Dear students, staff and faculty:

I’m writing to tell you about my enthusiasm for an innovative access to justice campaign called Flip Your Wig for Justice, and to let you know how the campaign will unfold at the Faculty over the next several weeks. Our Faculty’s Flip Your Wig Student Ambassador is Claudia Pedrero (claudia.pedrero@mail.utoronto.ca ) and along with Matthew Tweedy, Aron Nimani and Madchen Funk, she will be spearheading activities at our faculty. 

Flip Your Wig for Justice was launched last year by six organizations that provide legal services and support to vulnerable Ontarians. Flip Your Wig plays on the image of the traditional barrister’s wig, and the idea that we are flipping our wigs in frustration over the state of access to justice. The organizations behind this creative campaign are the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Ontario Justice Education Network, METRAC: Action on Violence, Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, Community Legal Education Ontario, and our very own Pro Bono Students Canada.

Flip Your Wig has three principal goals: (1) to educate the legal profession about the crisis in access to justice in Canada; (2) to celebrate the work of law students, lawyers and judges who are working to respond to the crisis; and (3) to support these six justice agencies so they can maintain and expand their services.  More information can be found at www.flipyourwigforjustice.ca. As you will see, over 120 prominent members of our profession, including a former Prime Minister, sitting and retired judges including former Supreme Court justices, and leading members of the bar have signed on as Ambassadors for the campaign.

U of T has a Faculty fundraising team, and will be engaging in a friendly competition with the other Ontario law schools to be the top law school fundraiser. If you are interested in joining U of T’s team, sign up at:

http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=585567&langPref=en-CA&Referrer=%26Referrer%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww.flipyourwigforjustice.ca%252f

You don’t need to fundraise to engage with this innovative campaign. There are a number of activities taking place over the next several weeks:

• Display Your Toupee: Come by Birge Carnegie on Thursday, February 5 from 12:30-2:00 to have your photo taken from an array of wacky wigs, and post them using the hashtag #FlipYourWig;
• Access to Justice Simulation: On Monday, February 9 from 12:30-2:00 staff from the Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN) will be leading a fascinating and thought-provoking role-play exercise that will allow participants to understand how difficult it can be to access legal services;
• The Mane Event: February 26 is the culminating day for the Flip Your Wig campaign. Grab your wig for a Faculty photo of all Flip Your Wig participants, location TBD;
• Flip Your Wig Pub Night: To celebrate the close of the campaign, U of T and Osgoode students along with the Flip Your Wig organizations are hosting pub night for lawyers and law students at Fionn MacCool’s, 181 University Ave.  The party will feature live music from the law cover band, The Fail Safes; 
• You can also “Like” U of T’s Flip Your Wig Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/flipyourwiguoft) and the broader FYW Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FlipYourWigforJustice), and follow Flip Your Wig’s Twitter handle (@flipwig).

Please join me and other members of the legal community in flipping our wigs to support these worthy organizations, and to raise awareness for this important cause.

Best,

Ed Iacobucci

Health Law, Ethics & Policy Seminar Series 

presents 

Michael L. Perlin, Professor
Director, International Mental Disability Law Program
New York Law School 

All His Sexless Patients:  Persons with Mental Disabilities and the
Competence to Have Sex

Commentator:
Sophie Nunnelley, Lawyer and SJD Candidate
Faculty of Law University of Toronto 

12:30 – 2:00
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Solarium (room FA2) – Falconer Hall - 84 Queen’s Park 

With the growth in the field of mental disability law over the past 50 years, very few topics involving persons with mental illness remain taboo or off limits to scholars and judges who face these issues daily. However, discussions of the question of whether persons with mental disabilities have a right to voluntary sexual interaction often touches a raw nerve in conversations about mental disability law, even with those who are practicing in the field, and the discomfort people feel in examining this topic is exacerbated when discussing individuals who are institutionalized.  Although this often appears to be a difficult subject to raise, even among those familiar and comfortable with other aspects of mental disability, it is one that must be raised. Dignity concerns and rights violations will occur if there is not a full understanding of the importance of the ability for persons with mental illness to practice free sexual expression. There has been some literature that begins to discuss this and to delve into the intricacies of the subject. Much of this literature presumes that the "subjects" of these papers -- those with mental illness who are institutionalized -- are incompetent. The discussions therefore only address ability to engage in sexual activities from the perspective of an incompetent, institutionalized adult. In this presentation, I broaden the scope of these examinations, and rather than presume incompetency, deal directly with the very likely situation of a competent, mentally ill person wishing to engage in sexual activity. I examine legal competency, as well as the difficulties encountered when one begins to use different measures of "competency" for different tasks or activities. I explore the attitudes that surround this type of discourse, and their impact on advancing the rights of persons with mental illness, while seeking to answer the following questions:

