Animal Law:Alanna Devine Bites Back - McGill …publications.mcgill.ca/droit/files/2010/02/Law...Yaw...

Facultyof LawFall 2009

Facultéde DroitAutomne 2009

Pleins feux sur les études supérieures

Field Notes from Bountiful, B.C.

Nicholas Kasirer complète sonextraordinaire décanat

Le droit dans la communauté

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Outreach Program Brings Law to Life (and Life to Law)

Animal Law: Alanna Devine Bites Back

Law in the Community

Rédactrice en chefLaurel Baker

Editorial Advisory BoardDaniel Jutras

Nicholas KasirerToby Moneit-Hockenstein

Melissa PoueymirouJennifer Towell

Shauna Van Praagh

DesignerGerry L’Orange

Editors and CopyeditorsVéronique Bélanger

Diana Grier AytonLysanne LaroseCharmaine Lyn

Susan MurleyMelissa PoueymirouGeneviève Saumier

CollaborateursLaurel Baker

Lainie BasmanSarah Berger Richardson

Angela CampbellMaureen DuffyMahmud Jamal

Daniel JutrasNicholas KasirerLysanne Larose

Roderick MacdonaldMaria Marcheschi

Thomas McMorrowDorian NeedhamYaw Nyampong

Maria TurnerMarie-Christine Valois

Pascal Zamprelli

PhotographersFrançois BrunelleClaudio Calligaris

Marc CramerOwen Egan

Rachel GranofskyJack Malric, JEM Photography

John Morstad

Communiquez avec nousKeep in touch

Send your story ideas and AlumNotes to

Laurel Baker, inFocus [email protected] (514) 398-3424

Fax (514) 398-4659

Send your change of address to

Gina Sebastiao, Development Coordinator

[email protected] (514) 398-3679

Fax (514) 398-4659

inFocus is published byThe Faculty of Law’s Development Office

Faculty of Law, McGill University3644 Peel Street

Montreal QC H3A 1W9www.mcgill.ca/law

In the fall of 1984, Daniel Jutras, ayoung gold medalist in law from theUniversity of Montreal, gold medalist at the Quebec Bar Admission course, former law clerk to Mr. Justice AntonioLamer, and holder of the Frank KnoxFellowship while pursuing an LLM atHarvard, came to McGill on a recruit-ment visit. At his faculty presentation,he spoke to his Master’s thesis on crimi-nal law; by the end of the day he hadconvinced his soon-to-be colleagues notonly of his brilliance in that field, but ofhis potential to excel in the field of civillaw obligations and private law moregenerally.

Ainsi, depuis 25 ans, Daniel Jutras enseigne le droit, mène des projets derecherche et publie dans plusieurs domaines, tout en passant une année à la Faculté de droit de l’Université deToronto, pilotant le programme trans-systémique vers son adoption par le conseil de la Faculté, et agissant comme

conseiller principal de la juge en chefBeverley McLachlin pendant deux ans,alors qu’il occupait le poste d’adjointexécutif juridique.

Professor Jutras has participated inmany scholarly, bar association and judi-cial conferences across Canada and internationally, always bringing a deeplegal culture, acute analysis and wry humour to his presentations. The epit-ome of a teacher, scholar and academic administrator for our collective aspira-tions, he is a respected and cherishedcolleague who has given of himself unstintingly to others.

Nous nous réjouissons de sa nominationcomme doyen intérimaire et nous som-mes convaincus que la Faculté continue-ra à s’épanouir pendant son décanat. ]

Professor Roderick A. Macdonald, F.R. Scott Professor of Constitutional

and Public Law

Daniel Jutras namedInterim Dean of LawOn July 1, Professor Daniel Jutras took up the position

of Interim Dean of McGill’s Faculty of Law

Our paper.As you read this, thepaper under your thumb mayfeel a little different. It is. Asthe University enters the thirdyear of its largest fundraisingdrive ever – Campaign McGill –we’ve chosen to make some changes to better reflect our goals and ambi-tions. This magazine – printed on FSC-certified, 100% processed chlorine free, 100% post-consumer recycledfibre – is just one step in that direction.We chose offset (non-glossy) paper toavoid petroleum-based coatings and

a high-energy drying process.The weight of the inside pagesis the same as the weight of thecover, so that the entire issuecan be printed in a single passon the press – saving half the

energy of a typical two-stocks printrun. This issue was printed by Pazazz,the only Quebec-based printer with a56" KBA six-colour UV press. UV ink is100% free of hazardous airborne parti-cles and volatile organic compounds,making it by far the most environmen-tally-friendly ink on the market today.

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FACULTÉ DE DROIT AUTOMNE 2009 1

For the past two decades,pictures of distinguishedalumni have hung on thewalls of Chancellor DayHall. Lawyers, notaries,journalists, judges, profes-sors of law, business people,community organizers, philanthropists, humanrights activists, politicians –all of them united by a con-

nection to this great Faculty of Law, of course, but alsoby their deep desire to make a diΩerence in the world.I remember walking down the hall on my way to class25 years ago, struggling with my new identity as a “professor of law” – both intimidated and inspired bythis institution’s long history of civic commitment. I imagine that many of you, struggling with your newidentity as law students, also gazed at these pictureson the wall, and wondered: “What about me? Will Ileave something behind when all is said and done? Will I have made things better around me?” Today, the answer to those questions is obvious. This Faculty and its alumni continue to be agents of change in achanging world.

The theme for this issue is In the Community. It high-lights the Faculty of Law’s persistent and positive influence at home and around the world. This influ-ence can be seen in the work of our students, graduatestudies, faculty and alumni – all four groups that makeup the Faculty of Law’s own community. Together ourcollective accomplishments are much too numerous tolist in one issue of our alumni magazine, so we havesought to highlight the great work of a few select indi-viduals in each of these groups, who share a determina-tion to use their legal education to make the world abetter place. The stories featured here, and the storiesof your own lives as leaders in your respective commu-nities, give meaning to the labours of present-day students and professors who wrestle with beneficialownership, interjurisdictional immunity, and forum nonconveniens. >

As my term as Dean draws to aclose, I wish to record that thishas been the happiest time of myprofessional life and to say thankyou to our great University. I willmiss the wonderful tumult of lifein the Dean’s o≈ce. But I am fullof hope for McGill University andits fabled Faculty of Law as mydear friend and colleague DanielJutras moves into the Dean’s

O≈ce. Known as a pre-eminent scholar in comparative law,Dean Jutras will light up the Faculty with his infectious energy, his sharp mind and his delightful demeanour. A trueMcGill citizen, Daniel Jutras has helped the Faculty thrivesince he began teaching. But as Dean, nothing will pleasehim more than to learn more about our “community,” thefeatured theme of this issue, and in particular the generousgraduates of the Faculty who, for me, have turned “commu-nity” into “family.”

Le groupe des anciens est le coeur même de notre commu-nauté. Year after year, promotion après promotion, our grad-uates prove to be community-minded in a range of activitiesthey take on alongside their professional work. Perhaps noone stands for McGill’s generosity better than RichardPound, BCL’67, who, after ten years in o≈ce as our Chancel-lor presided over his last Law convocation in May. Un athlèteremarquable en natation, son sport préféré, Me Pound s’estimpliqué dans la promotion du sport amateur au Canada et à l’international. Mais c’est à l’Université McGill que MePound a fait preuve d’une générosité qui ne peut que servirde modèle.

It is in this spirit that, years ago, our Faculty Advisory Boardcreated the James A. Robb Award for Extraordinary Volun-teer Service to the Faculty of Law. Every year, much likeMcGill’s energetic volunteer Jim Robb, BA’51, BCL’54,dozens of law graduates step up to oΩer their precious timeto endeavours ranging from mooting to career counselling,from taking up roles in University governance to helpingMcGill raise money for its bilingual, transsystemic mission inlaw teaching. This year two graduates were so honoured.Brian Pel, LLB’84, has been the go-to person for generationsof editorial boards of the McGill Law Journal. Along the >

Message from Nicholas Kasirer,Dean of Law fromNovember 2003 to May 2009

Message fromDaniel Jutras,Interim Dean

2 FACULTY OF LAW AUTUMN 2009

Sur les murs de la Faculté, un coin spécial est réservé auxportraits des anciens doyens. Nous accrocherons bientôtsur ce mur celui du professeur Nicholas Kasirer, qui a ter-miné en juin dernier un extraordinaire décanat. Les pagesde ce magazine ont attesté au fil des ans du formidableleadership qu’il a exercé sur nous tous, et des innom-brables succès dont il est responsable. Sous sa gouverne, la Faculté s’est enracinée au Québec en même tempsqu’elle a déployé toute sa vigueur cosmopolite. La richehistoire de la Faculté est devenue la trame sur laquelle seconstitue une conception distinctive de l’enseignementdu droit. Le doyen Kasirer a eu l’audace d’imaginer ledroit comme une discipline fondamentale et prioritaireau sein de l’Université, clarifiant du même coup la missionde cette Faculté : former des juristes à la mesure des défisde ce nouveau siècle, certes ; mais surtout, former descitoyens qui pensent et qui agissent. Pendant plus de cinqans, son caractère, sa personnalité, sa vision ont été lesnôtres. Nicholas Kasirer est ra≈né, créatif, original, in-fatigable, branché et formidablement éloquent dans lesdeux langues et les deux cultures. La Faculté s’est définie àpartir de ces qualités tout au long de son mandat.

And so, like Dean Kasirer, the Faculty is now somewhatlarger than life. It exudes energy, creativity and confi-dence. It is committed to intellectual refinement and social relevance. This is the new soul of McGill’s Facultyof Law – the heritage of Nicholas Kasirer’s deanship. As the University committee continues its work to find aworthy successor for Nicholas, my colleagues and I willput every ounce of our energy toward keeping the Facultymoving forward and sustaining this renewed momentum,this vitality that we all can feel. ]

Daniel JutrasInterim Dean / Doyen par intérim

Dans les derniers jours avant la mise sous pressede ce numéro, nous avons appris avec tristesse le décès deCharles Doherty Gonthier BCL ’51, LLD ’90. La carrièrede cet homme épris de justice sert de modèle pour ceux etcelles qui veulent mettre en œuvre dans la communautél’idée de fraternité qu’il a défendue avec autant de passion(lisez l’hommage à sa mémoire en page 37).

way Brian helped successive deans raise money and raise the profile of the Toronto graduate community for which heserves as chair of the McGill Toronto Advisory Board. InJune, James Grant, BA’58, BCL’61, was honoured for hisservice on the Faculty Advisory Board of which, some 25years ago, he was an original member. At a moving ceremony,his old friend and partner Senator David Angus, BCL’62,paid tribute to Jim Grant as an unselfish man who sought to“aim high, be loyal, and make everyone better.” Jim Granthelped Deans Durnford, Brierley, Macdonald, Morissette,Toope and Leuprecht, and within days of my appointment,was in the Dean’s o≈ce with his sleeves rolled up and a planto raise millions of dollars for McGill. David Angus himselfknows a thing or two about making the McGill communityshine: he has served as Chair of the McGill UniversityHealth Centre Foundation, and as recently as this fall spentan afternoon with law students, alongside fellow senator andindefatigable McGill volunteer the Hon. Yoine Goldstein,BA’55, BCL’58, speaking about the virtues of public service.

À la Faculté, la bonne action chez les diplômés commencetôt. Nous avons le bonheur de compter dans nos rangs d’anciens au parcours remarquable, les membres du « Conseilconsultatif de jeunes diplômés ». Formé il y a dix ans déjà, le comité a créé un prix pour rendre hommage à un jeunediplômé qui se distingue par son action de bénévole et, toutnaturellement, il a décidé de nommer le Prix Charles D.Gonthier en l’honneur de celui qui se consacre à l’avance-ment des jeunes juristes de la Faculté. Que le premier « Gonthier » soit présenté par le juge Gonthier lui-même à Dominique Lapierre, BCL’98, LLB’98, est particulièrementopportun. Dominique est une des fondatrices du YoungAlumni Advisory Board et a fait preuve, parfois dans la plusgrande discrétion, d’un grand dévouement à l’essor de la Faculté.

In leaving the deanship, please allow me to applaud one veryspecial volunteer. When we needed a chair of the Faculty Advisory Board, I immediately thought of James Woods,BA’70, BCL’73, LLB’74. He lectured me in civil proceduremany years before and, since that time, I have seen him sup-port dozens of young people in diΩerent settings. I owe him,and every member of the Advisory Board he chairs with suchgrace, a debt of gratitude that defies description.

I wish I could take every graduate by the hand to thank youpersonally for the great joy I have had as Dean of Law atMcGill. Longue vie aux anciens de la Faculté! Toutes sortesde bonnes choses à son nouveau doyen Daniel Jutras! ]

Nicholas KasirerJames McGill Professor of LawP

ORTRAITS BY

CLAUDIO CALLIGARIS

Facultyof LawFall 2009

Law in theCommunity

News | Actualités Faculté de DroitAutomne 2009

Le droit dans lacommunauté

NOS ÉTUDIANTSReaching Out to High Schools 10Mae J. Nam: Domestic Advocate 13En aide aux Rwandaises 14

OUR FACULTYBack to Bountiful, B.C. 16 The Nexus of Health & Law 19Professeur Crépeau : Les droits

sans frontières 20

NOS ÉTUDES SUPÉRIEURESPorte ouverte : Van Praagh 22The Professor’s Path 23Laws in Space 25

OUR ALUMNIAlanna Devine Bites Back 26Haiti, Without Borders 29Mahmud Jamal:

The Future of Law 30

LES CHRONIQUES

News | Actualités

New Faculty Books 5

Alumni Awards 7

Gifts | Dons 8

Homecoming & Class Reunions 32

AlumNotes 34

In Memoriam 36

Entre Nous 20with ProfessorCrépeau

Alanna to the Rescue 26

BountifulNotes from theB.C. Interior 16

New New Chancellor 33Day Hall

The FacultyReaches Out 10

« Un signe de Dieu » 14


Free continuing legal education Beginning this fall, the Faculty of Lawwill be oΩering a new Continuing LegalEducation series, free of charge. As partof McGill’s commitment to public serv-ice, the Faculty is planning to oΩer fivethree-hour courses in each of the nexttwo academic years. The new series isdesigned to enable lawyers to meet theContinuing Legal Education require-ments recently adopted by le Barreaudu Québec. The mandatory program requires the province’s 23,000 membersof the Quebec Bar complete 30 hours ofapproved courses every two years. Theseries has been accredited by le Barreauand la Chambre des notaires du Québec,and will cover a range of contemporarylegal issues. To find out more, please visitwww.mcgill.ca/law/fc.

