David Asper Centre for Constitutional Right
Presents
Aboriginal Representation on Juries in Ontario - A Case Study in Public Interest Advocacy
Julian Falconer
April 1st, 2009
12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
Solarium
A light lunch will be served.
Julian Falconer is a partner with the firm Falconer Charney LLP. Julian’s practice takes him to civil, administrative and criminal courts at both trial and appellate levels. A major component of Julian’s work has involved advocacy in human rights and public interest litigation. In the context of Coroners Inquests, Julian’s individual clients have included many families who have lost loved ones in altercations involving state authorities, be they police shootings or prison deaths. His practice also includes plaintiff’s personal-injury and commercial litigation as well as criminal law. Julian’s client base spans the range of individuals and institutions which has recently included Nishnawbe Aski Nation (First Nations political territorial organization for Northern Ontario), Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, dairy farmers, police officers and lawyers. His more prominent clients have included Maher Arar whose lawsuit made Canadian legal history as the largest human rights settlement allotted to an individual plaintiff/family. Julian has also represented numerous organizational interests (First Nations and African Canadian) at the Commission of Inquiry level including the Ipperwash Inquiry and the Goudge Inquiry into child pathologist, Dr. Charles Smith.
In February 2008 the legal trade magazine, Lawyers Weekly, wrote that “in the world of Canadian human rights law, it’s hard to imagine a practitioner with more time in the spotlight in recent years than Julian Falconer”. Julian has published numerous articles on issues of race and constitutional law. In his more recent work, Julian co-authored a second edition of his book into the Coroners System in Ontario (LexisNexis Canada Inc.) and was also a contributing author to Honouring Social Justice, (Beare, M.E. ed.) (University of Toronto Press) (article entitled “State Misconduct: A Continuum of Accountability”).
Please RSVP to Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca
