally detained non-Canadian children, says a report released today by the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP).

The report, Invisible Citizens: Canadian Children in Immigration Detention, includes six case studies of Canadian children who were housed in detention or separated from their detained parents in Toronto and Laval, Que. One of the children housed in detention was four months old when officials detained his mother.

The report recommends that Canada urgently implement alternatives to the detention of children, rather than confining them in immigration detention facilities or separating them from their detained parents.

“It is important for Canadians to be aware of this report,” said U of T Law Professor Audrey Macklin, director of the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and chair in human rights law. “Too often, we are complacent about what the state does to non-citizens. Learning that the same hardship and harms of detention are inflicted on citizen and non-citizen children alike compels us to address why we think it's OK to do this to any child.”

The IHRP interviewed nine detained and formerly detained mothers of Canadian children from the Middle East, West Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. The mothers described the arbitrary and rigid rules of the detention facilities in Toronto and Laval, and how the conditions eroded their capacity to effectively protect and care for their children.

“Canadians should be aware about human rights violations that are happening at home because this is the place that they can change things and make a difference,” said Samer Muscati, director of IHRP. “It's Canadians' responsibility to ensure that their government is accountable and not violating the most basic human rights, particularly of those who are some of the most vulnerable members of our society. These violations are particularly out of step with Canada's renewed efforts to become a global leader as a multicultural safe haven for refugees and migrants.”

According to figures recently obtained by the IHRP through access to information requests, an average of at least 48 Canadian children were housed in detention each year between 2011 and 2015 in Toronto alone.

New figures released by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to the IHRP in February 2017 indicate a significant decrease over the past year, as CBSA has taken some important initial steps to address long-standing problems. However, the IHRP is concerned that the frequency of family separation has not seen a similar reduction, and that the best interests of children do not receive adequate attention from immigration authorities.

The 60-page report is a follow-up to the IHRP’s September 2016 report on non-Canadian children in immigration detention, No Life for a Child: A Roadmap to End Immigration Detention of Children and Family Separation.

The new report reiterates that families in detention should be released outright or given access to community-based alternatives to detention, such as reporting obligations, financial deposits and guarantors.

“Canadian children are invisible in Canada’s immigration detention system,” said Muscati. “While all detention of children is horrible, these children are particularly vulnerable because they lack important legal safeguards, including their own detention review hearings.”

He hopes that ultimately there will be a change in Canada's laws and policies to make sure that international standards are applied on immigration issues. Other countries such as Sweden and Belgium are using alternatives to detention effectively, Muscati said.

“Canada needs to do all that it can to implement alternatives to detention so that children aren't locked up and traumatized,” he said.

Invisible Citizens is based on interviews conducted since November 2016 with lawyers, social workers, refugee advocates, mental health experts, as well as detained and formerly detained mothers. The report includes six case studies of Canadian children who were housed in detention or separated from their detained parents in Toronto and Laval. Without exception, the mothers expressed anguish about the detrimental consequences of the experience on their children’s physical and mental health.

The report profiles a four month old whose mother was detained at the Toronto detention facility. The mother was detained because CBSA suspected that she was a flight risk, and the baby accompanied her as a “guest” of the facility.

According to the mother, she constantly felt pressured by CBSA to part with her infant son. “But I’m his mom, I’m his caregiver, he’s breastfeeding, how can he leave?” she said. After three months in detention, the mother was diagnosed with Major Depressive Episode and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. “I think they robbed a lot from me and my baby.”

The report builds upon years of advocacy by Canada-based refugee and child rights groups that have called on the government to ensure that children’s best interests are a primary consideration in decisions that affect them. International bodies have also repeatedly criticized Canada for its immigration detention practices.

The report welcomes recent initiatives by Canada’s federal government and CBSA, which have indicated a strong willingness to reform the immigration detention regime, with a particular view to protecting children and addressing mental health issues. The government has also expressed its intention to engage extensively with non-governmental organizations and other civil society stakeholders in the process of revising relevant policy and designing new programs.

Invisible Citizens reaffirms the 11 recommendations from the September 2016 report, which aim to ensure that Canada complies with its international human rights obligations. The report also builds upon the recommendations of the IHRP’s 2015 report, We Have No Rights: Arbitrary imprisonment and cruel treatment of migrants with mental health issues in Canada. Given the existing discretion under the law, authorities can implement these recommendations in practice even before legislative and regulatory changes are instituted, human rights experts said.

“The Canadian government and CBSA continue to take serious steps that have produced some initial progress,” said Hanna Gros, IHRP senior researcher and author of the report. “But it’s important that they entrench these initial advances into law and practice so that Canada lives up to its reputation as a multicultural safe haven for refugees and migrants.”

