Relive your student days and join some of Law’s most noted faculty members for short lectures on their areas of specialty. We invite you to immerse yourself in the Law School experience through this exciting showcase that is open to all alumni.
Enjoy light refreshments in the atrium, be escorted through the building by students who will share more with you about their experiences at one of Canada’s leading law schools, and along the way, join the law lectures of your choice, followed by stimulating question and answer sessions.
We are committed to inclusivity and accessibility. The law school building is fully accessible, with elevator access to each floor, automatic doors, and accessibility-enabled washrooms. See building accessibility details.
Speakers
Dr. Debra M Haak
Talk Title:
Is a Legal Market for Sex Constitutionally Required in Canada?
Description:
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada declared three criminal offences targeting adult prostitution unconstitutional. In 2014, the government responded with The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, a new legislative scheme making prostitution itself unlawful for the first time in Canada. To date, new offence provisions have been subjected to at least nine constitutional challenges. Two courts of appeal have upheld new laws as constitutional. However, the Supreme Court of Canada has yet to decide whether offence provisions aimed at reducing or eliminating the commercial market for sex violate sex workers’ Charter rights. Their eventual decision will reveal important insights about whether it is constitutional in Canada to limit autonomy to respond to inequality. Professor Haak will discuss the interests, rights, and values at stake in these cases.
Nicholas C. Bala
Talk Title:
Is Parental Alienation Junk Science or Child Abuse?
Controversies in Sociolegal Research and Cancel Culture
Description:
The National Association of Women & the Law (NAWL) claims that parental alienation (children resisting post-separation contact with a parent due to the influence of the other parent), is based on “junk science” and seeks to prohibit its use in family court, but some fathers’ rights advocates seek to have it recognized as a form of child abuse. Prof. Bala suggests parental alienation is a valid concept being properly used by Canadian courts, but his research is controversial and has led to calls for his being “cancelled.”
Lisa M. Kelly
Talk Title:
The YCJA at Twenty: Mass Decarceration and its Limits
Description:
Over the past two decades, Canada’s youth criminal system has radically contracted. At its carceral apex in the 1990s, Canada was detaining, charging, convicting, and sentencing thousands of young people to custody each year, often for relatively minor offences. In many instances, courts were imposing custodial sentences as a substitute for child welfare provisions and inadequate social supports. Since passing the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003, the youth charge rate in Canada has decreased by 78 percent; youth court cases have declined by 81 percent; the number of youths in detention has decreased by 77 percent; and, youth custodial sentences have decreased by a staggering 95 percent. On the twentieth anniversary of the YCJA, Professor Kelly will discuss this remarkable story of decarceration, the ways that legislative change helped to produce it, and the remaining sites of punitive inequality that demand our attention.
