Two new videos of interesting recent events at the law school have been posted on the website:

• Mary and Philip Seeman Health Law, Policy & Ethics Seminar Series: Beverly Jacobs, "Practicing Indigenous Laws Protects Wholistic Health"
• Asper Centre Immigration Detention Symposium

The final Student Health and Wellness Committee Meeting will be on March 27th, 12:30-2pm in J225.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LAW WORKSHOP

Presents:

Joshua Nichols
University of Alberta
Faculty of Law

A Reconciliation without Recollection? An Investigation of the Foundations of Aboriginal Law in Canada

Tuesday, March 26, 2019
12:30 - 2:00
Solarium (Room FA2), Falconer Hall
84 Queen's Park 

The Supreme Court of Canada has referred to reconciliation as the ‘governing ethos’ of Section 35, but what kind of ethos is it exactly? If we consult the case law in this area, we are immediately confronted by a puzzling series of tests and procedural checks. What is clear is that the Court has accepted the Crown’s assertion of sovereignty. The basis of this is their interpretation of Section 91(24), which reads it as a plenary grant of power over Indians and their lands. This has led them to simply bypass the question of the inherent right of self-government and to generate a constitutional framework that amounts too little more than a proportionality check on the exercise of Crown sovereignty. I argue that if we are to find a meaningful reconciliation—and not simply one that is assigned by the logic of force that resides behind the unquestioned assumption of sovereignty—then we will need to address the history of sovereignty without assuming its foundations. The problem of reconciliation and the question of sovereignty cannot be treated as if they are separate and divisible as they are constitutively related. So how are we to begin to get past limitations that the current model of reconciliation takes for granted? My project sets out to expose the limitations of the current model by following the lines of descent and association that underlie the legal conceptualization of Aboriginal sovereignty. A major part of this lineage finds legislative expression in the Indian Act. In particular, in how the act and its associated institutions operate to control the basic elements of self-government, such as membership (who is and is not an “Indian”), political structure (what is a “Band”), and jurisdiction (the meaning of s. 91(24)). These are the lines of authority and resistance that my project focuses on. I follow these lines by adopting a contextual, historical, and comparative approach. I survey the 19th century foundations of the Indian Act from its discursive context to the various changes in policy and legislation that lead to it and the crisis of legitimacy that occurs with the White Paper in 1969. I then relate this to the case law on s. 91(24) and show how law, policy and practices of governance have been animated by the understanding of the division of powers set out by the Privy Council in St. Catherine’s Milling in 1888. This serves to show that the current framework of reconciliation is predicated on an interpretation of a constitutional provision that unilaterally excludes Aboriginal peoples from having any say over how they are governed or how their lands are used. By continuing to uphold the Crown’s claim to sovereignty, legislative power and underlying title the Court is confining Aboriginal peoples to the very ‘straightjacket’ they cautioned against in the Reference re Secession of Quebec.

Joshua Nichols holds a B.A. (Hons.) In political science and an M.A. in sociology from the University of Alberta; a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto; a J.D. from the University of British Columbia; and a Ph.D. in law from the University of Victoria. He is a member of the Law Society of British Columbia, the International Law Association and a research fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (https://www.cigionline.org/person/joshua-nichols). His research centers on the deeply complicated and (all too often) conflictual constitutional relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples. In particular, he is interested in how the notion of Crown sovereignty has become entangled with the Westphalian model of the state (i.e., the state as a politically self-contained and legally autonomous unit for a singular ‘people’ or ‘nation’). 

For more workshop information, please contact Events at events.law@utoronto.ca

Lunch Series on Comparative Law and Foreign Legal Systems: 
"Jamaica: An Independent Island - But U.K. Still Has the Final Say"

David Kennedy, Manley O Hudson Professor of Law, Harvard Law School - 

"International Law in Global Political Economy: Now You See It, Now You Don't"

Public Keynote opening the 12th Annual Toronto Group Conference on International, Transnational, and Comparative Law: Resistance to International Law and the Global Legal Order 

Full Conference Program available here: https://torontogroup.wordpress.com/

Please join the Feminist Law Students Association for our second event of the semester on Thursday March 28 at 12:30PM in P363.

We have decided to expand our book club into a ~ discussion group ~ to allow more people to join! To participate, please read/ watch/ listen to one (or ALL!) of the following:

1. BOOK: Speaking Truth to Power by Anita Hill

This is Anita Hill's memoir written in 1997. We hear and talk so much about the 1991 Clarence Thomas hearings and it'll be great to read Hill's own account of what happened.

The library has purchased copies of this book for law students. To check them out, you need to go to the front desk and mention that the book you want is specifically for the book club (and perhaps say that John Bolan has them). If there are issues please let us know!

