Public inquiries play a critical role in investigating subjects of public concern and recommending solutions. These ad hoc bodies have addressed such diverse subjects as wrongful convictions, healthcare failings, systemic issues experienced by Indigenous Peoples, public safety incidents, infrastructure failures, and political corruption.
Led by two former commission counsel, this seminar introduces students to the unique features of public inquiries. By studying the lifecycle of a typical inquiry, participants will learn how these bodies create and adapt their own rules of evidence and procedure, apply inquisitorial and collaborative approaches to evidence-gathering, and formulate forward-looking recommendations. This chronological introduction to public inquiries will also highlight the social justice considerations that exist at every stage, from funding and standing for marginalized groups to the enforceability of recommendations once an inquiry concludes. In addition, particular attention will be paid to the responsibilities of commission counsel as investigators tasked with collecting evidence in the field and presenting it impartially. The course will ultimately situate public inquiries in relation to traditional court processes (including the prospect of judicial review and parallel civil or criminal proceedings).
This seminar promotes critical reflection about conventional forms of fact-finding and dispute resolution. Beyond learning how public inquiries work, students will contrast the inquisitorial and forward-looking nature of inquires with the court-based processes they have studied to date.
Course or Seminar Category: Constitutional and Administrative Law
Constitutional Litigation
This is a fun course with equal emphasis on both oral and written advocacy. Debate, questions, brainstorming and discourse are encouraged.
Students will experience the steps of a constitutional case, from the initial claim, to arguing a preliminary motion and culminating in a final factum and moot before a panel of judges with students receiving both oral and written feedback throughout.
We will focus on a substantive area of constitutional law (such as, for example, freedom of expression, equality rights or division of powers) as well as questions of procedure and evidence. A key focus is on the importance of remedies as an initial consideration, not as an afterthought.
The seminar also involves working through problems in small groups and presenting positions in class.
Seminar topics are designed to be in service of the final moot and factum. Topics typically include: the role of the courts in constitutional litigation; commencing a constitutional case; drafting pleadings; what is government action under s. 32 of the Charter; standing; selecting the appropriate court and procedure; mootness, interventions; injunctions, the role of the Attorney General; evidence in constitutional cases; proving constitutional facts; the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits; presentation and assessment of social science data in the adversarial system; drafting constitutional arguments and presenting them effectively; oral advocacy; the importance of remedies for constitutional infringements; litigation strategies for public interest groups and case studies.
Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal
The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal publishes peer reviewed scholarly works, book reviews, and recent development dispatches, focusing on comparative and international labour law issues. Students enrolled in this seminar may receive credit to the value of four credit hours each academic year and not more than eight credit hours in total. Students must enroll in the Journal for at least two semesters in order to earn credit. Meetings are generally held every other week throughout the fall and winter semesters.
Regulatory Offences
In this seminar students will learn the substantive and procedural aspects of regulatory offences, or public welfare or quasi-criminal offences as they are sometimes called. The course has a practical focus, examining matters that arise before courts, administrative tribunals, regulators and law enforcement agencies. Seminar topics will include: the classification of regulatory offences, evidence gathering techniques, the application of the Charter of Rights, and the unique nature of strict liability prosecutions, including the operation of the due diligence defence. Sentencing considerations and proposals for reform will be canvassed as well.
Health Law
This seminar explores the dynamic and challenging field of health law, with a focus on practical issues. The course provides a survey of the legal framework and policy considerations underlying the cornerstone areas of health law, including: consent, capacity and substitute decision-making; mental health law; professional regulation and governance; medical malpractice; and health information privacy. Practical and topical issues will be explored in the areas of: elder law (issues in long-term care facilities, retirement homes); the law of medical assistance in dying in Canada; human rights in health care; hospitals and health care facilities (including physician privileges, employment issues and tensions between administrators, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders); the civil commitment system; reproductive health and surrogacy; and governance of health care and corporate health issues.
Typical seminars will cover substantive law including case law and statutes, as well as policy issues and examples of applications in practice. Students are expected to actively participate via class discussion and a class presentation. Guest speakers will provide unique perspectives on particular topics. Students will be asked to attend (in person or through electronic means) a hearing in the health law field and to reflect on that proceeding in a midterm written paper, and to explore and analyze an issue in health law through a major research paper. Through readings, class discussion and assignments, students will gain a foundation for a dedicated health law practice and an analytical framework for addressing health law issues as they arise in other practice areas.