U of T interdisciplinary projects receive funding from relaunched Connaught Global Challenge Award

ullahnor — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 15:41:02 +0000

U of T interdisciplinary projects receive funding from relaunched Connaught Global Challenge Award

ullahnor Mon, 02/13/2017 - 10:41

Cutline

U of T research teams led by David Lie, Brent Sleep and Mark Fox are winners of this year's Connaught Global Challenge Award (photo composite by Geoff Agnew)

Topic

Our Community

Connaught Fund

Connaught Global Challenge

Urban Genome

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Rotman

Faculty of Arts & Science

Three teams at the University of Toronto that are trying to resolve globally pressing issues are sharing $750,000 in funding from the recently retooled Connaught Global Challenge Award.

The relaunched internal award, funded by the Connaught Fund, is designed to support new collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

This funding boost will help these programs get off the ground and help them find major new external funding to further develop solutions to the global challenge, forge important new partnerships with other internationally renowned universities and government agencies, as well as possibly create new research-oriented academic programs.

“I’d like to congratulate all of the recipients of this year’s Connaught Global Challenge Award,” said Professor Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

“These projects all tackle immensely important and complicated global problems. The Connaught Fund understands that to find solutions, it needs to provide funding to support interdisciplinary collaboration at U of T. Each of our teams is committed to expanding connections with faculty in relevant divisions across all three campuses.”

The recipients of this year’s Connaught Global Challenge Award are:

“The Information Technology, Transparency, and Transformation (IT3) Lab” led by David Lie, professor of electrical & computer engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The team includes fellow U of T researchers from the Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management, as well as collaborators from Princeton University, Harvard University, Tel Aviv University, Google, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and more.
“Network for Engineering Education for Sustainable African Cities (NEESAC)” led by Brent Sleep, professor of civil engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The team includes U of T researchers from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Faculty of Arts & Science, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, as well as collaborators from the University of Victoria, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, a number of African institutions and more.
“The Urban Genome Project” led by Mark Fox, U of T’s distinguished professor of urban systems engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The team includes U of T researchers with expertise in history, big data and transportation from the Rotman School of Management, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, Faculty of Arts & Science and the University of Toronto Scarborough.

#UofTGrad16: Faculty of Law congratulates more than 200 new lawyers

krisha — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 14:53:17 +0000

#UofTGrad16: Faculty of Law congratulates more than 200 new lawyers krisha Fri, 06/03/2016 - 10:53

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From left to right: Neil Abraham, Krupa Kotecha, Aron Nimani and Kellie Mildren (All photos by Lucianna Ciccocioppo)

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Meet the Class of 2016

After three years of law school – four for those in certain programs – the Faculty of Law's Class of 2016 is ready to celebrate and begin their legal careers.

“I stared at the email with my final paper attached for about five minutes, thinking: ‘Can law school really be over when I click send?’,” said Aron Nimani. “The answer was a simple ‘Yes,’ which only added to that surreal feeling.”

For Kellie Mildren, it was dreamlike.

“Like floating. I walked to school, for the first time, to the year-end BBQ – because why not? It was beautiful outside, and I was no longer in a perpetual rush. I suddenly had time to call my parents, to make plans to see neglected friends, to read the novels on my bedside table.”

Krupa Kotecha said she felt a range of emotions: “Handing in my last paper of law school was both very exciting and sad at the same time. It was somewhat surreal given the tremendous academic, professional, and personal journey I have undergone since writing my first paper in 1L!"

Neil Abraham knows about journeys. He returned to school to pursue law after working most recently as an environmental economist for the federal government. That’s after he was a health economist for the government of Nova Scotia while in graduate school.

“I was nervous coming back to school because I had been working for many years and it was daunting to quit my job for something unknown,” said Abraham. “Luckily, I loved it right away and the choice to switch careers turned out to be a smart one for me.” He’ll be clerking at the Federal Court of Appeal, and then for Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin at the Supreme Court of Canada. “After that I hope to join a litigation practice dealing primarily in public law.”

Nimani says he looks forward to spending a few weeks reconnecting with friends and family on the West coast after bar exams, before returning to Toronto to article at a Bay St. firm in August. Looking back, he said law school was “a roller coaster of highs and lows unlike almost anything I had ever experienced. Although there are some things I would do differently if I could go back, I would still end up here now, finishing my degree and looking forward to the next step.”

Mildren, who will be articling in-house at Bird Construction, one of Canada’s largest national general contractors, says the most memorable things about law school “have been instances where professors, friends and family have gone above and beyond.”