Your future on myFutureAlumni now have access to myFuture –a new job search and career tool suiteoΩered by the Faculty’s Career Devel-opment O≈ce. myFuture providesgraduates and current students with ane≈cient way to search for jobs in law,access career development resourcesand register for events and workshops.Starting this fall, myFuture will alsofeature a Professional Networking Pro-gram to match students with alumniwho share similar interests. To learn howthe CDO can help your career, please contactAisha Topsakal at [email protected].

Top international arbitrator to deliver Brierley LectureLeading international arbitration spe-cialist Emmanuel Gaillard will deliverthe John E. C. Brierley Memorial Lec-ture on Sept. 24, 2009, at the Faculty’sMaxwell Cohen Moot Court. Gaillardis Professor of Law at Université deParis XII, Chairman of the Interna-tional Arbitration Institute and head ofthe international arbitration practice atShearman & Sterling LLP in Paris. Thislecture commemorates the life andwork of John E. C. Brierley, a Canadianexpert on arbitration and former Deanof Law at McGill. For information pleaseemail [email protected] de partout 34


News | Actualités

Grad Studies: virtual recruitsGraduate students cite the Internet asamong the most influential factors intheir choice of university. In response,the Faculty has launched a new web siteto enhance its recruitment eΩorts. TheGraduate Studies in Law site oΩers anoverview of specific programs, featurestestimonials from professors and alums,and gives visitors a glimpse of what thegraduate law student life is like. Visit usat www.mcgill.ca/law-gradprograms.

his wife welcomed their first child inJune – so he’s also taken on a whole newrole as a father. “It’s always been impor-tant to mix a couple of things in my life,”he says with a smile.

Eric L’Italien captured the Randy GreggAward for his achievements in hockey, academics and community service.

Three McGillians elected to BlackLaw Students Association of CanadaThree McGill students were elected tothe executive board of the Black LawStudents Association of Canada – an organization dedicated to promoting diversity within the legal profession. At the blsac’s recent annual conference,Anthony Morgan was named president,Cynthia Burton the Francophone Rep-resentative, and Laurent KonéVice-President for the Province of Quebec.

“blsac is essentially there to repre-sent the interests of black law studentsacross Canada,” Morgan says. “Our aimis to engage issues that aΩect the blackcommunity.” As is tradition, blsac’snext annual conference will be held onthe president’s turf, which means that inFebruary of 2010, about 200 students,academics, and legal professionals willconvene at McGill to hear guest speak-ers, discuss issues in law aΩecting theircommunity, and recognize African-Canadian achievements in law.

In addition to conference prepara-tion and coalition-building, add Mor-gan’s plans for programs in careerdevelopment and high school and un-dergraduate outreach, and it’s clear he iseager to make the most of a very busyyear.

“We’re in this space,” he says, “and it isfrankly a privileged space to be in. Weneed to do what we can to be more ac-cessible, more visible and more useful to our community in whatever ways wepossibly can.”

Two Faculty of Law alumniawarded prestigious Trudeau prizeTwo Law graduates were selected forPierre Elliott Trudeau FoundationScholarships, the most generous of theirkind in Canada. Kathryn Chan [5],LLM’06, plans to pursue her doctorateexploring ways to modernize the law tobetter support or regulate voluntary andnot-for-profit organizations. Jonas-Sébastien Beaudry [6], BCL / LLB’04,will undertake his doctoral work at Harvard, where he will examine socialexclusion in Latin America with a viewto promoting equality.

Excellence en arbitrageCet hiver, le doctorant Jean-FrançoisHébert et l'étudiante à la maîtrise RobinF. Hansen étaient les premiers lauréatsdu Prix d’excellence en arbitrage MarcLalonde. Hébert et Hansen ont chacunreçu une bourse et ont été honorés lorsd'une cérémonie tenue dans les bureauxde Montréal du cabinet Ogilvy Renaulten présence de Marc Lalonde.

Honneur « suprême » pour des étudiantes en droitPour une sixième année d’a≈lée, McGillenverra plus d’auxiliaires juridiques à laCour suprême que toute autre universitécanadienne. Erin Morgan (Juge Binnie),Elizabeth France (Juge Cromwell),

The altruistic academic athleteBack in 2004, Eric L’Italien [1] wascompleting his final year in the QuebecMajor-Junior Hockey League, playingfor the Rimouski Océanic alongside Sidney Crosby. During his five-yearmajor-junior career, L’Italien also playedin Quebec City, with general managerPatrick Roy. But unlike many players atthat level, L’Italien was ready to con-sider the possibility that his hockey career would not necessarily take himwhere Crosby was going and Roy hadbeen.

“I was looking for an opportunity tokeep playing hockey,” he says, “so Ilooked at the university option.” L’Italien was accepted to McGill, wherehe obtained his Psychology degree, andis currently beginning his third year atthe Faculty of Law. He also just com-pleted his fifth and final year as a mem-ber of the McGill Redmen hockey team.As co-captain, he has been a major partof the team’s unprecedented successover the last few years, including threeNational Championship appearances inthe last four years.

As important as hockey is, however,L’Italien recognizes the value of bring-ing the same dedication to his school-work, and in his service to thecommunity. In addition to being astrong student, L’Italien helps run ayouth hockey school a≈liated withMcGill’s hockey program, volunteersplaying hockey with kids in MontrealNorth, helps out at the student-runLegal Clinic on campus and plans to stayinvolved with the Redmen this year byhelping run practices. And as if his plateweren’t full enough, the 25-year-old and

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Virginie Marier (Juge Fish), Palma Paciocco (Juge Charron) et JenniferKlinck (Juge Rothstein) entreront enfonction en août 2010.

Moots hone courtroom skillsOur 2009 competitive moot teamsbrought home dozens of awards [4]in various international competitivemoots, mock trials where law studentsplead cases as if before a real court.Some recent successes: McGill’s teamearned the highest number of awardsthis side of the Atlantic in the annual

Willem C. Vis International Commer-cial Arbitration Moot; for the secondtime in a decade, McGill’s Jessup MootTeam qualified to compete in the PhilipC. Jessup International Law MootCourt Competition in Washington,D.C.; and the Charles-Rousseau mootteam came back from Brussels with sixprizes, including the top Charles-Rousseau prize. Our students’ mootingaccomplishments were featured in ourMay 2009 eBulletin, online atwww.mcgill.ca/law/alumni/ebulletin.

Du neufEn 2009, la Faculté a accueilli deuxgrands experts dans ses rangs. C’est ainsique le professeur François Crépeau,BCL’82, LLB’82, un spécialiste desdroits de la personne et de la migration,est devenu le premier titulaire de laChaire Hans et Tamar Oppenheimer endroit international public.

Également, l’ancien ministre de lasanté, le docteur Philippe Couillard, estentré en fonction à titre de chercheurprincipal en droit de la santé. Membredu Groupe de recherche en droit etsanté et rattaché aux Facultés de droit et de médecine, le docteur Couillard tra-vaillera sur des questions interdisci-plinaires liées à la santé et au droit.

Convocation honoursAt McGill’s Spring 2009 Convocationceremony, Professor Richard M.Buxbaum [7] was given a doctoratehonoris causa by the Faculty of Law to honour his distinguished career as ateacher and pre-eminent internationaland comparative law expert. A formerDean of International and Area Studies

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L’imagination éthique – À larecherche d’une éthique partagéeMargaret Somerville, traduit del’anglais par Rachel MartinezLiber, 2009

Le feu sacré: L’héritage d’AntonioLamer, juge en chef du Canada / TheSacred Fire: The Legacy of AntonioLamer, Chief Justice of CanadaDaniel Jutras and Adam DodekLexis Nexis Canada, 2009

Biotechnology IP & EthicsE. Richard Gold and Bartha Maria KnoppersLexis Nexis Canada, 2009

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legal AnalysisRichard Janda, Michael Kerr and Chip PittsLexisNexis Canada, 2009

Public International Air LawPaul Stephen Dempsey, Institute andCentre for Research in Air & Space Law,McGill University, 2008 ]

New Faculty Books Les migrations internationales contemporaines – Une dynamiquecomplexe au cœur de la globalisationFrançois Crépeau, Delphine Nakacheet Idil Atak Presses de l'Université de Montréal,2009

Code Civil du Québec – Édition critique, 2009–2010, 17e éditionNicholas Kasirer and Jean-Maurice Brisson, Centre de recherche en droitprivé et comparé du Québec, UniversitéMcGill Éditions Yvon Blais, 2009


News | Actualités


at U.C. Berkeley, Buxbaum has taught atthe Berkeley Law School since 1961, liti-gated for public housing and freespeech, drafted model securities andcorporations laws, and been active invarious eΩorts to ensure access to highereducation for minority groups.

Durant cette même collation desgrades, l’Association des étudiant(e)s endroit a présenté au professeur adjointRobert Leckey, BCL’02, LLB’02, le PrixJohn W. Durnford d’excellence en enseignement 2009. Les étudiants ontsouligné sa passion et sa grande disponi-bilité comme professeur. Cette nomina-tion est arrivée tout juste après quel’Association canadienne des profes-seur(e)s de droit ait octroyé à Leckeyson Prix d’essai juridique, un prix qui récompense les jeunes universitairespour un article faisant une importantecontribution au droit.

Samuel Gale Chair holder ProfessorMargaret Somerville, an internationalleader in legal and medical ethics, wasawarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters this spring by MountSaint Vincent University. The Universityof Saskatchewan awarded an honorarydoctorate of law to Paul-André Crépeau [2] during its Fall 2008 Con-vocation ceremony. Emeritus Professor Crépeau was also the recipient of theQuebec government’s Georges-ÉmileLapalme prize for his contribution tothe French language in Canadian law –making it his second Prix du Québec.

Royal honoursIn Sept. 2008, then-Dean NicholasKasirer was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Canada – the mostprestigious scholarly association inCanada – for his achievements in com-parative law, jurilinguistics and the fun-damental theory of private law. In Nov.2009, former Dean of Law RoderickMacdonald will assume his post as the111th President of the RSC – makinghim the first law professor to hold thattitle.

New faces and rolesThe last year has seen several changes inthe Faculty’s administration. Associate

Professor David Lametti, BCL’89,LLB’89, took over the job of AssociateDean (Academic) from GenevièveSaumier, BCom’87, BCL’ 91, LLB’91.Canada Research Chair in Law and Discourse Desmond Manderson, tookover as Associate Dean (Research), suc-ceeding Fabien Gélinas.

La Faculté a également créé deuxnouveaux postes. C’est ainsi queVéronique Bélanger, BCL’91, LLB’91,LLM’99, a été nommée au poste dedoyenne adjointe à la planificationstratégique. Dans ce nouveau rôle, elleagit comme conseillère auprès du doyenen tout ce qui touche à l’administrationde la Faculté, notamment en matière degouvernance et de planification budgé-taire et financière. Par ailleurs, Ali Martin-Mayer, BSc’98, BCL’02, LLB’02,est désormais doyenne adjointe auxétudes et à la vie étudiante. Son rôle viseà l’élaboration de programmes completsde soutien pédagogiques, de conseilsacadémiques et de services aux étu-diants. Catherine Bleau, BCL / LLB’04,a remplacé Martin-Mayer à titre de directrice du Centre de développementprofessionnel (CDO) et est à présentépaulée par Lianne Barski, BCom’97, lanouvelle coordonnatrice du Centre.

Please join us in welcoming the fol-lowing people to the Faculty’s adminis-tration: Aisha Topsakal, BCL’02,LLB’02, will head the CDO whileCatherine Bleau is on maternity leave;Melissa Poueymirou is managing theFaculty’s Development and Alumni Re-lations o≈ce, while Director of Devel-opment Toby Moneit-Hockenstein,BCom’00, BCL / LLB’05, is on mater-nity leave; and Laurel Baker joins theFaculty as Communications O≈cer.

Centres and institutesAssistant Professor Angela Campbell,BA’95, BCL’99, LLB’99, who is co-con-venor of the Research Group on Healthand Law, was appointed Director of the Institute of Comparative Law. She hasbeen very active in renewing the Insti-tute’s mandate and identity, while men-toring graduate students engaged incomparative, pluralistic legal scholar-ship.

Associate Professor Wendy Adamswas appointed Director of the Centrefor Intellectual Property Policy, whereshe continues the cipp’s mission of fos-tering a global conversation about newways to understand the world of innova-tion and the intellectual property issuesthat accompany it. Adams succeeds Associate Professor E. Richard Gold,BSc’84, the cipp’s founding director.

Promotions and appointmentsColleen Sheppard, Research Directorfor the McGill Centre for HumanRights and Legal Pluralism, has beenpromoted to the rank of full professor.Lara Khoury, co-convenor of the Re-search Group on Health and Law, hasbeen promoted to associate professor.Boulton Fellows Alana Klein, BCL’02,LLB’02, and Vrinda Narain have beenappointed assistant professors, whileAdrian Popovici, BCL’62, and AnicéeVan Engeland have respectively beennamed Wainwright Senior Fellow andBoulton Junior Fellow. Professors HoiKong, BA’95, MA’98, BCL’02, LLB’02and Barnali Choudhury join the Facultythis year as assistant professors, whileDr. Alicia Hinarejos and Han-Ru Zhoujoin us as this year’s Boulton Fellows.Wainwright Civil Law Librarian DanielBoyer, BA’79, MLIS’88, has been ap-pointed head of the Nahum Gelber LawLibrary, replacing John Hobbins,BA’66, MLS’68, who retired this year.

In June 2009, Stephen A. Smith wasmade a James McGill Professor for hisachievements as a William DawsonScholar at the Faculty and his accom-plished record at the University. JamesMcGill professorships are reserved forscholars whose work is consonant withthe standards associated with a tier-1Canada Research Chair.

Also in June, William DawsonScholar and Associate Professor Adelle Blackett [3] was appointed to Quebec’s Commission des droits de lapersonne et des droits de la jeunesse fora five-year mandate.

PHOTO CREDITS, PREVIOUS SPREAD: 1 & 3 CLAUDIO CALLIGARIS; 2 LYSANNE LAROSE; 4 RACHEL GRANOFSKY; 5 & 6 COURTESY OFTHE TRUDEAU FOUNDATION; 7 OWEN EGANPHOTO CREDITS, OPPOSITE (LEFT TO RIGHT): CLAUDIO CALLIGARIS;LYSANNE LAROSE; GERRY HUDDLESTON, ALMONTE GENERAL HOSPITAL – FAIRVIEW MANOR FOUNDATION; LAUREL BAKER


Une autre mention pour l’éducation internationaleLe Programme sur les cours et les tri-bunaux internationaux de McGill a reçule Prix d’excellence du programme enéducation internationale du Bureaucanadien de l’éducation internationaleen 2008. Ce même programme ad’ailleurs été couronné en 2006 par lePrix de la Banque Scotia et de l’auccpour l’excellence en internationalisa-tion.Voici le deuxième prix remportépar la Faculté de droit de McGill. EneΩet, en 2006, le bcei avait ainsicouronné le programme d’éducation juridique transsystémique de la Facultéde droit.