Constitutional Litigation
In this seminar, students explore the adjudication process in constitutional litigation, consider questions of procedure, proof and remedies and discuss effective preparation of and advocacy in constitutional cases. Seminar topics will include: the role of the courts in constitutional litigation; commencing a constitutional case, drafting pleadings, government action under s.32 of the Charter, standing, crown defendants, choice of venue, remedies, evidence in constitutional cases, the role of experts and drafting effective affidavits, discovery of governments, and interlocutory relief.
Taxation Law
This is not an accounting course. Neither is it a course singularly concerned with public finance. While income tax law is unavoidably concerned with public finance and tax accounting, there is so much more to it. The determinations of what is “income”, who is a “taxpayer”, which taxpayers pay which rates of income tax and the scope of tax deductions / credits carry profound socioeconomic implications. This course provides an introductory survey of income tax taking up the policy and technical dimensions of income tax with a central emphasis on the taxation of individuals. The course imparts knowledge relevant to core income tax concepts, financial literacy, recurring political debates (which often involve questions of taxation) and strategies for working within a complex statute.
The material for this course will be delivered in an lecture format. All assigned readings will be supplemented by detailed PowerPoint materials. These materials are not cryptic bullet point summaries of the readings. Instead, they are carefully prepared to bring greater context, organization and coherent explanation to assigned readings. All PowerPoint materials follow a disciplined, consistent and orderly format, breaking materials down by topic and sub-topic. The verbally delivered lecture content tracks very closely with the PowerPoint materials, adding further explanation, context and debate to these materials. If students scrutinize the readings, digest the supplementary PowerPoint materials and participate in lectures, they will be equipped to succeed in the course.
Securities Regulation
This is a four hour course that focuses on foundational and detailed coverage of the Ontario Securities Act, with the goals of both ensuring good understanding of the most important requirements of securities law, as well as the underlying policy objectives that those rules are intended to achieve. There will be reference to other provincial or international regulation where appropriate for comparison. Included in the detailed coverage are the definitions of key securities regulatory concepts such as “security”, “trade”, and “distribution”; requirements for primary and secondary distribution of securities; prospectus disclosure; exemptions and resale rules as well as recent changes here; continuous and timely disclosure obligations with particular reference to prohibitions on insider trading; mergers and acquisitions with particular reference to takeover bid legislation; primary and secondary market civil liability; enforcement law and policy.
Legal Governance of Health Care
This course surveys constitutional, statutory, and common law frameworks governing health care delivery in Canada. Topics covered will include: the nature of health law as a distinctive field of study and practice; social determinants of health and special concerns faced by marginalized populations; provincial and federal jurisdiction over health; the Canadian medicare system; constitutional rights to health; Indigenous health; regulation of health professions; medical negligence law; informed consent; capacity for healthcare decision-making; mental health law; human reproduction; and medical assistance in dying. Lectures and evaluations will emphasize the development of students’ independent critical thinking skills as applied to problems raised in health law, bioethics, and the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence in health care delivery.
Law & Social Change: The Law Commission of Ontario Workshop – Approaches to Law Reform
The Law Commission of Ontario Workshop – Approaches to Law Reform explores “law reform” as a distinct field of legal expertise, advocacy, and strategy. Each class is led by one or more expert practitioners experienced in developing and directing different approaches to law reform. Students will work with the practitioners and course instructors from the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) to develop their own concrete, sophisticated, and actionable law reform proposal.
Students are free to develop their own law reform proposal. For example, a proposal may explore an issue like:
·Foreign election interference
·Politicization of Ontario’s process for appointing judges
·Youth safety online
·Workplace surveillance
·Expanded Gladue Reports and Impact of Race and Culture Assessments in criminal courts
·Rolling stops for cyclists
·Online content creator rights and protections
·Commercialization of space and lunar exploration
·Regulating “deep fake” images, audio and video used to harass, extort, defame, etc
·Regulating AI in civil and criminal courts, health care, policing, etc.
·Defining a set of AI prohibitions (such as mass real-time biometric surveillance).
Students who complete the course will gain a practical, hands-on understanding of how:
·“Law reform” engages a sophisticated mix of social, political, economic, and legal considerations, as well as community coalition building, media messaging, and others.
·Lobbyists and political staff participate in law reform and are regulated.
·Government ministries and the legislature develop laws, respond to test case litigation, and respond to court-ordered law reform.
·Cutting-edge law reform is happening in Indigenous law and in response to artificial intelligence.
·Think tanks, non-governmental organizations, single-issue proponents, and public interest advocates engage politicians with “early signals” and the need for law reform.