Lawyers Doing Cool Things - Margaretta Hanna, J.D. 2013

Thursday February 28^th, 12:30 – 2:00

Sandwiches and water will be available

Margaretta is a family lawyer and aspiring family mediator in sole practice in the west end of Toronto. Prior to her career as a lawyer, Margaretta worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist with patients suffering with head and neck cancers. Through that work, she developed the compassion and empathy necessary to working with persons going through traumatic life experiences. That work, coupled with being a mother herself, made family law a natural fit when deciding to enter a new career.

During law school at the University of Toronto, Margaretta focused on family law, accessing any opportunity to do practical work in this area of law. Margaretta was also fortunate to be able to train at one of Canada’s top family law firms where she was exposed to a wide variety of family law issues. Margaretta’s family law practice focuses on settling cases out of court through negotiation, collaboration and mediation.

 To register, please lick here. 

We are happy to offer a new date for the SafeTALK suicide alert training workshop for this term.

Friday, March 22nd from 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Location: TBD

Registration through eventbrite (Password: uoftlaw): https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/safetalk-at-uoft-law-tickets-51948558537

For more information about SafeTALK please see Headnotes, https://www.livingworks.net/programs/safetalk/, or contact Yukimi Henry at yukimi.henry@utoronto.ca.

Please note: If you were registered for the cancelled March 15th workshop your registration will NOT automatically be transferred to the March 22nd date. Please re-register through the above link.

LAW & ECONOMICS COLLOQUIUM

Presents:

Colleen Honigsberg
Stanford Law School

Deleting Misconduct: The Expungement of BrokerCheck Records

Tuesday, February 26, 2019
4:10 - 5:45
Room FL219 / John Willis Classroom
78 Queen's Park

We examine the effects of a controversial process, known as expungement, that allows brokers to remove evidence of allegations of financial misconduct from FINRA’s public records. We show that brokers who receive expungements are more likely to be accused of misconduct in the future than similarly situated brokers. Using an instrumental variable to address endogeneity in the decision whether to grant an expungement, we study the effect of expungement on recidivism and other career outcomes. We also examine how these consequences vary by gender, ethnicity, and political affiliation. Finally, we offer a note of caution to researchers and investors using BrokerCheck data to study misconduct in the industry, as BrokerCheck data reflect cleansed adviser histories rather than a comprehensive sample of all historical adviser misconduct.

Colleen Honigsberg is an Assistant Professor at Stanford Law School, where her research is focused on the empirical study of corporate and securities law. Her scholarship uses a variety of econometric techniques and often requires examining new sources of data. Her recent papers have looked at the role creditors play in investment policy, the effects of hedge fund regulation, and the relationship between legal liability and audit quality. Her research, often timely, has been featured in major mainstream publications such as the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, and her scholarship has been published in leading academic journals.

  For additional workshop information, please contact events.law@utoronto.ca

“REGISTRATION IS MANDATORY AND FREE

This panel will explore critical questions about the competing rights and freedoms of anti-abortion protestors, counter-protestors, and the public. Specifically, the panellists will provide various perspectives on how to balance these rights in the context of pseudo-public spaces like universities.

The current discourse around “buffer zones” has recently intersected with debates about how free speech should be defined within post-secondary institutions. Following Ontario’s February 2018 implementation of buffer zone legislation prohibiting protests near facilities that provide abortion services, student groups have advocated for similar protections in the post-secondary context. Other controversies with university speakers prompted the Province to get involved when Premier Ford mandated that post-secondary institutions develop policies to protect free speech on their campuses. Canadian universities face unique challenges as they try to balance their responsibilities as publicly-funded organizations while maintaining their academic autonomy. How can universities balance the competing rights and freedoms of protestors, speakers, and the public? Does Canada’s current legal framework have the conceptual resources to handle these kinds of issues?