Départs à la retraiteLe professeur Pierre-Gabriel Jobin, titulaire de la Chaire Wainwright endroit civil et professeur de droit àMcGill depuis 1980, a pris sa retraite enjanvier 2009; toutefois, il a immédiate-ment repris le collier comme titulaireémérite de la Chaire Wainwright endroit civil. L’Association québécoise dedroit comparé, dont il fut président pen-dant plusieurs années et où il demeuretrès actif, a d’ailleurs fêté sa carrière distinguée lors d’un cocktail tenu enavril à la Faculté. Également en avril,l’Association des professeurs et pro-fesseures de droit du Québec a soulignéles contributions du professeur Jobin

lors de son 46e congrès annuel.Professor Jane Matthews Glenn also

retired in January. Glenn has been amember of the Faculty since 1971 andwas also cross-appointed with theMcGill School of Environment. LastDecember, her friends and colleagueshonoured her “tenure” at the Facultywith a roundtable in her name, whichcovered the topics that have long beenclose to her heart: land use planning,agricultural law, access to housing, prop-erty rights and environmental law. Atthe Spring 2009 Convocation, ProfessorGlenn was appointed Emeritus Profes-sor by the University. ]

Alumni AwardsThe Faculty’s most prestigious honours

James Grant and Brian Pel: The James A. Robb AwardThis year, the Faculty of Law honouredtwo alumni with the James A. RobbAward for their exemplary volunteerservice – the Hon. James Grant, BA’58,BCL’61, and Brian Pel, LLB’85. Theaward is named after the great McGillvolunteer, James Robb, BA’51, BCL’54,who attended ceremonies for both re-cipients.

In June, Grant’s friends, family mem-bers, and colleagues from Stikeman Elliott gathered to show their supportfor their firm’s retired partner and Chairemeritus. Grant is a leader in corporatecommercial law, was summoned to theQueen’s Privy Council for Canada in1996, and is a member of the Montreal,Quebec, Canadian, American and Inter-national Bar Associations.

In April, Brian Pel was honoured asthe first Toronto recipient of the award.A successful tax partner with McCarthyTétrault’s Toronto o≈ce, Pel has cham-pioned Campaign McGill’s fundraisingeΩorts in Toronto, sits on the FacultyAdvisory Board and participated in lastfall’s External Review at the Faculty.

Justice Hugessen: The F.R. ScottAward for Distinguished ServiceThe Hon. James K-Hugessen, BCL’57,will receive the 2009 F.R. Scott Awardfor Distinguished Service at a ceremonythis fall. Named in honour of Canadianpoet and former Dean of Law FrancisReginald Scott, the award recognizesalumni who have exhibited exceptionalservice to society and the Faculty.

Justice Hugessen practised law until1972, when he was appointed justice ofthe Superior Court of Quebec. In 1983,he became a judge of the Federal Courtof Appeal, retiring in July 2008.Hugessen also sat on a number of tri-

bunals and benches, but never left theFaculty of Law behind, serving as ad-junct professor from 1962 to 1974, andsupporting the Faculty and Law Libraryas an advocate, donor and advisor.

Dominique Lapierre: Charles D. Gonthier Outstanding YoungAlumni AwardDominique Lapierre, BCL’98, LLB’98, received the first Charles D. GonthierOutstanding Young Alumni Award lastSeptember. Named in honour of JusticeGonthier, BCL’51, this new prize wascreated by the Young Alumni AdvisoryBoard to recognize a recent graduate.Lapierre has worked as a lawyer for Telefilm Canada, and currently serves asTelefilm’s Deputy Director of Televisionfor the French Market. As yaab chairfrom 2004 to 2008, Lapierre was instru-mental in helping young alumni recon-nect with the Faculty. ]

News items by Lysanne Laroseand Pascal Zamprelli

Left to right: The Hon. James Grant, BA’58, BCL’61, and James Robb, BA’51, BCL’54 | Nicholas Kasirer, BLC’85, LLB’85, Graham Nesbitt,BA’58, LLB’64, James Robb and Brian Pel, LLB’85 | The Hon. James K-Hugessen, BCL’57, and Mary Hugessen | The late Justice Gonthier,BCL’51 (see obituary, page 37), with Dominique Lapierre, BCL’98, LLB’98.


Gifts | Dons

Law firms join Campaign McGill Ogilvy sets the bar highOgilvy Renault LLP has partnered withits lawyers, agents and retired partnersto raise $1 million in support of twoscholars at the Faculty of Law, known asthe Ogilvy Renault Faculty Scholars inArbitration and Commercial Law.

An impressive 89 per cent of thefirm’s Faculty of Law alumni and 84 percent of McGill alumni contributed tothe cause – raising more than $500,000.A $250,000 gift from the firm, and an-other $250,000 from Campaign McGillCo-Chair, L. Yves Fortier, BCL’58,LLD’05, the longstanding Chairman ofOgilvy Renault, and leader in interna-tional arbitration law, helped the firmcreate this symbolic gift.

Last fall, Rio Tinto Alcan establishedthe L. Yves Fortier Chair in Interna-tional Arbitration and InternationalCommercial Law. Together with theFortier Chair, the Ogilvy Renault Fac-ulty Scholars will contribute to a criticalmass of international arbitration expertsat McGill. Thank you, Ogilvy Renault!

Osler gives business law a liftOsler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP joinsCampaign McGill with the first law firmgift to name a physical space at the Faculty of Law. The Osler Hoskin &Harcourt Seminar Room will be locatedin New Chancellor Day Hall, where ren-ovations have transformed the learningenvironment (see story on page 33).

While the firm has agreed to namethis state-of-the-art classroom, its individual lawyers and partners plan to create the Osler, Hoskin & HarcourtBusiness Law Fund. Designed to elevatethe profile of business law education atMcGill, the fund will be used to invitescholars and practitioners to the Faculty,oΩer research stipends to undergraduatestudents and develop new projects.

Fasken invests in students and researchIn early 2009, Fasken Martineau be-came the first law firm to make a majorgift to Campaign McGill. The FaskenMartineau Excellence Fund, createdwith a generous $350,000 donation, willsupport three important areas at theFaculty: the Scholarship for Legal Excellence provides a renewable schol-arship to a student entering the BCL /LLB program; the Corporate Social Responsibility Research Fund supportsstudents working as research assistants;and the Fund for the Journal of Law andHealth supports this student-run andpeer-reviewed scholarly publication.

Faculty surpasses $20-million in Campaign McGillSince the launch of Campaign McGill:History in the Making in the fall of2007, the Faculty of Law has receivedgifts and pledges totalling more than$20-million, making it the Faculty’smost successful fundraising drive.

Alumni, law firms, foundations andfriends have played a critical role in thecampaign, with alumni representing 85 per cent of all donors. The Facultyaims to raise a total of $35,130,000 aspart of Campaign McGill, which runsuntil the end of 2012.

To find out how you can participate in Campaign McGill with a gift to the Faculty of Law, contact Interim Development Director MelissaPoueymirou at (514) 398-6611 [email protected].

De Grandpré Chait Real Estate AwardStudents with a passion for real estatelaw will be recognized by the firm De Grandpré Chait LLP, which haspartnered with its lawyers to create theDe Grandpré Chait Real Estate Award.The award, to be funded over four years,will be used to support students whohave completed at least one year of theBCL/LLB program and who havedemonstrated excellence in real estate.

The Faculty of Law proudly acknowledgesthe participation and contribution oflaw firms as part of Campaign McGill.Such firm-wide support highlights theFaculty’s close connection with many ofCanada’s leading law firms, its alumnipractitioners and the importance ofMcGill’s unique program of transsys-temic legal education.

New Symposium forGraduate ResearchThe Faculty of Law is very pleased to announce the creation of the Maxwell & Isle Cohen Symposium for GraduateResearch in International Law. Thanksto generous donations from family,friends, former students and colleagues,the Cohen Symposium will honour thememory of Maxwell Cohen, formerDean at the Faculty from 1964 to 1969,and pioneer of the National Program,

CLAUDIO CALLIGARISOgilvy Renault partner Patrick M. Shea,

BCL’99, LLB’99, then-Dean Nicholas Kasirer, BLC’85, LLB’85 and Ogilvy Renault Chair-man Norman M. Steinberg, BSc’71, BCL’75, announce a $1-million gi≤ to the Faculty.


Thanks to an endowed gift from MichaelNovak and Kathleen Weil, students willhave the opportunity to gain hands-on experience doing field work in humanrights through the International HumanRights Internship Program run by theMcGill Centre for Human Rights andLegal Pluralism.

created in 1968. The Cohen Symposiumwill be inaugurated in May 2010, with a special celebration on March 17,Maxwell Cohen’s birthday.

For those interested in making addi-tional donations to the Maxwell & IsleCohen Fund, please [email protected].

Charitable foundationinvests in disability lawWith contributions reaching over $1.4-million, the Rathlyn Foundationhas taken an active interest in improvingstudent learning at McGill, investing inclassrooms, student advising and men-torship programs. The Foundation’smost recent gift highlights the Facultyof Law, with the objective of advancingthe rights of people with disabilities.

Through a $500,000 endowed gift,the Rathlyn Foundation will supporttwo initiatives related to disability andthe law. Beginning this fall, the RathlynFoundation Fellowships in Law – valuedat $15,000 per year – will be awarded tograduate students conducting researchin human rights, specifically in disabilitylaw and policy. The Rathlyn FoundationActivity Fund will support student re-search and academic activities in humanrights and disability law.

The Faculty is grateful for the Rathlyn Foundation’s generous contri-bution. Their gift will go a long way inadvancing student support, teaching andresearch, as well as the state of Canadianlaw in this important field of humanrights and disabilities.

New support for legal education’s “nuts and bolts” Writing and research are two key com-ponents of being a lawyer. They’re alsothe “nuts and bolts” of legal education.At McGill’s Faculty of Law, students develop both in the compulsory Legal

Methodology Program. Now, this criti-cal program has received support fromleading litigator James A. Woods,BA’70, BCL’73, LLB’74.

Through his generous, endowed gift,Woods has created a fund to support aJames A. Woods Junior Advocacy Fellow,to be awarded on an annual basis to acurrent student or recent graduateworking with the Legal MethodologyProgram.

Jim Woods, senior partner of the firmWoods LLP, serves as a lecturer in civillitigation at McGill. He is also Chair ofthe Faculty of Law’s Advisory Board inMontreal.

Values that don’t fluctuateThe Executive Vice-President of SNC-Lavalin, Michael Novak, BSc’76,BCL’80, LLB’81, recently found inspira-tion in an unlikely source: the global financial crisis. “I don’t want to dimin-ish the pain and suΩering it has caused people,” says Novak. “But it broughthome the idea that while the values ofthe stock market may go up and down,our fundamental values – such as caringfor each other – are here to stay.”

For Novak, those values are the basisof building a strong society – a charac-teristic he has in common with his wife,the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General for Quebec, Kathleen Weil,BA’78, BCL’82, LLB’82. “One of thethings that Kathleen and I share,” saysNovak, “is that we believe we all have aresponsibility to contribute to the well-being of our community.”

The community for Novak and Weilincludes their alma mater. “We bothwanted to support the Law Faculty,” saysWeil. “So much of who we are today isthanks to our education at McGill.”Earlier this year, the two McGill alumniestablished the Michael Novak andKathleen Weil Human Rights Intern-ship Awards to support the Interna-tional Human Rights InternshipProgram, where students are able to gainhands-on experience doing fieldwork

with NGOs and international tribunals. Both Novak and Weil are active phi-

lanthropists. “I’ve always been inter-ested in social justice,” says Weil, whocomes from a socially engaged family.Her father, a doctor, told Weil and hersix siblings: “If you’re going to be happyin life, you have to give back.”

Weil took the lesson to heart. Priorto being appointed Minister of Justice inDecember 2008, she worked for close to25 years in the public and not-for-profitsectors, in the areas of constitutionaland minority language rights, health andsocial services and youth and children’swelfare.

Investing in human rights interns atthe Faculty of Law was a natural fit.“Human rights are the enshrinement ofthose fundamental values we believe in,”says Novak, whose work with SNC-Lavalin has taken him to 75 diΩerentcountries and impressed upon him theimportance of protecting those values.Weil agrees: “Human rights are funda-mental for a successful society.”

And, for Weil and Novak, helpingothers is fundamental for a happy andsuccessful life. ]

FRANÇOIS BRUNELLE


Law in the Community | OUR STUDENTS

Innovative program introduces legal

concepts to high school students – and

aims to level the playing field of who

can go to law school | By Pascal Zamprelli,

BCL/LLB’05, with files from Thomas McMorrow, LLM’08

At Kahnawake Survival School on Mohawk territory south of Montreal, ahigh school student takes on the role ofRebecca – a teenager accused of beatingup another girl for her New York Yankees jacket. Another student plays Rebecca’s father, who acknowledges hehasn’t been the greatest dad since hermother passed away. Another takes onthe role of Rebecca’s boss who says she’sa good worker, and another the victim’smother who’s scared it’s becoming moredangerous on the streets. Together, theKSS students are charged with metingout the best punishment for Rebecca, aspart of a simulated aboriginal sentencingcircle.

Welcome to the High School Outreach Program – an innovative new initiativewhere student volunteers from McGill’sFaculty of Law visit local high schoolswith above-average dropout rates. TheProgram’s goal is to encourage studentsliving in di≈cult socio-economic situa-tions to think about legal concepts –from access to justice, to the distribu-tion of wealth and power, and the pointat which downloading music and moviesbecomes copyright infringement.

“The idea is to put university on theradar for kids who’ve never thoughtabout it,” says Charmaine Lyn, BA’96,BCL / LLB’03, Assistant Dean of Law(External AΩairs) and the person respon-sible for getting the project oΩ theground three years ago. “Kids who don’thave lawyers or university graduates inthe family. Kids who are told, and whobelieve, that what you do right afterhigh school is find a job. That’s theframework.”

According to Statistics Canada, Quebechas among the highest drop-out rates inCanada – and the problem is particularlypronounced in low-income neighbour-hoods, as well as among the children ofrecent immigrants and visible minori-ties. Lyn says that’s exactly who thehsop is targeting.

Last year, 40 McGill law students volun-teered to work with more than 300 highschool students in four Montreal-areahigh schools – including Kahnawake Sur-vival School, James Lyng High School inSt-Henri / Little Burgundy and École Secondaire Georges-Vanier in Villeray.