2. SHORTER READ: "#MeToo, Sex Wars 2.0 and the Power of Law" by Brenda Cossman

Brenda Cossman is a law professor at U of T.

3. PODCAST: "Gillian Hnatiw: #MeToo is not a he-said, she-said issue. We are past due to eradicate it."

Gillian Hnatiw is a Toronto-based lawyer and acted as Lucy DeCoutere's attorney in Jian Ghomeshi's trial.

4. VIDEO: Surviving R Kelly

Surviving R Kelly is a very recent documentary series about the abuse allegations against R Kelly.

There will be EXCITING (read: not pizza) food! Please check out the Facebook event for more information, including links to the discussion materials: https://www.facebook.com/events/2129300137292445/

Exclusive to the Law Bookstore

$15 Books

Three Osgoode Society Titles:

• My Life in Crime and Other Academic Adventures by Martin L. Friedland
• The Persons Case by Sharpe & McMahon
• Property on Trial by Tucker, Muir, & Ziff

Price good for the month of March, 2019. In store only.

How do you market yourself and your practice as a new lawyer? How do you get your name out there to start building a brand? No matter what area of practice you are in, whether you’re a sole a practitioner, whether you practice in a small or a big firm, spending some time on marketing yourself in the early stages of your career and your practice is important.

Join the Toronto Lawyers Association to hear from lawyers with different levels of experience and a lawyer coach on what you can do aside from the standard “networking” to set yourself apart and grow your practice.

The program will be followed by a Wine & Cheese Soiree. A great opportunity to meet up with your professional community and have a one-one-one discussions.

Details and registration:

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

5:15 – 6:30 p.m. (Registration at 5:00 p.m.)

TLA Lawyers Lounge, 2nd Floor, 361 University Avenue Court House

Contact events@tlaonline.ca to register.

*Limited seating available

Indigenous Rights, Sovereignty, and the Heart of Religious Freedom

Recent years have seen the rise of religious freedom as the “most difficult right” in the Canadian legal landscape, just as it has become an increasingly contested constitutional concept in other jurisdictions.  Freedom of religion has become a site for debate about the nature of the public/private divide, the balancing of competing rights, and the role of group and collective rights.  Scholarship seeking to understand the right — and the place and workings of religious freedom within liberal constitutionalism — has tended to explore its relationship to broad concepts like “secularism” and multiculturalism, and to understand it either as an equality- or liberty-based protection.  This talk will use the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent decision in Ktunaxa Nation v British Columbia as a pathway into a different understanding of the fundamental problematic at play in religious freedom.  In Ktunaxa, an Indigenous nation sought protection of its religious beliefs and practices under section 2(a) of the Charter.  Linking the case to other developments in Canada and abroad, this talk will argue that the Ktunaxa Nation’s decision to pursue their claim as a matter of freedom of religion — and the Court’s reasons for unanimously rejecting that claim — call our attention to the place of sovereignty in the architecture of religious freedom.  The specific features of Indigenous religions in a colonial context, and their awkward treatment in law, illuminate more broadly what is so difficult about freedom of religion.

☛ please register here

Benjamin Berger
York University
Osgoode Hall Law School

12:30 PM - 02:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto 
200 Larkin

04:00 PM - 06:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto 
Rm 200, Larkin Building 

The Toronto branch of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) is excited to present our upcoming event, a screening of the iconic 1995 coming-of-age classic, Clueless, with cocktails and commentary by Drunk Feminist Films. The event will take place on March 28, 2019 at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (506 Bloor Street West). Doors open at 6:00pm and the show will begin at 7:00pm. The venue is wheelchair accessible. 

Bring your friends for a night of fun with DFF hosts Hadiya Roderique (@hadiyaroderique) and Bernita Rebeiro (@bernitareberio) to watch burgeoning humanitarian and advocate, Cher Horowitz, captain of the Pismo Beach Disaster Relief, negotiate her report card and navigate love and friendship in her “most capable looking outfit” (aka her Fred Segal white collarless shirt). As one of the pioneering feminist films of ‘90s pop culture, we will have a chance to address the concerning themes that continue to persist today, with the lighthearted and fun-loving touch of Drunk Feminist Films. 

Proceeds from the event will go to funding LEAF's advocacy to advance the equality rights of women and girls in Canada.

Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/leaf-toronto-presents-clueless-with-cocktail...

Michele Edwards fought prejudice all her life. While studying to become a paralegal, she took her college to the Ontario Human Rights Commission after facing discrimination by her instructors in the classroom, and forced the school to create new policies to accommodate people with disabilities. This bursary was created after her death by her husband Peter Boisseau -- a contributor to the Faculty of Law's Nexus magazine and web news – in collaboration with Epilepsy Toronto to encourage women with epilepsy to pursue their education. Find out more:

https://www.thefreelancebureau.com/the-story-of-michele