Panellists:

*** Yasir Naqvi

Former Attorney General of Ontario
CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC)

*** Cara Zwibel

Director, Fundamental Freedoms Program, Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)

*** Daniel Santoro

Constitutional Lawyer

*** Adam Goldenberg

Associate, McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law

*** Sarah Doucette

Former Toronto City Councillor for Ward 13

*** Suze Morrison

MPP for Toronto Centre
Official Opposition Critic for Housing & Women's Issues

A light dinner will be served.

Accessibility:

The entrance to the Jackman Law Building from Queen's Park Crescent has an accessible ramp. The Jackman Law Building can also be entered via Flavelle House (the main door beside the driveway). The rear entrance to the Jackman Law Building from beside the Hoskin Ave. gates on Philosopher's Walk also has an accessible ramp, but note the slope is quite extended.

On Friday March 15th 2019 the Asper Centre will convene a one-day Immigration Detention Symposium focused on advancing litigation and advocacy strategies to address the challenges within Canada’s immigration detention system. The Symposium will highlight immigration detention practitioners' and civil society’s current advocacy efforts, recommendations and resources for achieving meaningful solutions to the challenges.

Background

In March 2018, the Asper Centre convened a public interest litigation conference, which included a panel that focused on litigation strategies in immigration detention cases. The panelists discussed some of the serious challenges that, in order to effectively address, would require a continued strategic and coordinated advocacy response. In July 2018 the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) released an External Audit Detention Review report (External Audit), which confirmed that "...a Charter-compliant standard of robust and meaningful review is not being consistently met in detention review hearings, and that, in some cases, the Charter rights of detained persons were breached by continued ID-ordered detention.”

In response to the IRB’s External Audit, the Asper Centre co-convened a group of experts to draft a response with recommendations to the IRB’s External Audit report. This soon to be released External Audit Response report was principally drafted by Hanna Gros of UTLaw's International Human Rights Program (IHRP), with Asper Centre Clinic and IHRP students' research assistance, and in consultation with the immigration bar, academics, and civil society.

Symposium Objective

The main objective of this Symposium is to bring together the relevant legal, research and advocacy partners who are focused on improving the serious deficiencies in the immigration detention system in Canada. We hope to help highlight some of the important responses and strategies currently being developed and implemented in this area, and that this opportunity for sharing and collaboration will encourage continued strategic litigation collaboration and coordinated advocacy efforts amongst the immigration bar and beyond.

Symposium Panels

I.Immigration Detention External Audit Response Report: Recommendations and Next Steps

This panel will unpack the conclusions and recommendations of the Immigration Detention External Audit Response Report and will facilitate a discussion identifying the areas, arguments and cases for further litigation and advocacy. The panelists include the key authors of the report and members of the bar who made significant contributions to the report.

II.Habeas Corpus Best Practices

While the SCC’s decision in Chhina will provide clarification on the scope of the writ of habeas corpus, this panel will focus on practical strategies for filing habeas corpus claims for immigration detainees. Access and procedure tips, arguments for challenging the lawfulness and reasonableness of a continued deprivation of liberty, arguments in “danger to the public” cases, and how to utilize Section 11 of the Charter will be discussed.

III.CARL Toolkit and a Compendium of Relevant Case-Law for Immigration Detention Practitioners

The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL) has developed an Immigration Detention Toolkit, which it will be launching shortly. This toolkit will help familiarize counsel with the main findings of the IRB's External Audit and provide tips, steps and suggestions on how counsel can ensure the fairest process possible for our clients. The Toolkit advises how to, among other things:(a) to prepare for a detention review, (b) develop and present alternatives to detention, (c) present and test oral or other kinds of evidence, (d) respond to multiple detention reviews; (e) follow up post-hearing. As well, the Toolkit provides tips on how to work with detainees with mental health issues, addictions and other vulnerabilities.