Bringing Law to Life

The partnership with each high schoolis developed over three sessions duringthe academic year. During the first two,McGill law students visit the highschools to engage the students in discus-sions about the law and activities likethe simulated sentencing circle to helpbring legal concepts to life.

“What we’ve been trying to do is putthem into the position of decision mak-ers and say look, you’re thinking aboutquestions of law and justice every day,”says Thomas McMorrow, doctoral student and hsop coordinator. “Wecan’t be their parents, their guidancecounsellors, or their teachers, and wedon’t want to preach to them either. Sowhat we’ve come in to do is to get themexcited about learning and get them tothink about it a bit diΩerently.”

The final session has the high schoolstudents, like those from the Kah-nawake Survival School, visit McGill tosee and learn about its facilities and hearfrom guest speakers about the links be-tween law and everything from hip hopculture to high art. Lyn and McMorrowagree that they want the high > p.12

Thomas McMorrowbrings passion to hispresentation.


In a simulated sentencing circle, students from Kahnawake SurvivalSchool and McGill’s Faculty of Law are charged with meting out thebest punishment for Rebecca – a fictional teenager accused of beatingup another girl.

In another exercise, the world’s wealth is represented by 100 pennies.These are distributed amongst participating KSS students to spark a discussion about the distribution of wealth and power within society.

(and Life to Law)

PHOTOS AT KAHNAWAKE SURVIVAL SCHOOL BY JOHN MORSTAD


< school students to think about univer-sity as an option. But they say hsop alsobenefits its law student volunteers bygiving them the opportunity to interactwith disadvantaged kids – many ofwhom have had negative experienceswith the justice system. “It confrontsMcGill law students with their ownprivilege and with direct knowledge ofhow the law often operates,” says Lyn.“There is a lot that we get as a commu-nity out of these experiences that is in-valuable. It’s win / win – we are thebeneficiaries as much as anyone.”

She believes that diversifying the pool of applicants to law school – and univer-sity – can enrich the experience of allstudents who attend, drawing parallelswith her own path in life. “I wasn’t sup-posed to go to law school,” she says. “I’mcoming at it from a personal experienceof having had the benefit of one or twopeople along the path of my high schoolcareer push me.” The notion of learningfrom diversity, and programs like hsop,

are “not about a≈rmative action orchanging standards for groups of people.It’s about expanding the pool as early aspossible. You put the idea in a youngperson’s head that there are choices,that they have options.”

Furthermore, Lyn explains, hsop is thetype of program that perfectly reflectsMcGill University’s mission statement,in which “service to society” figuresprominently. “We have the tools and theability to connect with and serve peopleright on our doorstep,” she says.

While hsop currently operates on ashoestring, Lyn believes resources, skills and knowledge can be pooledacross the University to coordinate andexpand its outreach mission. “We’redoing quite a lot on very little, and Ithink it’s got phenomenal potential.[hsop] is going to make a diΩerence in kids’ lives, but this is the tip of theiceberg of what we could be doing.” ]

Charmaine Lyn, Assistant Dean of Law

(External AΩairs).

Above: Graduate student SalmanRana, LLM’09, speaks on law,hip hop and youth culture.

PHOTOS AT FACULTY OF LAW BY OWEN EGAN

“Law is one of my top interests now.”– Kris Culley, student at James Lyng High School

Mae J. Nam spent the summer workingfor the Ateneo Centre for Human Rightsin Makati City, Philippines, as part of theInternational Human Rights InternshipProgram run by the McGill Centre forHuman Rights and Legal Pluralism. Nam is also one of three McGill law stu-dents selected for a 2009 Associationof Universities and Colleges of CanadaStudents for Development Award.


Law in the Community | OUR STUDENTS

DomesticAdvocate

Law student Mae J.Nam stands beside a mural by fellowpwc-q member andartist Wing Yap. Entitled “PhilippineRhapsody,” it tellsthe story of forcedmigrations in thePhilippines.

WING YAP

Mae J. Nam is determined to use herlegal education at McGill to eΩect posi-tive change for vulnerable and exploitedwomen – especially those of Filipino descent. Nam’s mother was born in thePhilippines, but came to Canada towork as a live-in domestic worker. Today,thousands of Filipino women come toCanada through Immigration Canada’sLive-In Caregiver Program. Through hermother’s stories, and through learningabout the experiences of other Filipino-Canadian women, Nam has come to un-derstand the hardships many domesticworkers are forced to endure right herein Canada – and has chosen to dedicateher life to fighting a program she be-lieves has its roots in slavery.

“Before this program was introduced,most Filipino women came to Canada towork as nurses and teachers,” says Nam.“They were well-paid and independent.But now one of the only ways for Filipino women to come to Canada isthrough the Live-In Caregiver programfor domestic workers. They have to livein people’s homes, are often paid lowwages, and are essentially on-call 24hours a day.”

Nam’s advocacy work began while shewas still completing her BA at McGill.She helped found the PhilippineWomen’s Centre of Quebec, an organi-zation dedicated to promoting therights of domestic workers in Canada.

Through intense lobbying eΩorts, Namand her fellow pwc-q volunteers suc-cessfully fought the deportation of LailaElumbra, a Filipino domestic workerwho came to Montreal under the Live-In Caregiver Program, but fell into acoma two months short of the 24 required to be eligible for permanentresident status.

Now as a third-year law student, Nam isresearching the lives of domestic care-givers with McGill Law professor AdelleBlackett. She is also working to developa judicial reference on equality rightsand Charter cases, under the supervi-sion of Court of Quebec Judge JuanitaWestmoreland-Traoré and OntarioCourt of Justice Maryka Omatsu.Through the pwc-q, Nam is planning tomount a Charter challenge of the Live-In Caregiver Program, which she believes discriminates against Filipinowomen. “There are so many Lailas inCanada, but the only way for a commu-nity to strengthen itself is by bandingtogether and working together. We’refocused on empowerment from theground up,” she says.

Nam represents the first generation inher family to go to university – and feelstremendously fortunate to be able to goto law school. “I came here to be a bet-ter advocate, not necessarily to be alawyer. But being in law school changedmy mind, and I’m excited to work as aCharter litigation lawyer. Law is onlyone tool, but it’s a really great tool to eΩect change in people’s lives.” ]

The daughter of a domestic worker

seeks equality through advocacy and

charter litigation | By Laurel Baker


Le droit dans la communauté | NOS ÉTUDIANTS

Massacres à la machette et exécutions massives. Un soird’octobre 2007, quatre survivants de diΩérents génocidesse présentent sur une scène de l’Université McGill. Tour àtour, ils racontent le meurtre de leur famille, de leurs amis.

Quand la Rwandaise Esther Mujawayo ouvre la bouche,Anita Nowak est sou√ée. « J’ai senti mes oreilles brûler,comme si elle m’avait parlé directement à moi. Cettefemme a perdu toute sa famille. Soixante personnes. Père,mère, oncles, tantes... tous sont morts, sauf ses enfants »,dit Anita, étudiante au doctorat en Éducation à McGill.Elle décide alors qu’elle en a assez d’être spectatrice.

Quelques jours plus tard, Anita et sa sœur Helen, étudiante àla Faculté de droit de McGill, conviennent de partir pour leRwanda. Elles veulent aider et mieux comprendre les sur-vivants du génocide de 1994, à travers l’organisme Tubahu-murize. « C’est Eloge Butera, un étudiant en droit, lui- mêmeun survivant du génocide, qui nous a parlé du collectif de samère au Rwanda », dit Anita.

Le collectif, fondé par Jeanne Mwiriliza, aide les femmesTutsis et Hutus à se sortir de la pauvreté et de situationsd’abus, en leur oΩrant un suivi psychologique, une formationtechnique et, dans certains cas, un prêt de 40 $ US pour dé-marrer une petite entreprise. Le nom de l’organisme,Tubahumurize, signifie consoler et donner espoir.

« Quand Eloge nous a parlé du collectif, tout est devenu trèsclair, dit Anita. On allait faire des levées de fonds, distribuerl’argent au Rwanda et évaluer les besoins de l’organisme. Onvoulait baser nos actions sur notre connaissance de ce qui sepasse sur le terrain. »

« Un signede Dieu »Des étudiants de McGill viennent

en aide aux Rwandaises

Par Marie-Christine Valois

A Call to Action: Pennyand Gordon Echenberg,BA’61, BCL’64, made a $1-million gift to create theEchenberg Family Confer-ences on Human Rights atthe Centre for HumanRights and Legal Pluralismin McGill’s Faculty of Law.The first in the series wasthe Global Conference onthe Prevention of Geno-cide, launched in October2007. “It was my call to action,” says Anita Nowak,

a doctoral student in Education. Prompted by the wordsof a Rwandan genocide survivor at that inaugural conference, Nowak and her sister Helen, a third-yearLaw student at McGill, travelled to Kigali to work withTubahumurize, a collective that provides counselling andsupport to Rwandan women and children. The secondEchenberg Family Conference is in the planning stages.

CLAUDIO CALLIGARIS


En juillet 2008, les deux sœurs posent le pied sur le sol orangede Kigali. Elles veulent rencontrer le plus grand nombre desquelques 300 femmes prises en charge par le collectif Tubahu-murize.

Mais leur descente dans les vertes vallées du Rwanda se trans-forme peu à peu en une descente aux enfers. « Plus on va pro-fondément dans les vallées, plus les gens sont pauvres. Il n’y apas d’eau courante, les habitations sont en décrépitude, » ditHelen, qui en est à sa quatrième visite en Afrique. « Lors demes autres voyages dans d’autres pays, j’entendais souvent dela musique. Les gens fêtaient malgré la pauvreté. Mais auRwanda, c’était frappant de voir la tristesse dans les yeux detous les habitants. (...) Là-bas, chaque personne a vécu de prèsou de loin la violence du génocide. »

« Au départ, nous avions peur d’être vues comme des Occiden-tales qui se prennent pour des Mères Noël et qui distribuentdes cadeaux, dit Anita, mais les Rwandaises nous ont plutôtperçues comme un signe de Dieu. Comme s’Il leur disait: Vousêtes importantes. Je vous envoie de l’aide à travers ces deuxfemmes. »

Après trois semaines au Rwanda, à assiter à des thérapiesde groupes, à interviewer des survivants, ou à tout simple-ment écouter les confidences d’un passager inconnu lorsd’un voyage en autobus, les deux sœurs n’en peuvent plus.La mémoire du Rwanda est devenue insupportable. « J’aipris la décision de me concentrer sur du positif, soutientHelen. Et de toute façon, je crois que c’était ça notre butpremier en allant au Rwanda. »

Un an après leur voyage, Anita et Helen ont toujours de ladi≈culté à répéter les histoires qu’elles ont entendues.« Écouter tous ces gens nous a changées. On ne peut plusrevenir à notre ancienne vie comme avant, dit Anita. Jen’ai plus d’excuses pour être complaisante. J’ai maintenantla responsabilité d’être active. »

Depuis leur retour, les deux sœurs ont reçu des lettres deRwandaises reconnaissantes. Parmi elles, une femme lesremercie de l’aide accordé pour démarrer sa petite entre-prise de vente de charbon. Cette Rwandaise peut au-jourd’hui contribuer au revenu familial. Elle a mérité lerespect de son mari et il a cessé de la rouer de coups.

C’est ce genre de nouvelle qui pousse Anita et Helen àpoursuivre leur travail avec le collectif Tubahumurize. ]

Left: McGill students making a diΩerence. Anita and HelenNowak (back row) are pictured with third-year law studentNathalie Nouvet (seated in front). Nouvet spent part of the summer in Kigali, working with Tubahumurize, the collectivefounded by the mother of law student eloge Christian Butera(right). In April, Butera was granted the Young Volunteer Claude-Masson Award and selected for a Sauvé Scholarship for his fundraising and activism. He was also one of six people featured in McGill’s Six Word campaign (sixwords.mcgill.ca).

Below: The Nowak sisters in Rwanda with members of theTubahumurize collective.

RWANDA PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANITA & HELEN NOWAK

RACHEL GRANOFSKY

www.sixwords.mcgill.ca

Bac

k to


Law in the Community | OUR FACULTY

BountifulField notes from Canada’s only openly polygamous community

By Professor Angela Campbell, BA’95, BCL’99,LLB’99, Lainie Basman, BA’00,

Sarah Berger Richardson, BA’06 | PHOTOS BY LAINIE BASMAN

The community of Bountiful, B.C. is home toabout 1,000 members of the FundamentalistChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – afundamentalist Mormon denomination whosemembers believe that a man’s taking of pluralwives leads to a good terrestrial life, and facili-tates entry into the “Celestial Kingdom.”

After a week of fieldwork in 2008, Professor Angela Campbell recently returned to Bountifulwith two research assistants, fourth-year law stu-dent Lainie Basman and second-year law studentSarah Berger Richardson. As the director of theInstitute of Comparative Law at McGill, Camp-bell was interested in developing a broader un-derstanding of the women’s own experiences.“The law assumes the women are coerced, exploited and oppressed. But are they? Thecriminalization of polygamy is said to protectthem, but they are not asked for input.”

The year between Campbell’s visits has seen one important development. On January 7,2009, two local men were charged under s.293 of the Criminal Code with practising polygamy.As these criminal prosecutions unfold, Camp-bell believes it is a crucial time to examine theviews of women living in the sect. “We’re notjust regulating a community, we’re criminalizingan entire practice that this community claims is fundamental to its way of living and believing. So the question is, to what extent should thestate be occupied with how and why people are married?”

DAY 1 : THURSDAY, JUNE 4The no trespassing sign, that just last year hadbeen posted at Bountiful’s entrance, is gone. Justabout everything else looks the same: sprawlinggreen lawn speckled with strollers, skippingropes and lawn tools. This is our first afternoonback in Bountiful, and we want to present our re-search to community members we interviewedon our last visit. But when we get to the mid-wifery centre for the presentation, nobody’saround. It turns out everyone’s in the “bigkitchen,” where meals for multiple families areprepped. The women all say the same thing,“Sorry I didn’t make your presentation, but it’s a crazy weekend!” That’s because “company” ishere: 200 people from a Salt Lake City sister-community who’ve come to attend Bountiful’sfirst-ever “non-traditional” wedding set for thefollowing day.

The women bustling in the kitchen invite us tostay for dinner. Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes! Wepeel, pare, boil and mash bags and bags of them.The quantity of food is mind-boggling. But, as isoften said in this community, “many hands makelight work,” and the job of preparing dinner forthe “company” of 200 is soon accomplished.