She added: “Professor Trebilcock has edited and provided feedback on a paper of mine – three times – from Collingwood (he even made comments on the footnotes). Professor Langille provided immediate responses to emails, even if he was at a family function in Nova Scotia, or your email was a 40-page article that he now has to read. I have had people provide feedback on my essays before deadlines when I can no longer think straight (including [my friend] Michelle, who read 80 pages, and my mom, who clocked in for a 4:00 am emergency). Then there is my dad, my step mom and my boyfriend, who have not only been my inspiration, but who have been my rock for the last three years. I was the recipient of so much generosity during my time at U of T, and it is that which will leave the biggest mark.”

Kotecha, who is set to article at McCarthy Tétrault, where she worked last summer, said law school “far exceeded my expectations; I could never have anticipated the extent of my professors’ commitment to student learning, the breadth of the school’s academic and extracurricular offerings, or the sheer genius of my peers. The culmination of these factors resulted in an incredibly inspirational and dynamic learning environment – one that I feel very grateful to have been a part of.”

Nimani called his classmates “incredible” and said the end-of-year 1L party was one of his favourite law school memories: “When everyone celebrated being done that first big hurdle. It was such a weight lifted, and the exhilaration hasn't been matched since.”

It’s no secret the law school years can be so formative, particularly when it comes to life-long friendships. Kotecha said she knows “our friendships will continue to develop beyond graduation and as we move through our careers…The friends I have made in law school are some of the sharpest, funniest, and most driven individuals I know. It is amazing to have a group of people with whom I share so much common ground.”

Abraham said it didn’t take long to connect here with other students who were shifting careers, just like he was. “I found my pod of other ‘second-career law students,’ as we're called, and it's been great getting to know each other and learning about how people from all different backgrounds come to law school and bring different perspectives to the law. I'm also constantly impressed by my younger law school friends who are miles ahead of where I was in my early twenties! Gaining these formative friendships has been a great aspect of law school.”

His favourite memory? “Going to the SCC to hear arguments I helped prepare be presented in court, in the case Henry v BC. I also took a course with Justice Robert Sharpe that gave me a great opportunity to learn about how judges think about the law.”

Three years have come and gone; a lifetime awaits ahead.

Said Mildren: “Every day I feel privileged to have been here.”

What the Ghomeshi trial reveals about journalism and media consumers: U of T expert explains

sgupta — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:19:33 +0000

What the Ghomeshi trial reveals about journalism and media consumers: U of T expert explains sgupta Thu, 02/04/2016 - 05:19

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(photo courtesy Joe Gratz via flickr)

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Digital culture allows people to immerse themselves in minutiae, says Jeffrey Dvorkin: “It’s almost like news pornography”

The intense media interest in high-profile trials, including the Jian Ghomeshi trial that started Feb 1, could have a major impact on the judicial system itself, U of T’s Jeffrey Dvorkin says.

Dvorkin, director of the journalism program at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, says the media interest surrounding the Ghomeshi trial – with newspapers and television networks around the world covering it – “is only intensified by the digital culture, what I call digital deviance, where people immerse themselves in the minutiae of the story. It’s almost like news pornography.”

The media frenzy sparked by the sex assault trial of Ghomeshi, the former CBC radio star, is similar to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, more than 20 years ago. That was the first time CNN broadcasted a trial directly from the courtroom. Today, there are no cameras in the Ghomeshi courtroom but the trial is live-tweeted by reporters in real time as witnesses testify and are grilled by the defence attorney.

Read PhD student Nathan Gorham's Globe and Mail article on Twitter versus cameras at the trial

Dvorkin points out that Ghomeshi is being tried by judge alone.

“My impression is that there are fewer and fewer jury trials in part because defence lawyers claim their clients can’t get a fair trial – because no one is coming into the courtroom with a completely neutral state. It is hard to find a jury these days that hasn’t been influenced by the media in some ways.”

Dvorkin, a former managing editor and chief journalist at CBC Radio, says the trial poses a challenge for CBC given that “people at the CBC are being forced to relive this.” The broadcaster is covering the trial but has also brought in counsellors to help employees deal with the trial, he said.

The Ghomeshi trial in Toronto was not the only high-profile trial in Ontario this week. But the “prurient interest” in the Ghomeshi case meant that after the first day, it led the news on both the local and national CBC and CTV networks. Meanwhile, the trial in Hamilton of two men charged with the kidnapping, murder and cremation of Tim Bosma, shot while showing his truck to two men, was relegated to the second story.

Coincidentally, these two headline-grabbing trials began during the same week that the FX network launched a heavily promoted, 10-part drama series on the Simpson trial. The former football star was acquitted of the murder of his wife and male friend in 1995, with his lawyer, Johnny Cochran, using the now infamous “if the glove don’t fit you must acquit” defence.

Dvorkin said the O.J. case really changed the “journalistic landscape” for television, both in the U.S. and in Canada. It allowed news organizations to cut costs by simply putting a camera in the courtroom (or share a feed) without having to rely on reporters.