The IRB’s External Audit confirmed that in many of the Immigration Division’s hearings and decisions, “…there were notable discrepancies between the expectations articulated by the courts and the practice of the Immigration Division.” Three Asper Centre Clinic students who provided research for the drafting of the External Audit Response Report have created a Compendium/Summary of the relevant case law in which the courts articulate what a legally sound and fair immigration hearing should look like. This Compendium of cases, which will serve to complement the CARL toolkit, will also be presented at this panel.

For REGISTRATION, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/immigration-detention-symposium-tickets-5572...

Sex-Ed Curriculum Repeal Panel

Monday March 4th, 2019

5:30-7pm (dinner provided)

Moot Court Room

Join Out in Law for a panel discussion on the legal challenge to Ontario's repeal of the updated sexual education curriculum. 

Our panelists include Stuart Svonkin - from Chernos Flaherty Svonkin LLP who litigated on behalf of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA); Mika Imai – from Symes Street & Millard LLP;  Andrea Luey– from Justice for Children and Youth; and Daniel Sheppard – from Goldblatt Partners LLP who litigated on behalf of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.

Panel will run from 5:30 to 7pm, with food provided!

Join SLS for a celebration of the 33rd Annual Oakes Day!

Oakes Day is a celebration of the most Oak themed law school in Canada, the 33rd Anniversary of the decision of the Oakes Test, and an opportunity to come together as a school! Events will be going on throughout the day! 

Pressing and Substantial Breakfast (8:30-11:30 Rowell Room): Join us for a free breakfast and law movies! Vegan and GF options!

Rational Connection (12:30-2:00pm Rowell Room, Flavelle, Atrium): All Students/Staff/Faculty are invited to join for a free lunch, board games, hall games and more! 

Balancing Acts (5-7pm Rowell Room): Join us for a Coffeehouse, snacks and drinks to close out the school day.

Join the Food Law and Policy Group and our expert guests in a panel where we discuss laws and issues

of intellectual property, technology, and regulations relating to crops, particularly those most relevant to

legal professionals and the broader public.

Lunch will be provided.

For more information, contact liwah.keller@mail.utoronto.ca or ames.lin@mail.utoronto.ca

The Cannabis Law Club invites you to our inaugural event: Intro to Cannabis Law.

Please join us for food and discussion with lawyers in the cannabis industry. Come learn about this unique area of law, its future in Canada, and the exciting opportunities available.

Panelists:
Jonathan Sherman, Co-Chair of Cannabis Group - Cassels Brock
Russell Hall, Associate - Davies
Sam Carsley, VP Legal Counsel - Canopy Growth Corp
Mark Cavdar, Director of Legal Affairs - Aphria

https://www.facebook.com/events/419307875276321/?active_tab=about

Binders and Binder Clips

Highlighters and Index Cards

Sticky Notes and Staplers

The study supplies you need

PLUS

Comfortable & Cozy Law Attire

Perfect study-wear

Come by the Law Bookstore Mon-Thurs 11:30 am-2:30 pm and Friday 3 pm - 7 pm

Legal History Panel Discussion

Law, Labour, Race & Migration

Wednesday, 27 February 2019 | 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. | IKB 1003, Osgoode Hall Law School

Speakers:            Renisa Mawani (University of British Columbia)

                                Radhika Mongia (York University)

Moderator:         Philip Girard (Osgoode Hall Law School)

Light lunch will be provided.

For more information, contact Summaiya Zaidi at SummaiyaZaidi@osgoode.yorku.ca.

This event is presented by Osgoode Hall Law School and the York Centre for Asian Research.

What has been left behind in the global rush to put the science of AI to work is the ethics of AI. We need to work together, within the university and beyond, to lay the groundwork for closing the gap between AI science and ethics, locally, nationally, and globally. Tackling the complex challenge of the ethics of AI requires an all-hands-on-deck effort that draws on the combined brain power and analytic tools of a global community of experts and scholars from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds.