Most seats in the dining hall are reserved for thecompany tonight. Dinner begins when WinstonBlackmore, a community leader, takes his seatwith what he calls the “brethren” and says aprayer. Professor Campbell is invited to join thecommunity leader’s table at one point, to ex-plain her research project. Some listeners seemappreciative, others wary. The bride and groom-to-be seem particularly uneasy about our pres-ence, and ask for time to decide whether we mayattend their wedding ceremony. They’ll let usknow tomorrow.

DAY 2 : FR IDAY, JUNE 5A couple from Salt Lake City greets us in the din-ing hall after breakfast, and we find ourselves inan hour-long conversation about the challengesthey face as a polygamous family living in anurban setting. They are surprisingly candid,telling us about one of their sons who struggleswith substance abuse. They say this isn’t uncom-mon in Salt Lake, where some youths turn todrugs to cope with their alienation from society.In contrast to Bountiful, the Salt Lake commu-nity lives polygamy more discretely, and feelsmore pressure to assimilate to mainstream culture.

Before we know it, it’s time for the wedding –and yes, we’re invited. What excitement! Theweather is perfect, and the garden is beautifulwith its decorative arches, bales of hay and flow-ers. The wedding is “non-traditional” by Bounti-ful standards, due to the huge number of guests(400-plus), the amount of planning (a year), andthe fact that the bridesmaids and groomsmenare wearing the latest wedding fashions. Fromour standpoint, the event is both peculiar andentirely conventional. It’s a monogamous wed-ding (as are many in the community), and thebride and groom look like they could havestepped out of the pages of a bridal magazine.But how many weddings have 35 flower girls inmatching dresses and Shirley Temple ringlets?And how many ceremonies are filmed by a National Geographic documentary crew?

DAY 3 : SATURDAY, JUNE 6Our hosts are eager for us to attend today’s com-munity rodeo. Women and a few young girls fryup a huge picnic lunch in the kitchen, and kidspractise their riding manoeuvres as the ring isprepped. On top of horse and cattle deliveries,two new houses are being speedily built by ahost of men, boys, and one woman. “Keepingbusy is the key to happiness,” we’re told on sev-eral occasions. Despite the hoopla, several com-munity members say these rodeos used to bemore exciting – before “the split” a few years agobetween followers of the self-proclaimed Ameri-can “prophet,” Warren JeΩs, and constituentswho adhere to the teachings and principles ofWinston Blackmore. The split has divided fami-lies into two “sides,” but everyone still shares thesame plot of land and lives side-by-side. And atthe rodeo, the audience compensates for its sizewith enthusiastic cheering for participants, espe-cially the younger, wobblier cowboys and cow-girls just learning to ride. >


Professor Angela Camp-bell in conversation withfour women from thecommunity.

Opposite: How many weddings have 35 flowergirls in matching dressesand Shirley Temple ringlets?

Next page: The membersof the wedding partyasked the author tomask their identities.

DAY 5 : MONDAY, JUNE 8Our first interview of the day is with abeautiful, bubbly and educated youngwoman who proudly informs us she’sbeen named valedictorian at her recentcollege graduation. At school, she choseto dress just like the other students so asnot to attract the usual prejudicial atti-tudes against “plygs.” But she waspleased to find that she stuck out any-way – as a respected colleague and classleader. She hasn’t gone back to the tradi-tional clothes, preferring jeans and cot-ton shirts, lives in a nearby town and isstill in a monogamous marriage. We askwhat remains of “Bountiful values” if notpolygamy, geography and traditionalstyle? “Just living a good life – you know,staying pure and loyal to your spouse,being kind and making a diΩerence inpeoples’ lives.”

That afternoon, we finally have the op-portunity to give our special presenta-tion about the research project to ninecommunity women. This quicklyevolves into a lively discussion aboutchanges in the community over the pastyear – particularly with respect to prop-erty issues and employment opportuni-ties. When we reach the topic of owner-ship and property, the room explodeswith women’s voices – confounding taxassessments, child benefit paymentsgone awry, land trust tensions, embit-tered ex-members who want “theirshare” of the communal goods, and im-migration problems are thrown into themix. Given Bountiful’s particular socialand economic organization – premisedlargely on communal property rights,and large, anomalous family arrange-ments – the breadth of legal issues isdizzying. It’s hard for us to keep up withthe subtleties, especially since we don’tyet fully understand how property rightsoperate in this community, or how fam-ily squabbles and homegrown solutionshelp to form the backdrop.

DAY 6 : TUESDAY, JUNE 9Today is our last day in the communityand we want to make the most of it! Westart by meeting an avid scrapbooker,who proudly shows us the album collec-tions she’s made of her two children –filled with decorative themes, quotes,and carefully cut out pictures. Later on,

we have a long interview with a womanwe’d met last year. While she had beenextremely guarded the first time around,this year feels very diΩerent, and we seea new side to her personality – bright, articulate and passionate. She explainsshe was originally wary because of expe-riences where she’d felt betrayed by jour-nalists writing about Bountiful. But shecame to appreciate this project becauseof the space it created for dialogue.

We head to the nearby town of Creston,stopping at a local coΩee shop. Waitingin line, we recognize two teenage girlsfrom Bountiful. They’re dressed in jeansand fashionable tops, and look just likeeverybody else in Creston. We can’t helpbut feel they’re not too happy to be seenby us or to be recognized in this setting.

Now for our last stop: to visit S at herjob at a local garden centre, a familybusiness she shares with her parents andsister – despite being on opposite sidesof the Blackmore-JeΩs split. This is uncommon, but S shrugs it oΩ statingthat their family bonds are strong. S andher sister take us to the back of the storefor an informal chat, where we’re joinedby their mother. The women’s tradi-tional long-sleeve dresses stand in starkcomparison to the coΩee shop teen-agers. The three women tell us howangry they are with the former B.C. Attorney General’s campaign againstpolygamy in Bountiful – and with law en-forcement o≈cials who have come toquestion them at work.

It’s getting late, so we head back toBountiful to say our goodbyes. We havemixed feelings about leaving. Whatbegan as an inquiry into the propriety ofthe criminal law to deal with polygamyhas expanded to include broader in-quiries into tax law, immigration law, andlaw’s conception of marriage and family.We have so many unanswered questionsthat leave us bewildered, upset, or inspired. For now though, it is time togo. The women of Bountiful are ex-hausted from a busy week of guests andactivities. Everyone is ready for a returnto everyday life. ]

DAY 4 : SUNDAY, JUNE 7We’re invited to the home of twowomen who appear to be among themost conservative women in Bountifulby their dress and manner of speech.But they have done one of the most rad-ical things imaginable within their com-munity: they married each other. Butwithin Bountiful’s moral code, their marriage is not recognized and the onlymarriage they have is with their polyga-mous husband who is “celestially” (butnot legally) married to both of them.Their home is chaotic and comfortable. Between them, they have a dozen kids,who traipse in and out of the smallkitchen where we enjoy tea and cakethat S baked for L’s birthday.

“Forever humble as it may be, there’s noplace like home,” S says. L brings out abrand new digital camera – a birthdaygift from her father. We wonder aboutbirthdays in Bountiful. L’s husband(who has other wives) does not come up.We wonder if he’ll see L that day, or if heknows it’s her birthday.


The first McGill Student Colloquium onHealth Law was hosted at the McIntyre Medical Building on February 7, 2009. It brought together speakers from Medicine,Social Work and Psychiatry, along with LawProfessors Desmond Manderson, MargaretSomerville, Alana Klein and Philippe Couillard.


Law in the Community | OUR FACULTY

Thinking

Looking up at the crowds in the MartinAmphitheatre, I was thrilled. As a law stu-dent and organizer of the first McGill StudentColloquium on Health and Law, I had beennervous that no one would come, that this interdisciplinary project would fall throughthe cracks between departments and facul-ties. But I needn’t have worried: studentsfrom 17 disciplines and seven universitieswalked through the doors.

They had come, as we hoped they would, because they recognized that law and healthare vitally interwoven. They had come to hearprofessors from epidemiology, social work,law, medicine and management speak on topics as diverse as health-care reform, chil-dren’s rights and leadership training for doc-tors. They had come to listen to Dr. PhilippeCouillard, Quebec’s former Minister ofHealth and Social Services and McGill’snewly minted Senior Research Fellow inHealth Law.They had come because no oneelse had given them such an opportunity tothink and to learn across disciplines.

It was this kind of opportunity that I waschasing when I first joined the McGill Journalof Law and Health, which co-sponsored theColloquium. I had been outside the countryfor eight years, but I knew that Canadianssaw health care as important to their identity,and I wanted to know more – so I applied tothe fledgling mjlh, the brainchild of a groupof determined students under the guidance of Professors Angela Campbell and LaraKhoury. The Journal had not yet produced asingle issue, and some doubted that it wouldamount to anything.

Three years and three volumes later, and thanks inlarge part to the unwaveringsupport of then-DeanNicholas Kasirer, the mjlh ishere to stay. The Journal hasgrown out of the Faculty ofLaw’s emerging tradition ofscholarship in law andhealth, reaching out to lead-ing health-law scholars inCanada and beyond. Reflect-ing its interdisciplinary man-date, the mjlh has expandedits staΩ to include students

from the Faculty of Medicine. And it organ-ized a truly successful Colloquium!

So as I sat in the Martin Amphitheatre andlooked up at the faces in the crowd, I wasboth thrilled to see them – and proud to beamong them. Proud to be one of many organ-izers of such an inspiring event. Proud to beone of many students whose tireless eΩortsfounded and continues to maintain a journalof scholarly calibre. And proud to be one ofthe many McGill community members whorecognize the value and excitement in explor-ing emerging issues about law and health. ]

Student-run

conference

explores nexus

of health

and law

By Dorian Needham

Dr. Philippe Couillard withthree McGill students (left to right): Russell Brown (PhD, Med II), Ilan Shahin(MBA / Med II) and Dorian Needham (Law III)


Le droit dans la communauté | NOTRE FACULTÉ

années se sont écoulées depuisque John Humphrey, un profes-seur de droit à McGill, couchaitsur papier la première ébauche dela Déclaration universelle des

droits de l’homme des Nations Unies. Depuis, la notion de ladignité humaine a fait beaucoup de progrès, mais il reste énor-mément à faire. C’est dans cet esprit que McGill a accueilliFrançois Crépeau, un expert des questions du droit interna-tional des droits de la personne, des migrations et de la globa-lisation, comme premier titulaire de la Chaire Hans et TamarOppenheimer en droit international public. Le professeurFrançois Crépeau et Pascal Zamprelli se sont entretenus dedroits et de responsabilités, et sur comment changer un système qui préférerait que tout le monde reste bien sage-ment chez soi.

Pourquoi le droit international?Au début des années 80 à Paris, j’entamais ma thèse de doc-torat sur le statut du demandeur d’asile, qui était à l’époque un nouvel acteur sur la scène socio-politique. Auparavant, on disait plutôt un réfugié. Mais quand le nombre de demandesde statut de réfugié a bondi – au Canada, il est passé de 600 en 1976 à 60 000 en 1986 –, cette nouvelle expression, deman-deur d’asile, a commencé à circuler. La question du migrant et de la migration a suscité mon intérêt. J’ai constaté que les migrants n’avaient pas d’avantages sociaux et personne nepouvait expliquer adéquatement pourquoi ils devraient y avoiraccès ou non. Personne n’avait encore exploré la question.

Quels étaient les principaux enjeux liés à la migration àcette époque? La plupart des demandeurs d’asile à ce moment-là ne venaientpas de l’Est, ils arrivaient plutôt du Sud. Ils ne provenaient pasde pays communistes et ils n’étaient pas des combattants de la liberté. Nous ne pouvions pas invoquer les vieilles justifica-tions pour les accueillir. Soudainement, 60 000 personnes sepressaient à nos portes qui ne luttaient pas pour la liberté,mais qui cherchaient plutôt à échapper à la violence généra-lisée, à la pauvreté, etc. Nous ne nous sommes pas montrésaussi accueillants avec eux que nous l’avions été avec les re-fuzniks soviétiques ou les victimes des régimes communistesau Vietnam et au Cambodge. Soudainement, nous avions unproblème non seulement avec leur nombre, mais aussi avecleurs caractéristiques sociales et politiques.

C’est comme cela que j’en suis venu à m’intéresser à la migra-tion et je n’ai pas changé depuis. À l’époque, c’était un choixsurprenant et mes collègues ne le comprenaient pas. Il y avaittellement d’autres sujets plus intéressants à traiter, comme laguerre et la paix, le règlement international des diΩérents, …

Manifestement, vousétiez sur la bonne piste.En rétrospective, je sembleen eΩet avoir fait un bonchoix et j’admets en êtretrès content! Mon travailm’a porté vers le droit domestique, c’est-à-dire ledroit constitutionnel, lesdroits de la personne et ledroit administratif. Il m’aégalement permis d’ex-plorer les dimensions dudroit international desdroits de la personne et des minorités.

Parlez-moi des liensentre ces dimensions dudroit et la migration. La législation en matièrede droits de la personne reposait entre autres sur la notion de citoyens restant dansleurs pays. Le rôle de droit international était d’établir des ententes entre les pays pour que chacun traite ses citoyenscorrectement. Personne n’avait envisagé la question des migrants, car la migration était perçue comme une anomalie.Si tout allait bien dans un pays, les gens ne bougeraient pas –ce qui est, à mon avis, une méprise. Les gens se sont toujoursdéplacés, que les choses aillent bien ou non. Quand ça va mal,il y a plus de migrants,voilà tout. Vous vous êtes peut-être déplacé; je me suis moi-même déplacé. Les êtres humains veulent explorer le monde.

On dirait que l’anomalie, ce sont les frontières, pas queles gens les traversent.Précisément. Depuis le début du 20e siècle, trois pour cent dela population mondiale sont en migration à tout moment.C’est une constante de la civilisation. Mais on ne pensait pasainsi en 1948, alors que s’établissait le droit international desdroits de la personne. La notion de citoyenneté était la clé devoûte et les États étaient basés sur une population stable. Les créateurs du droit international des droits de la personnen’avaient pas conçu que, subséquemment, les migrants exi-geraient qu’on respecte leurs droits. Avant, le seul droitqu’avait le migrant était celui de retourner au pays.

Il y a eu une prise de conscience que les migrants sont desêtres humains comme tout le monde. Leurs droits ne reposentpas sur la prémisse que ces personnes appartiennent à unecatégorie administrative bien précise. Les droits de la personne

Les Droits60


sont fondamentaux pour toute personne, où qu’elle soit.