* in this area of law and policy, is there any unitary definition of competence?
* are there certain factors that must be considered in determining "sexual competence,"
* how does domestic law and policy relate to issues of sexual competence, and does it impact how we should approach these issues? and
* what are the international human rights law and therapeutic jurisprudence implications of the answers to these questions. 

Michael L. Perlin is Professor of Law Emeritus at New York Law School (NYLS), founding director of NYLS's Online Mental Disability Law Program, and founding director of NYLS's International Mental Disability Law Reform Project in its Justice Action Center. He has written 23 books and nearly 300 articles on all aspects of mental disability law. His most recent books are International Human Rights and Mental Disability Law: When the Silenced are Heard (Oxford University Press, 2011), Mental Disability and the Death Penalty: The Shame of the States (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), and A Prescription for Dignity: Rethinking Criminal Justice and Mental Disability Law (Ashgate, 2013). He is currently working on two new books: one on sex offender law and policy with NYLS Adjunct Professor Heather Ellis Cucolo and one on sexuality, mental disability law, and therapeutic jurisprudence with Alison J. Lynch, a disability rights lawyer in New York City.    

For more information about this workshop, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.

perlin-headnotes_29jan15tl.pdf

NEW COLLEGE RESIDENCE DONSHIPS FOR 2015-2016

New College is looking for several dynamic individuals to join our team of Residence Dons for the 2015/16 academic year.  Applicants should be graduate students, second-degree students, or undergraduate students who have completed at least 3 years of full time study and can demonstrate significant leadership experience and maturity.

This exciting and challenging position requires individuals who will act as responsible community leaders and role models while offering personal and academic support, guidance, and mentorship to individual undergraduate students.  This is a demanding role that requires the successful applicants to play an active part in a busy and vibrant community. Dons are a part of a rotational on-call schedule, for 3 residence buildings housing approximately 880 undergraduate students.  The Don position is a “live-in” role that requires Dons to maintain a visible presence in their community, respond to emergencies, and provide ongoing support to students as required.

Successful candidates will receive comprehensive training and gain practical experience in conflict resolution, para-counselling, community building, and leadership.  In return for their services Dons are provided with a self-contained suite suitable for single accommodation and a full meal plan for the residence year (mid-August to the end of April).

New College is particularly interested in receiving applications from candidates with experience in organizing or participating in extracurricular or co-curricular clubs, course unions, or student societies and who would enjoy sharing these interests with a group of undergraduate students.

New College houses students from all faculties within the university; therefore we seek to recruit Dons from a wide variety of disciplines.  Don applicants must be enrolled for the 2015-2016 academic session. All undergraduate applicants must hold a CGPA of 2.5 or higher.

Application forms are available online or from the Office of Residence and Student Life (ORSL)

Wilson Hall Lounge, New College, 40 Willcocks Street

Telephone:  416.978.8875

Fax:  416.971.3072

E-mail:  new.residence@utoronto.ca

Website: www.newcollege.utoronto.ca/current-students/residence-at-new-college/current-residents/living-at-new-college/residence-life/dons-in-residence/donships/

Completed applications (including application form, statement of interest and experience, resumé, photocopy of transcript, 1 letter of reference from a former employer or volunteer supervisor, and contact information for 1 additional phone reference) should be submitted on or before Friday, February 6th, 2015 @ 9:00am.

Applicants invited to attend an interview will be notified by email on Monday, February 9th and must be available for a short initial interview on Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 or Thursday, February 12th, 2015.  Following the initial interview, a number of candidates will be invited to attend a second, more in-depth interview to be held on either Wednesday, February 25th, 2015 or Saturday, February 28th, 2015.

Full Interviews must be attended in person. 

We thank all applicants for their interest and wish to clarify that only those candidates considered for an interview will be contacted.