To help facilitate the much needed broadly-framed conversation about the ethics of AI, the Centre for Ethics launched Ethics of AI Lab, beginning with an interdisciplinary workshop series and a cross-divisional graduate course. Relatedly, the Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI (forthcoming in late 2019) aims to lay the foundation for the emerging field of Ethics of AI as an inclusive and diverse enterprise. Edited by two Ethics of AI Lab members (Markus Dubber, Sunit Das) and a leading scholar in the field (Frank Pasquale, University of Maryland), the Handbook will be an interdisciplinary and international collection designed to capture and shape research and reflection on normative frameworks for the production, application, and use of artificial intelligence in all spheres of individual, commercial, social, and public life. The Handbook’s underlying conception of its subject matter will be reflected in its roster of contributors, which will include some fifty authors from several continents, ranging from current to future research leaders and representing a variety of methodological approaches, areas of expertise, and research agendas. Its content will be similarly wide and diverse in scope and substance, covering a range of perspectives, topics, and applications.

The workshop on March 1-2, 2019, brings together selected Handbook contributors to present and discuss their work-in-progress:

Friday, March 1
9-10 Judith Donath, Berkman Center, Harvard University: “Ethics of AI in Context: Society & Culture”
10-11 Tom Slee, SAP: “Private Sector AI: Ethics and Incentives”
11-12 John Basl, Philosophy, Northeastern University: “The Rights of Artificial Intelligences”
12-1 Jason Millar, Engineering & Computer Science, University of Ottawa: “Perspectives on Ethics of AI: Engineering”
1-2 Break
2-3 Anton Korinek, Economics, University of Virginia: “Perspectives on Ethics of AI: Economics”
3-4 Avery Slater, English, University of Toronto: “Automating Origination: Perspectives from the Humanities”
4-5 Jason Jackson, Urban Studies & Planning, MIT: “Perspectives on Ethics of AI: Political Economy”

Saturday, March 2
9-10 Kiel Brennan-Marquez, Law, University of Connecticut: “Public Law & Policy: Notice, Predictability, and Due Process”
10-11 Ellen Goodman, Law, Rutgers University-Camden: “Smart City Ethics”
11-12 Ifeoma Ajunwa, Industrial & Labor Relations, Cornell University: “Algorithms and the Social Organization of Work”

☛ please click here to register for Day 1 (March 1)
☛ please click here to register for Day 2 (March 2)

co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation, University of Toronto

Vivian and David Campbell Conference Facility 
1 Devonshire Place 

Theorizing Densification: Balancing Self-Determination and Exclusion in the Housing Market

Facing increasingly severe housing shortages, cities like San Francisco and Toronto are struggling to balance the need for more housing against the desires of current residents to maintain neighbourhood stability. Normative scholarship examining these conflicting considerations tends to focus on gentrification and the harms of residential displacement. This paper draws upon utopian theory to frame this challenge in terms of the tension between the utopias of the self-regulating free market and the self-determining community. A revised version of Nozick’s “framework for utopia” that takes into account the egalitarian critique is then developed. This revised framework establishes that communities should be able to exercise substantial self-determination over density regulations with compensation paid to offset the externalities resulting from any restrictions imposed. This approach could be extended to other issue areas where the exercise of community self-determination has harmful exclusionary consequences, such as immigration policy.

☛ please register here

Thilo Schaefer
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
Doctoral Fellow

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

☛ please register here

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

On Private Discrimination

On what basis, if any, may owners of small businesses discriminate against customers or their requests? In particular, should these vendors enjoy a right to refuse to manifest beliefs that they do not hold? And, if so, what are the contours of this right? On the one hand, there are those who deny that private discrimination of this kind is ever permissible; on the other hand, there are those who maintain that it is always permissible. Perhaps predictably, my view occupies a position in between these two extremes: small vendors should enjoy a prerogative to discriminate against customers and their requests, but this prerogative is restricted. My defence of this claim comes in two parts. First, I explain why owners of small businesses should enjoy such a prerogative to discriminate. Second, I set out three ways in which we should restrict the prerogative.