La détresse des migrants suscite-t-elle davantage l’attention? Nous avons commencéà aborder ces questions,mais rien n’est encorerésolu. Les États, lesgouvernements et lesautorités publiquesdoivent admettre queces personnes sont aussi« nous » dans le débat du« eux et nous ». Une per-sonne qui vit ici, mêmeirrégulièrement, c’estquelqu’un qui paie desimpôts, qui contribue

à l’économie et qui a des enfants qui sont peut-être canadiens.Ces gens ont des droits, mais nos autorités ne l’admettent pasencore.

C’est donc un combat très actuel.La question des migrants est une épreuve décisive pour la démocratie – tout comme les travailleurs industriels l’ont été il y a 100 ans, les femmes il y a 60 ans, les Autochtones il y a 30ans et on peut aussi ajouter les détenus, ainsi que les gais etlesbiennes il y a 10 à 15 ans. De la même manière, on n’admetpas actuellement que les migrants détiennent des droits, qu’ilssont assujettis à la primauté du droit, qu’ils sont des sujets etpas simplement des objets.

Pensez-vous qu’on finira par respecter les droits des migrants, tout comme ceux de ces autres groupes auparavant exclus? Oui. C’est lent, mais on y arrive. Pour vous donner un exemple, même la Cour suprême des États-Unis a changé saposition sur Guantanamo. La Cour a enfin reconnu que lesdroits des migrants sont en fait des droits de la personne, queleurs droits sont nos droits. Il y a de quoi être optimiste. Oncommence à comprendre qu’on ne peut faire ce qu’on veut àquelqu’un simplement parce qu’il est étranger.

Que penser du fait que les États-Unis justifient leur traite-ment des étrangers en évoquant la sécurité nationale,tout comme le Canada l’a fait avec les certificats de sécurité?

Une fois de plus, on voit agir ici la notion qu’on peut traiter lesétrangers diΩéremment des Canadiens dans les mêmes circon-stances. Toutefois, ce traitement n’est pas crucial à la sécurité.Si vous avez un problème de sécurité avec un ressortissant,pourquoi devriez-vous le traiter plus durement qu’un Canadien? Pourquoi lui reconnaissez-vous moins de droits?Soit c’est une question de sécurité et vous mettez en place desmesures qui accroîtront la sécurité et vous traitez Canadienset non-Canadiens de la même manière; soit c’est une questiond’immigration et vous la traitez comme telle. C’est précisé-ment le point que je veux faire : les procédures d’immigrationne devraient pas être utilisées pour régler les questions desécurité.

Ces gens n’ont pas le droit de rester au Canada, car ils sontétrangers. C’est encore la règle et cette règle demeurera enplace tant qu’il y aura des pays. Mais nous ne pouvons pas fairen’importe quoi avec eux.

Continuerez-vous à vous intéresser à ces questions entant que nouveau titulaire de la Chaire Oppenheimer?L’interaction constante entre le droit interne et le droit inter-national est justement à l’origine de la Chaire Oppenheimer.Je m’intéresse à ces questions depuis près de 19 ans. On ne medemande donc pas de faire quoi que ce soit de diΩérent de ceque je faisais auparavant; on me demande de le faire mieux encore.

En décembre dernier, on fêtait le 60e anniversaire de laDéclaration universelle des droits de l’homme des NationsUnies. Quels progrès avons-nous faits depuis 1948? Je pense que nous avons progressé plus qu’on ne le croyaitpossible quand la Déclaration a été ratifiée en 1948. Mais sinous pensions régler les questions de droits de la personnesimplement en ratifiant déclarations, conventions et autrestraités, nous faisions fausse route, car le combat pour lesdroits de la personne est aussi un combat politique.

Les mécanismes et les instruments juridiques sont importants,mais ils ne représentent que l’un des outils dans ce combatperpétuel, qui exige aussi la mobilisation des communautés,des organisations non-gouvernementales et des juristes.

Comment faire le pont entre le droit et la politique? Les deux travaillent de concert, car les outils juridiques ontcréé une culture de droits de la personne. Cette culture s’estpropagée et plus de gens savent qu’ils ont des droits. Ils saventqu’il existe des mécanismes et des intervenants pour les aider.Cette culture des droits de la personne est assurémentl’héritage le plus important que nous a laissé la Déclarationuniverselle. ]

Entre Nous avecFrançois Crépeau, titulaire de la ChaireHans et Tamar Oppenheimer en droit internationalpublicPar Pascal Zamprelli,

BCL / LLB’05

Traduction de

Lysanne Larose

sans frontières RACHEL GRANOFSKY


Le droit dans la communauté | NOS ÉTUDES SUPÉRIEURES

Shauna Van Praagh

a ouvert une porte…

pour cultiver une

communauté

étudiante active

La Politique de la porte ouverte

À droite : Michael Mineiro, récipiendaire d’une bourse Boeing,

faisant une brève présentation durant la pause-café des doctorants.

À la page suivante : la doctorante Maude Choko et le professeur Ram Jakhu.

Les premiers gestes de Shauna VanPraagh à titre de vice-doyenne furentsimples : elle a accroché des peintures aumur du bureau des études supérieures,elle a installé un portemanteau et,surtout, elle a ouvert la porte. « Ça semble évident », dit-elle en riant. « Pour-tant, la porte avait toujours été ferméeet les étudiants attendaient dans le corridor. »

Convaincue que « rencontrer la vice-doyenne aux études supérieures ne de-vrait pas être compliqué », Shauna VanPraagh voulait que les étudiants soient àl’aise de venir la voir quand ils en sen-taient le besoin.

Mais en plus d’ouvrir sa porte, la pro-fesseure Van Praagh voulait aussi ouvrird’autres portes afin que les étudiants sesentent connectés à la Faculté de droitet à la communauté universitaire.

À McGill, les étudiants aux étudessupérieures peuvent poursuivre degrands projets de recherche juridique, allant de brevets de médicaments enAfrique du Sud aux relations de travaildes artistes du Québec, de droit consti-tutionnel en Amérique du Sud ou à desquestions de sécurité aérospatiale sur leplan international. L’ennui, c’est que cesétudiants n’ont pas souvent l’occasiond’échanger sur leurs projets et de parta-ger leurs idées avec des pairs.

Pour cultiver une communauté intel-lectuelle active au sein des étudiants auxétudes supérieures, madame Van Praagha tout d’abord lancé un bulletin électro-nique hebdomadaire faisant état de con-férences, d’événements facultaires, decompétitions, de bourses, de dates im-portantes et de manchettes utiles auxétudiants.

Ensuite, elle a établi un comité quijumelle les nouveaux étudiants de 2e etde 3e cycle avec des professeurs désignés,au lieu d’obliger ces étudiants à se trou-ver un superviseur. « Il est essentiel quechaque étudiant soit apparié à un super-viseur qui peut aussi agir comme mentor,qui peut le guider tout au long du proces-sus de recherche et de rédaction », ex-plique-t-elle. « Les professeurs profitenteux aussi de l’expérience : idéalement, lecourant passe dans les deux sens. »

Le comité a également cherché à élargirle réseau de confrères, de mentors etd’amis de chaque étudiant en fondantdes groupes d’intérêt. Se réunissant in-formellement autour d’un membre ducorps professoral, ces groupes « permet-tent aux étudiants de mieux connaîtreleurs confrères, qui peuvent avoir des intérêts de recherche très diΩérents, etaussi de tisser une relation plus directeavec un professeur autre que leur super-viseur », explique Shauna Van Praagh.Mais elle a a aussi un autre objectif :

« Nous voulons être reconnus non seule-ment pour la qualité de notre formationjuridique, mais aussi pour combien nosétudiants sont bien préparés à une car-rière universitaire. Si vous voulez de-venir professeur de droit, vous venezétudier à McGill. Voilà notre but. »

Convaincue que le mentorat est essen-tiel pour tout futur professeur, madameVan Praagh a réactualisé le cours obliga-toire de méthodologie juridique de cycleavancé pour justement permettre « auxétudiants à passer du germe d’une idée àl’achèvement d’une thèse, avec l’appuide l’enseignant. »

Bien qu’elle pense que tout étudiantdoit être bien entouré, madame VanPraagh croit que ceci est primordialpour les candidats au doctorat. L’au-tomne dernier, lors de la rentrée, elle adonc invité la cinquantaine de doctor-ants de la Faculté à se joindre aux mem-bres du comité des études supérieurespour une petite réception chez elle.

« C’est une façon de traiter nos doctor-ants en collègues. Nombre d’entre euxsont loin de leurs familles et font durerleurs bourses en vivant modestement.C’est donc agréable pour eux d’êtrereçus dans une résidence familiale », dit-elle. Elle prévoit d’ailleurs répéter l’expérience cette année. > p.24


Law in the Community | OUR GRAD STUDIES

The Professor’s Path Doctoral candidate

Maureen Duffy, LLM’05,

speaks with Grad

Studies graduates to

find out how McGill

helped pave the way

to academia

When Christopher David Jenkinsenrolled in graduate studies at the Fac-ulty of Law, he wasn’t necessarily think-ing about an academic career – nor washe certain that he wanted to continue in law.

And yet, since completing both his Master’s (LLM’02) and his doctorate(DCL’05) at McGill, Jenkins has gone onto lecture at the University of Aberdeen– and recently accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University ofCopenhagen’s Centre for EuropeanConstitutionalization.

Looking back, Jenkins says his experi-ence at the Faculty of Law convincedhim of both his interest in the law – andhis desire to pursue an academic careerin that field. “My choice proved rightaway my stubborn hope that legal studies could indeed be intellectuallystimulating and imaginative,” he says.

Jenkins’ choice – to become an academicin law – is a di≈cult path to pursue. Professors in today’s world need to beoutstanding teachers, mentors, re-searchers, writers and administrators –

all at the same time. And yet despitethese pressures, many graduates ofMcGill’s LLM and DCL programs go on to very successful academic careers.

While Jenkins attributes McGill’s“stimulating, internationalized andwelcoming intellectual environment,”other graduates credit the high level ofinteraction with the Faculty’s professorsfor renewing their enthusiasm in legalstudies – and convincing them to con-tinue on the road to academia.

“Certain professors in particular weretruly an inspiration in my decision to become a professor,” says DCL’08 gradMarie-France Bureau, a newly minted assistant professor at the University ofSherbrooke. “Namely Nicholas Kasirer,Desmond Manderson, Shauna VanPraagh, and Rod Macdonald.” Bureau isnot alone in this respect – doctoral students in particular often cite their supervisor as central to their decision to become an academic.

“I owe it all to my supervisor,” says Del-phine Nakache, DCL’09, who studiedunder Associate Professor René Provost.

Now an assistant professor at the Uni-versity of Alberta, Nakache describesProvost as having been her link to the U of A. She also credits Provost, alongwith Professor Lionel Smith, for havingbeen influential during the completionof her studies – both for their mentor-ship, and willingness to discuss issues re-garding her thesis. In a similar vein,Mario Prost, DCL’09, credits the “avail-ability and open-mindedness” ofProvost – along with former Dean ofLaw Stephen Toope, BCL’83, LLB’83 –for encouraging his decision to advancefrom the LLM to DCL program.

Benjamin Perrin, LLM’06, was also im-pressed by Provost’s mentorship. ButPerrin cites another reason his supervi-sor played a pivotal role in his decisionto accept his current position as an assistant professor at the University ofBritish Columbia: “By exposing me tothe interesting and engaged researchthat faculty members at McGill were involved with on a daily basis.”

Professor Roderick Macdonald is alsoknown for leading by example. In thepast decade alone, he has supervised 10students who have gone on to becomeprofessors at universities around theworld. Macdonald has also providedmentorship to countless other studentsthrough his Legal Education Seminar, inwhich graduate students gain valuable >


< practical experience by actually preparingan entire course syllabus, and designing andteaching a class.

While many LLM and DCL students moveon to academic careers with other institu-tions, so too, do some land jobs right here atthe Faculty of Law – and now as professorsat the Faculty of Law, do their best to con-tinue the same type of mentorship and one-on-one supervision that inspired them topursue academic careers in the first place.

Take Desmond Manderson, who obtainedhis DCL at McGill in 1997, under the super-vision of Roderick Macdonald. Now a lawprofessor and Associate Dean of Research,Manderson is taking his turn to supervisethe next generation of law professors.

Among Manderson’s most promising stu-dents are Karen Crawley, LLM’07, and AnnieRochette, BCL’94, LLB’94. Crawley is a Pilarczyk Fellow, and is already co-teachingthe Graduate Legal Methodology coursewith Shauna Van Praagh, the Associate Deanof Graduate Studies. Rochette is completingher DCL thesis on teaching and learning inCanadian Law Faculties at McGill, and haslanded a position as an assistant professor atl’Université du Québec à Montréal’s Dépar-tement des sciences juridiques.

As Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Professor Shauna Van Praagh encourages stu-dents to avail themselves of the full range ofresources the university has to oΩer – fromauditing a variety of courses to gain insightinto diΩerent pedagogical styles, to partici-pating in university workshops, to helpingtheir professors design and teach courses, toattending as many conferences as possible –including the recently instituted annual General Legal Studies Conference at McGill.

With so many former graduate students nowteaching law, there’s also the opportunity toreach out to McGill alumni for advice. VanPraagh invites doctoral candidates to be-come part of “a community of colleagues” –both with their fellow students, and withmembers of the Faculty, thus availing them-selves of formal and informal opportunitiesto prepare themselves for academia. “Teach-ing experience can come in many forms,” she says. ]

< Dans un même ordre d’idée, madame Van Praagh a lancé la pause-café desétudiants au doctorat. Chaque semaine, ils se retrouvent au grand salon de laFaculté pour parler de leur recherche avec leurs pairs et professeurs dans uneambiance conviviale. « Ces étudiants sont de futurs membres de la commu-nauté universitaire et nous les traitons comme tels. »

Même si les programmes d’études supérieures de la Faculté de droit ont pro-fité de l’enviable réputation de McGill, madame Van Praagh accorde égale-ment de l’importance à un autre élément pour maintenir cette réputation :attirer d’excellents étudiants. « Par le passé, nous n’avons pas eu à déployer degrands eΩorts pour recruter. Mais aujourd’hui, la concurrence se fait sentir. »D’ailleurs, pour soutenir ces eΩorts, un nouveau site Web a été lancé à l’atten-tion des étudiants futurs et actuels de 2e et 3e cycles de la Faculté de droit (voir l’article en page 4).