“It was a real downside to the O.J. Simpson trial. It cheapened the value of journalistic efforts, something that media organizations really haven’t recovered from.”

The first complainant in the Ghomeshi trial was the first witness on Feb. 1, and was subjected to an intense drilling from the defence lawyer who said the woman had lied and that her memory was faulty.

That type of cross-examination is indicative of what thousands of complainants go through in sexual assault cases, according to a study done for the U of T Law Journal.

The study, done by Dalhousie University professor Elaine Craig, says “a sexual assault complainant’s capacity to be believed in court, to share in the production of meaning about an incidence of what she alleges was unwanted sexual conduct, requires her to play a role in certain rituals of the trial.

“Many of these rituals are hierarchical, requiring complainants to perform subordinate roles that mirror the gender, race and socio-economic status based on societal hierarchies in which the problem of sexual violence is rooted.”

Craig examined many court transcripts and gave specific examples of women being “brutalized” by the process, including one woman who refused to return to the stand after being cross-examined and who only returned when she faced arrest.

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used above)

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U of T Law establishes North America's first research chair in investor rights

sgupta — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 17:01:34 +0000

U of T Law establishes North America's first research chair in investor rights sgupta Wed, 01/27/2016 - 12:01

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“Among other things, I plan to investigate whether new remedies for investors, including a remedy whereby investors gain back lost funds, are warranted,” Professor Anita Anand says (photo by Johnny Guatto)

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The Honourable Hal Jackman’s gift establishes the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance

Meet the first research chair for investor rights in North America: the University of Toronto's Professor Anita Anand.

Anand, a corporate law and governance expert, is the new J. R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance at the Faculty of Law – thanks to a generous gift from well-known philanthropist, the Hon. Hal Jackman, a law school alumnus, former U of T chancellor and former lieutenant governor of Ontario.

The Chair is named after J.R. Kimber, author of the foundational Report of the Attorney General's Committee on Securities Legislation in Ontario (March 1965), which laid the foundation for Canada’s modern securities regulatory regime. A chair is the highest academic honour for scholars, and allows them to pursue research in a high-priority area.

One of the purposes of securities regulation is to ensure that investors are protected. Yet, while advances have been made, Canada’s securities regulatory system has historically been criticized for ineffectively deterring financial market abuses.

Technological advances, such as the rise of equity crowdfunding, and high proportions of transactions in the less-regulated private markets, have increased opportunities for investment fraud and, as a consequence, the need for new regulatory tools, if investors are to be well-protected.

“We cannot and should not underestimate the importance of investor protection in today’s capital markets,” Anand said. “More than 50 per cent of Canadians are invested in our markets outside a registered retirement savings or similar plan. Ensuring that investors are adequately protected is fundamental to the well-being of our society.”

University Professor and historian Martin Friedland worked closely with J. R. Kimber in the 1960s, as research associate to the Kimber Committee.

“If anyone was the father of investor protection in Canada, it was John R. Kimber Q.C., the first full-time chair of the Ontario Securities Commission,” Friedland said.

“As a part-time chair of the Commission and master of the Superior Court, he headed the very influential Ontario Committee – formally known as the 'Attorney-General’s Committee on Securities Legislation in Ontario,' but usually referred to as the 'Kimber Committee.' Jack Kimber, a gentle, thoughtful, pipe-smoking lawyer, subsequently worked on the Ontario legislation, which laid out detailed rules in such areas as insider trading, take-over bids, proxy solicitation, and disclosure. It is more than fitting that this new chair is being named after him.”

Anand’s research expertise focuses on capital markets regulation and corporate governance, capital-raising techniques, and systemic risk, as well as legal ethics and the corporation. Since 2010, she has served as the academic director of the Centre for the Legal Profession, leading the development of its new program on ethics in law and business. She is cross-appointed to U of T's School of Public Policy and Governance and in 2015 was appointed by Ontario’s minister of finance to the Expert Committee to Consider Financial Advisory and Planning Policy Alternatives.

“Investor protection is based on an understanding of the public interest,” explains Anand. “My research focuses on investor protection including investors' rights and remedies.

“Among other things, I plan to investigate whether new remedies for investors, including a remedy whereby investors gain back lost funds, are warranted given the potential contribution of these remedies to bolstering confidence and efficiency in our markets.”

Edward Iacobucci, dean of the Faculty of Law, said “I am enormously grateful to Mr. Jackman for his remarkable and continuing generosity to the Faculty of Law and for his dedication to the protection of investors that motivated this gift.

“I am delighted that Professor Anand will be the inaugural chairholder. Not only is she a regular and important contributor to scholarship on investor protection and governance matters, but also to law and policy on the ground. She will be outstanding in bringing her research to bear on legal reform in this area.”

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U of T Law establishes North America's first research chair in investor rights