☛ please register here

Tom Parr
University of Essex
Department of Government

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

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor

In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and working-class people in America. The book is full of heart-wrenching and eye-opening stories, from a woman in Indiana whose benefits are literally cut off as she lays dying to a family in Pennsylvania in daily fear of losing their daughter because they fit a certain statistical profile. “This book is downright scary,” says Naomi Klein, “but with its striking research and moving, indelible portraits of life in the ‘digital poorhouse,’ you will emerge smarter and more empowered to demand justice.”

☛ please register here

Virginia Eubanks
SUNY Albany
Political Science

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

Registration for U of T’s 2019 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD) Conference, hosted at Hart House, is now open.

IDERD is observed annually on March 21. The United Nations proclaimed this day in 1966 to honour the 69 lives lost at a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid “pass laws” in Sharpeville, South Africa, in 1960.

The University of Toronto hosts the IDERD Conference to reaffirm its commitment to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion, and its continuing efforts to address discrimination and racism across our three campuses. It aims to bring together stakeholders and participants not only from U of T, but as well as other post-secondary institutions which are committed to anti-racism work.

The theme of this year’s event is Why anti-racism work still matters within learning communities and beyond. Please visit the event registration page for more information about the day’s activities.

Also, the U of T IDERD Recognition Awards nominations period has been extended until Monday, February 25, 2019. Please take time to recognize a student, faculty or staff member who has worked to advance anti-racism and create an equitable community. Award winners will be celebrated at the IDERD Conference.

This year’s event is co-hosted by the Office of the Vice-President, Human Resources & Equity and the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office, in partnership with Hart House.

Please contact antiracism@utoronto.ca if you have questions or require accommodation.

Law Student Writing Awards Program 2019

Submission Deadline: June 14, 2019

Celebrating 15 years! The Insolvency Institute of Canada (IIC) is proud to announce that the 2019 Law Student Writing Awards program is now open. This marks the 15^th Anniversary of the award program which seeks to engage undergraduate law students in the practice of corporate insolvency and restructuring. Students have the opportunity to submit their proposals for reform to the business and legal community of which they are about to enter.

2019 Award Program

First, second and third prizes of $7,500, $5,000 and $2,500 will be awarded.

In addition, both the faculty sponsor and the first place award winner will be invited guests at the IIC’s annual conference being held October 24-27, 2019 at the Ritz Carleton in Naples, Florida. This includes accommodation, meals and travel costs. If a co-authored paper is judged a winner, the division of the prize and the reimbursed travel costs for the first place winner will be entirely at the discretion of the winners.

For your convenience, details of the program and the entry form are attached in English and French.

Information is also available on the IIC website at http://www.insolvency.ca/en/whatwedo/lawstudentwritingawardsprogram.asp

The IIC is Canada’s premier private sector insolvency organization. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of excellence and thought leadership in commercial insolvency and restructuring policy and practice in Canada. Members of the IIC are drawn from the most senior and experienced members of the insolvency community in Canada. For more information, please visit www.insolvency.ca.

iic_2019_lawawards_brochureform_en.pdf

The Christine Huglo Robertson Essay Prize for Law Students
The Christine Huglo Robertson Essay Prize is offered by the Canadian Institute for the administration of Justice (CIAJ) and is open to students registered for an undergraduate degree (J.D., LL.B. or B.C.L.) at a Faculty of Law at a Canadian university.

The winner will receive a stipend of $1,000 and will be invited to CIAJ’s 44^th Annual Conference to be held in Quebec City from October 16 to 18, 2019. The paper may also be presented on that occasion. CIAJ will provide to the recipient: travel, accommodation and registration to the conference.

Deadline
Submissions must be received by e-mail at ciaj@ciaj-icaj.cano later than Friday, June 14, 2019.

Details: https://ciaj-icaj.ca/en/prizes-and-awards/chr-essay-prize/