« Il faut que ce soit clair pour tous que McGill oΩre une formation juridiqueavancée qui est distincte, dynamique et stimulante. Le fait que nous soyons explicitement bilingues et bijuridiques attirera un corps étudiant multilingueet multijuridique. » Elle ajoute : « Quand les gens parlent de la Faculté de droitde McGill, ils pensent souvent à notre programme de 1er cycle. Je veux qu’ilssongent aussi à nos programmes de maîtrise et de doctorat. »

Alors qu’elle entame la troisième et dernière année de son mandat, la vice-doyenne Van Praagh n’a pas le moindrement ralenti la cadence. En plus de col-laborer avec le Centre de développement professionnel de la Faculté sur unguide-carrière et un service d’orientation à l’intention des étudiants de cyclessupérieurs, elle travaille actuellement à une initiative qui donnera l’occasionaux doctorants de peaufiner leurs talents d’enseignants.

Préférant regarder vers l’avenir, madame Van Praagh admet toutefois qu’elle seréjouit des progrès eΩectués depuis qu’elle a ouvert sa porte, il y a deux ans. « Sur le plan pédagogique, nous sommes très forts, mais nous pouvons toujoursfaire mieux. En nous concentrant sur le mentorat, la supervision et la prépara-tion de nos doctorants pour des carrières d’enseignants et d’universitaires,nous pouvons être les meilleurs. » ]

Laurel Baker

OWEN EGAN (3)

Above: DCL candidate Maude Choko with Professor Ram Jakhu.Previous page: DCL candidate and Boeing Fellow Michael Mineiro speaks abouthis research in air and space law at coΩee hour in the Common Room.


Law in the Community | OUR GRAD STUDIES

Above (way above): This Long Duration Exposure Facility was used by nasa to studyspace debris. It was left in low Earth orbit foralmost six years, before being retrieved by thespace shuttle Columbia in January 1990.

Below: On January 21, 2001, this waywardsatellite motor part from a pam-d rocket engine reentered the atmosphere over the Middle East – landing in Saudi Arabia, 240km from the capital city of Riyadh.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NASA ORBITAL DEBRIS PROGRAM OFFICE

Last February, an inactive Russiansatellite collided with an active commer-cial satellite in low-Earth orbit, just 800kilometres above Siberia. The crash created a cloud of space debris thatcould remain in orbit for decades –threatening other satellites, the environ-ment and potentially, human security.

Space debris – the term referring to themass of nonfunctional satellites, launchvehicles and related objects that orbitthe Earth uncontrolled – has becomeone of the most significant conse-quences of the space age. But now, grow-ing awareness surrounding the issue hasprompted some space law players totake steps to curb the production of newdebris through the development and implementation of mitigation measures.

These measures were a central theme at the International Interdisciplinary Congress on Space Debris, hosted inMay by McGill’s Institute of Air andSpace Law, in collaboration with theCologne University Institute of Air andSpace Law in Germany and the Interna-tional Association for the Advancementof Space Safety in the Netherlands.More than 80 scientists, space experts,lawyers and satellite operators fromaround the globe gathered to assess theSpace Debris Mitigation Guidelinesadopted by the United Nations Com-mittee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Spacein 2007, examine other internationalspace safety and security measures, andpropose policy and regulatory steps toreduce the growing risks associated withspace debris.

Professor Ram Jakhu of the iasl, whospecializes in space law and chaired theCongress, warned that man-made spaceparticles – some as small as a cornflake,others as large as a bus – could tearthrough spacecraft, and even breakthrough the Earth’s atmosphere. “Theytravel at the speed of about eight or ninekilometers per second – that’s almost 10times the speed of a bullet from a gun,”he explains. “So, they are naturally verydangerous.” Aside from physical danger,there can be environmental eΩects, suchas when, in 1978, a Russian satellite witha nuclear reactor disintegrated in the at-mosphere and spread radioactive mate-rial in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake,Northwest Territories.

Since the accumulation of debris aug-ments the risk, the Congress focused ondeveloping several key solutions: makingthe existing voluntary mitigation guide-lines mandatory; encouraging spacefar-ing nations to boost research on debrismitigation, identification, and removal;and encouraging new insurance andproperty regimes in space to close the legal gap, through international declarations, codes and treaties. WhileCongress organizers plan to continuediscussions at other fora, Jakhu believesthe international cooperation exhibitedat the Congress will be the key to suc-cess. “Space debris is primarily a globalissue,” he says. “Global problems needglobal solutions, which must be eΩec-tively implemented internationally aswell as nationally.” ]

Pascal Zamprelli, BCL / LLB’05

Space Debris Congress tackles legal void

SpaceLaws in

Law in the Community | OUR ALUMNI


The law grad behind three major puppy mill raids is

calling for big changes to animal law | By Laurel Baker

Alanna Devine with Layla, her rescued mixed pitbull.PHOTO (AND COVER PHOTO) BY JOHN MORSTAD

!BitesBackAlanna Devine“The stench of feces and decay anddeath and fear.” That’s what AlannaDevine retains from her first puppy millseizure in December 2008, where – asthe new head of the Canadian Societyfor the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani-mals – she helped liberate hundreds ofdogs and cats from cramped wire cagesbrimming with excrement and carcasses.“I’ve been inside so many of these placessince then, but I still think about it, andI get choked up. I still get emotional,but the way I am able to get past that isto take that emotion and anger and useit to fuel the fight.”

For Devine, the fight is against puppymills – what she defines as “large-scaleand sub-standard breeding facilities”where “the sole motivation is profit,where there is inbreeding and where animals are treated as a commodity.”With an estimated 2,200 such facilitiesthroughout the province, Devine be-lieves Quebec’s reputation as “thepuppy mill capital of North America” is well deserved. “It doesn’t sound likethese places could be profitable, butthey are. No matter how terribly theadults are treated, a cute puppy in thewindow of a pet store sells,” says Devine.“So my job is to be both reactive andproactive in trying to push for changesmunicipally, provincially and federally,to put a stop to the abuse of sentient beings.”

While Devine is only 29 years old, she is well-equipped to take on this task. Acriminologist and lawyer by training,Devine had long been passionate aboutanimal welfare, but was first introducedto animal law as a student at McGill,through a special course oΩered by Associate Professor Wendy Adams, theDirector of the Centre for IntellectualProperty Policy. “Alanna wanted verymuch to be able to make a diΩerence inthis area,” recalls Adams of Devine. “It’sbeen amazing to see her trajectory, andwhat she has accomplished in a short period of time.”

From caged ...Desperate scenes at puppy mills

The working group is poised to an-nounce short- and medium-term solu-tions – which could include mandatoryregistration for all Quebec facilitieswhere dogs are housed, sold, or bred.But Devine says knowing where to findpotential puppy mills won’t be enough –the cspca already has files on 800 facili-ties it has identified in the Montrealarea alone, but doesn’t have the powerto shut them down. “My inspectors canwalk into a facility and see that it’s reallya situation that requires application ofprovincial legislation and we basicallyhave to call another organization.”

While spcas outside of Quebec are allowed to enforce provincial legislationpertaining to animal well-being, insidethe province it is the responsibility ofanima-Québec, a non-profit organiza-tion founded by mapaq. While anima-Québec has the ability to lay chargesagainst facilities breaking the law, it operates with a skeleton crew of five inspectors. “In terms of the way the lawis applied at a provincial level, it’s not exactly e≈cient, and it’s not very eΩec-tive,” says Devine.

cspca peace o≈cers can enforce theCriminal Code, which prohibits crueltyto animals in sections 334 and 446. ButDevine says federal law is problematic in two respects: firstly because both sections fall under crimes of property(“meaning the law doesn’t distinguishbetween a dog and a chair,” says Devine);and secondly because the CriminalCode only targets those who knowinglyor recklessly cause unnecessary pain orsuΩering, or who cause pain or injurythrough criminally negligent conduct.Devine says this mens rea (“guilty mind”)standard for neglect makes it very hardto prosecute possible perpetrators.“There have been many cases where peo-ple essentially got oΩ by saying, ‘I didn’tknow I was supposed to feed them thistype of food, I didn’t know they neededthis type of care, I didn’t know youweren’t supposed to keep a dog out-side.’” As a result, cspca o≈cers spend alot of their time handing out warnings.“It’s like the police seeing someone in

At McGill, Devine helped to found alocal chapter of the Student AnimalLegal Defense Fund – part of the world-renowned aldf animal law advocacy organization. Then, after graduatingwith a joint BCL / LLB in 2006, Devinelanded a prestigious Supreme CourtClerkship with the Hon. Louise Char-ron, where – from 2006 to 2007 – she“got to work with some of the most bril-liant legal minds in the country.” Devinereturned to her hometown of Montrealafter her Clerkship, determined to useher legal education to make the world abetter place. She began volunteering regularly at the cspca (which despite the“Canadian” in its name, is actually thespca’s local Montreal branch), and “fell”into her job. “They were looking for anactive executive director, because therewas no one working here on a day-to-day basis, so I became one de facto bycoming in every day.”

In just eight months, Devine coordi-nated three high-profile raids on facili-ties in the Montreal area – no small feat,as it can take months to plan seizures,gather evidence, obtain warrants, collab-orate with police, and coordinate hun-dreds of volunteers and groomers towork around the clock. Nearly 400 catsand dogs were rescued in the raids – butjust as significantly, according to Adams,is the fact that Devine and her team gotthe attention of the public. Withinweeks of the third raid, a petition with55,000 signatures was presented to theprovincial Liberal government callingfor stricter animal cruelty laws. In re-sponse, the Ministry of Agriculture(mapaq) launched a working group inFebruary 2009, aimed at strengtheningmeasures to prevent pet cruelty. Com-mittee chair and MNA GeoΩrey Kelley,BA’81, MA’85, told the media, “It’s [anissue] that resonates with a large num-ber of people.” Says Adams: “The politi-cians are listening now. The legallandscape for animal welfare in Quebecis about to change substantially, and Idon’t think it is an exaggeration to saythat this is due in large part to theeΩorts of Alanna, and others like her.”

COURTESY OF THE CSPCA

the middle of robbing a bank and basi-cally saying, ‘Listen, you’re not allowedto rob a bank, so I’m going to be back inthree weeks to make sure you’re not rob-bing a bank anymore.’”

Devine applauds former Justice Minis-ter (and McGill law alumnus) the Hon.Irwin Cotler, BA’61, BCL’64, for intro-ducing legislation in the House of Com-mons in 2005 and 2006 to remove >



... to coddledHappy scenes at the spca

the mens rea standard, and amend theCriminal Code so that animal cruelty oΩences would no longer be classified asproperty crimes. But Cotler’s bills (therewere several) died unapproved whenelections were called, or sessions ended.Finally in the spring of 2008, a privatemember’s bill introduced by Liberal Sen-ator John Bryden received royal assentwhich raised the maximum penalty foranimal cruelty to five years in prison anda $10,000 fine – up from six months injail and $2,000. Proponents called it a

Animal law at McGill: The Student Animal Legal Defense Fund’s chapter at theFaculty of Law is very active. This spring,third-year law student Mary Race (front left)won a prestigious Advancement of AnimalLaw Scholarship from the aldf, the saldf’sparent organization and one of the world’sbest-known legal advocacy groups. Last year,law student Andrew Brighten was selected foran aldf Clerkship in California. Here, Raceis pictured with some of the saldf’s currentmembers: Ashlyn O’Mara (front right), and (back, left to right) Lauren Pagé, NickMelling, and Sophie Gaillard.

“major breakthrough,” but Devine saysthere are still strides to be made. “With-out changing the mens rea standard, noone is going to get convicted anyway.”

On her to-do list, both federally andprovincially: push for changes to allowcspca inspectors to apply the provinciallegislation; expand her own inspectionand enforcement department; lobby fora restructuring of anima-Québec;change the Criminal Code; and launch atraining program to help the police bet-ter recognize what constitutes criminalneglect. Says Devine: “Police o≈cersaren’t properly trained on how to applythe cruelty provision. They call us, andask us how to do it, yet we receive zerogovernment funding.”

Devine is also working to develop testcases to define ‘adequate standards forcare.’ “Prosecutors deal with hundredsof other cases – from child sexual assaultto murder, and this is just one morething in their dossier. But I can help topush the jurisprudence by helping pre-pare dossiers to hand over to prosecu-tors who care, but just don’t have thetime.” In a similar vein, Devine has beendoing volunteer research (along withtwo other Faculty of Law alumni, KurtA. Johnson, BA’87, BCL’91, LLB’91, andMathieu Bouchard, BCL’00, LLB’00,both from the firm Irving MitchellKalichman) for animal rights advocateNicole Joncas in a lawsuit broughtagainst anima-Québec and mapaq for al-legedly failing to enforce the law againstLamarche & Pinard, a Montreal-basedcompany they allege runs several puppymills in Quebec.

Despite the number of challenges ahead,Devine remains confident. “The firststep is recognition – so we’ve got thatfar. The [provincial] government hasmade public commitments to meaning-ful changes so we’re going to hold themto it,” she says. That, says ProfessorAdams, is precisely the kind of attitudethat will enable Devine to transform thelegal landscape for animal welfare inQuebec, and beyond. “She’s highly intel-ligent, stubborn as hell, and kind of opti-

RACHEL GRANOFSKY

COURTESY OF THE CSPCA mistic too. It’s demoralizing work, so

you have to find that balance.”

Devine admits her work can be depress-ing – especially when she’s confrontedwith situations where animals are livingin squalor, but the law isn’t necessarilybeing broken. But she says she is thrilledto be using her legal education to eΩectpositive change.

“I certainly am aΩected by all the thingsI’ve seen, but the fact that I feel I willbe able to make a diΩerence enables meto get through it. And I really do hopethat in the next five to 10 years we willsee major changes in this province andin this country. And I really hope that Iwill help make those changes.” ]

David E. Roberge and Cindy Vaillan-court of McCarthy Tétrault’s Montrealoffice (pictured above with studentsand faculty members from Haiti StateUniversity), were in Haiti to participatein an environmental law training mis-sion in partnership with Lawyers With-out Borders Canada, World UniversityService of Canada and the State Uni-versity of Haiti, from Feb. 3 to 17, 2009.McCarthy Tétrault is the first majorCanadian law firm to become a “PartnerWithout Borders” of LWBC.



Lawyers Without Borders Canada takes David-Emmanuel Roberge, BCL’01, LLB’01,

to Haiti State University

On the road from Port-au-Prince toJacmel, David-Emmanuel Roberge wasstruck by the beauty of the stark hillsstretching as far as the eye could see.But as Roberge soon discovered, Haiti’sstriking landscape tells a devastatingstory. “Those hills used to be covered intrees.” Less than two per cent remainsof the virgin forests that once blanketedthe country, and the consequences aresevere: the stripping away of trees forfuel has left Haiti vulnerable to flashfloods and landslides with enough powerto bury whole villages under mud andsewage.

Roberge and his colleague Cindy Vaillancourt were invited to Haiti StateUniversity last February to teach itsfirst-ever course in environmental law, as part of a new partnership betweenLawyers Without Borders Canada andtheir firm, McCarthy Tétrault. Whilethe university does not yet have a per-manent environmental law course, it hasits share of environmental issues thelegal community in Haiti hopes to ad-dress. In addition to deforestation, thecountry faces high pollution, and amajor garbage crisis. “During our staywe saw only one garbage bin in Port-au-

Prince, proudly labeled with the Mini-stère de l’environnement logo. It wasempty,” says Roberge.

Haiti has tried to address these prob-lems by signing the United NationsConvention to Combat Desertification,and enacting a thorough environmentalmanagement decree. But as Robergelearned on his trip, the country’s envi-ronmental issues are tied to poverty,with 65 per cent of residents living onless than a dollar a day. For example, municipalities lack the resources to col-lect garbage, and Haitians use charcoalfrom cut trees for fuel because it’s themost aΩordable option. This becamecommon practice as a result of formerU.S. president Bill Clinton’s blockade ofHaiti in 1993, when there was no otherchoice.

Despite these challenges, Roberge wasstruck by the eagerness of Haiti StateUniversity’s students to find solutions.“People literally lined up outside theclassroom to listen through the win-dows, because they wanted to learnabout environmental law. We had somany students ask for extra copies ofthe textbook, we wished we’d brought

more.” While Roberge and his colleaguewere there to teach, he says they learnedmuch more from their students. “One ofthe best ways to understand your ownlegal system is to compare it to others,so it was more of a sharing experiencethan anything else. It wasn’t only us giv-ing to that community; we got a lot backfrom them.”

Roberge readily admits that Haiti “isnot going to see change in a week, orover the course of a four-year legal stud-ies program.” Even so, he returned toMontreal inspired by the enthusiasm ofthe country’s next generation of lawyers.By the end of their stay, the Dean ofLaw announced there was su≈cient in-terest to add a Master’s degree programin environmental law. “Our goal was toencourage students to get involved inenvironmental law,” says Roberge.“Clearly that objective was achieved.” ]

Laurel Baker

PHOTOS COURTESY LAWYERS

WITHOUT BORDERS CANADA



As a partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto,Mahmud Jamal works as a domestic lawyer who litigates local lawbefore local courts. Yet he argues that the internationalization of lawhas important implications for all legal professionals in Canada –and indeed, the world. The following is excerpted from his speech atMcGill’s Faculty of Law in February, as part of the 2009 MeredithMemorial Lectures. Following the theme, “Les professions juri-diques sans frontières : Penser globalement, agir localement,”the conference provided an occasion to explore how legal professionscan meet contemporary challenges arising from the movement of jurists and firms across borders, the outsourcing of legal services, andthe changing role of professional orders.

We all know that in the last 15 years the world has become amuch smaller place. The dominant paradigm for these changesis, of course, “globalization,” a word that did not even existuntil the middle of the 20th century, and joined the vernacularonly in the mid-1980s with Theodore Levitt’s Harvard Busi-ness Review article on the “Globalization of Markets.” Morerecently, Thomas Friedman described globalization as a “flat-tening” of the earth, in which massive technological changenow routinely permits worldwide communication, collabora-tion, and competition. No less vividly, my learned co-panelist,Faculty of Law Professor H. Patrick Glenn, has describedglobalization as a “compression of time and space.”

Technology has, of course, been the dominant force in thiscompression of time and space. But it is easy to forget howquickly this force has emerged. When I started as a summerlaw student in a law firm in the early 1990s, only the lawyersand the legal assistants had computers. If a student wanted amemo typed, he or she wrote it out by hand and gave it to alegal assistant for typing. And when I joined my present lawfirm in 1996, one of the first memos I wrote was to the chairof my department to explain what the Internet was and why it justified the firm shelling out $15 a month. After carefulscrutiny, my request was approved.

What I’d like to focus on is not the many woes of technology,but rather three points that are already aΩecting, or that willincreasingly aΩect, the Canadian legal profession. First, I willdiscuss how our profession is undergoing a profound change –a unification – what I will refer to as the “nationalization oflegal practice.” Second, I will say something about outsourc-

ing, in particular oΩshore outsourcing of legal services. Third,I will suggest some implications of these first two develop-ments for legal education, from my perspective as a consumerof the output of elite law schools such as this one.

NATIONALIZATION OF LEGAL PRACTICE Since Confederation and even before, the Canadian legal profession has been largely parochial in both constitution andorientation. Our Constitution gives regulation of the legalprofession to each of the provinces over both property andcivil rights (s. 92(13)) and the administration of justice in theprovince (s. 92(14)). As a result, we have 10 provincial barswhich, for their first 100 years, existed for the most part insplendid isolation from each other. Not surprisingly, changedid not come voluntarily from the law societies themselves,but rather was imposed upon them, by the Supreme Court ofCanada. In 1989, in Black v. Law Society of Alberta, a bare 3-2majority of the Supreme Court held that rules prohibiting in-terprovincial law firms oΩended the Charter’s guarantee ofmobility rights. The national law firms were born.

But if national firms were given the green light in 1989, national practices still scarcely existed. That all changed in1994 with the Federation of Law Societies’ Inter-JurisdictionalPractice Protocol. The Protocol permitted lawyers in any sig-natory jurisdiction in Canada to provide legal services in anyother signatory jurisdiction for a maximum of 10 matters over20 days in any 12-month period – known as the 10-20-12 rule.The Protocol was enhanced in 2006 by the Federation of LawSociety’s National Mobility Agreement, which further relaxedthe conditions for interjurisdictional practice and now essen-tially provides Canadian lawyers with full mobility rights.

What does the emergence of national legal practices have todo with globalization or the internationalization of law?Everything, it turns out. Global clients are increasingly look-ing for one point of contact in any country or region. This isbeing driven by considerations of cost e≈ciency, but also by adesire for expertise. From the perspective of a budget-conscious general counsel, having to manage 10 groups oflawyers is costly and ine≈cient. It makes much more sense to have one dedicated counsellor who can be dispatched tobattle in 10 boardrooms.

Mahmud Jamal, BCL’93, LLB’93, on the Canadian

legal profession in the global community

The Future of Law


OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING We’ve all heard of outsourcing and experienced the famousIndian call centres for our computers or household appliances.In a legal context, the outsourcing of legal services refers tothe transfer of services to lower-cost markets, either withinthe jurisdiction or outside it. The latter is referred to as“oΩshore outsourcing.” And of course many law firms havebeen outsourcing certain non-legal services for some time:printing of prospectuses, books of authorities, document imaging and e-discovery services, to name a few. What’s new,particularly in the United States, is the oΩshore outsourcingof legal services, predominantly to markets such as India. In2005, a brief prepared by an outsourced lawyer in India wassubmitted to the United States Supreme Court. Technology,again, has been critical to this development. The ability tocommunicate and send documents over the Internet quicklyand cheaply has driven this process.

To the best of my knowledge, in Canada we aren’t yet out-sourcing Supreme Court of Canada factums or indeed anysubstantial legal services oΩshore. But I think it is just a mat-ter of time before the same cost and savings pressures thathave led U.S. firms to outsource to India aΩect our market-place as well. What we are seeing more often in Canada is thehiring of contract lawyers on large litigation files to code andreview documents for privilege and relevance. One of the re-sults of the information age is that everything can be storeddigitally. This has dramatically increased the number of docu-

ments on even the most routine litigation files. In this envi-ronment, it often simply isn’t feasible to staΩ files withenough internal lawyers. The task must be outsourced. Teamsof contract lawyers are quickly interviewed and hired, andwork under the law firm’s supervision. This phenomenon isstill much more common in the United States than in Canada,but it does occur here.

IMPL ICATIONS FOR LEGAL EDUCATIONOn my third and final point, I oΩer these modest observationstentatively and from the standpoint of a consumer of the out-put of legal education, in that I am very fortunate to workwith some of the best and brightest graduates of this law fac-ulty and other esteemed law faculties in this province andaround the country.

I think if there is one takeway from the nationalization oflegal practice, it is that it is increasingly irrelevant whetheryou learn the black letter law of any particular jurisdictionwhile in law school. The obvious reason for this is that youmay be in court in B.C. on Monday, in Quebec on Wednesday,and in Nova Scotia on Friday. Legal practice in such in an envi-ronment is necessarily an ongoing process of continuing legaleducation. It makes much more sense to have a structural understanding of the law from the outside, rather than beingmired in the details from the inside. This is, of course another,immensely practical reason for the virtues of transsystemicand comparative approaches to learning the law and legal tra-ditions. It is no exaggeration to say that, today, many of us arepractising comparative lawyers.

Finally, if you are a lawyer in Houston or perhaps one day inMontreal who is outsourcing to Mumbai, it certainly doesn’thurt and likely helps quite a lot to have an understanding ofdiΩerent legal systems and traditions – the systems and tradi-tions, that is, of those individuals who are part of your legalteam on the other side of the earth, who are diligently advanc-ing your case as you sleep, and whom you are ethically boundto supervise in order to deliver competent legal advice to yourclient. In today’s world, we are of necessity all connected. ]

It is increasingly irrelevantwhether you learn theblack letter law of any particular jurisdictionwhile in law school.”

– Mahmud Jamal

“


Homecoming Class Reunions &

Mark Your Calendars for Homecoming 2009: October 14 to 18Planning for reunions is underway forthe Classes of 1954, 1959 and 1999.Contact Maria Marcheschi for more details at [email protected] call (514) 398-1435.

Class of 1958

Class of 1968

Class of 1973

Class of 1983

Every year the Faculty of Law plays host to Class Reunionscelebrating milestone anniversaries as part of Homecomingfestivities. In 2008 the Faculty of Law celebrated reunionsfor class years ending in 3 and 8. The Faculty wishes to thankthe tireless Class volunteers who helped to make theseevents such a success!

Maria Marcheschi

The Class of 1953 celebrated 55 years as graduates at a special dinner with their spouses,hosted at the Montefiore Club in Montreal on October 18, 2008. Special thanks to William I. Miller, QC, andclassmates Irving L. Adessky, QC, Arthur I. Bronstein and Herbert C. Salmon. There are already plans for another reunion in the near future!

The Class of 1958 celebrated their 50th anniversary as Faculty of Law alumni in the CommonRoom at Old Chancellor Day Hall, on May 30, 2008. To mark the occasion, this star-studded class made agenerous donation to the Gerald Le Dain Fund in Constitutional and Administrative Law, which honoursthe memory of their late classmate – a popular judge, and McGill law professor (see In Memoriam story,page 37).

The Class of 1973 at their 35th anniversary celebration, hosted at the Faculty of Law on October 18, 2008. Thanks to organizers Ian Solloway, Louis Lacoursière, Peter Martin and Pierrette Sévigny,as well as Faculty Advisory Board Chairman James A. Woods. It was their first reunion, but plans are already underway to hold a 40th anniversary celebration.

The Class of 1968, with their spouses, met at the University Club in Montreal to celebrate the40th anniversary of their graduation. Special thanks to David Rosenzveig and Robert Nadeau for organiz-ing the wonderful event, held on October 11, 2008.

The Class of 1983 celebrated the 25th anniversary of their graduation on October 18, 2008.Professor Rosalie Jukier graciously hosted more than 20 classmates at her home for dinner, including former Dean of Law, Stephen J. Toope (now President of the University of British Columbia). Many thanksto Antoinette Bozac, April Kabbash, Isabel Schurman and Susan Zimmerman for their enthusiasm in organizing this event.

Class of 1953

JACK MALRIC, JEM PHOTOGRAPHY (5)


The principle that interaction betweenscholars and students enlivens the pur-suit of knowledge was the basis for thecreation of Thomas JeΩerson’s architec-tural masterpiece at the University ofVirginia in 1819. His idea of building an“academical village” where learning is alifelong and shared pursuit amongst allthe university’s participants has retainedits relevance and inspires university architecture to this day.

For Homecoming 2009, the Faculty ofLaw will reveal its own attempts to create an architectural landscape inwhich ideas can flourish, with its recentand extensive renovations to NewChancellor Day Hall.

The project took well over a year tocomplete, and represents an overhaul of18,000 sq. ft. over three floors – thethird, fifth and sixth – of what had origi-nally been the Faculty’s Law Library before the Nahum Gelber Library wasconstructed, but which, in recent yearshad been given over to other faculties.

More than just a repatriation of ncdh,the renovation also brings the faculty to-gether in three main flagship buildingsattached by the Atrium: Old ChancellorDay Hall, New Chancellor Day Hall,and the Nahum Gelber Law Library.

Among the many architectural designfeatures at the new ncdh: light-wells toallow the flow of light throughout thespace; partially-frosted glass partitionsto give interior o≈ces a direct sightline to the outside world; preserved book alcoves which were uncovered in the

renovations; and a massive skylightabove a magnificent staircase betweenthe fifth and sixth floors. The third flooris unique in that it is completely devotedto student space – accommodating amultimedia classroom and seminarroom, and providing space for multiplestudent clubs, all three student-run lawjournals, and the graduate students’lounge. The fifth and sixth floors featurea stunning conference room, and willhouse headquarters for the Faculty’smajor research centres, as well as o≈cesfor professors, graduate students andvisiting scholars.

The project was spearheaded by archi-tect Claude Sauvageau, along with theFaculty’s Space Committee members –Professors Rosalie Jukier, René Provost,Tina Piper, Stephen Smith, DesmondManderson, Building Director MargaretBaratta, Assistant Dean (Strategic)Véronique Bélanger and Faculty Admin-istrator Marie-Hélène Di Lauro. ]

Laurel Baker

MARC CRAMER (2)

Everything Old is New Again!Join the Dean of Law for breakfast andtour the newly renovated floors ofNew Chancellor Day Hall.

La Faculté a fait peau neuve et ce seral’occasion idéale de découvrir nos nouvelles installations. And don’t missthe opportunity to celebrate theNahum Gelber Library’s 10th birthday!

Friday, October 16, from 8 to 10 a.m.Common Room, 3644 Peel Street

No charge! But please contact Gina Sebastiao to register at [email protected] or call (514) 398-3679.

Peau neuve

Introducing the new New Chancellor Day Hall

THE 60s

Irwin Cotler, OC, MP, BA’61,BCL’64, was re-elected to hisconstituency of Mount-Royal inOctober 2008. In January 2009,he was appointed Special Counsel on Human Rights & International Justice by LiberalLeader Michael Ignatieff.

Brian A. Grosman, LLM’67, hasbeen practising law and writingbooks on employment law, dis-crimination and human rights. Asa senior partner of the Torontofirm Grosman, Grosman & Gale,he is currently editor-in-chief ofThe Employment Bulletin: LegalIssues in the Workplace, pub-lished by Canada Law Book. He is a former professor at McGill’sFaculty of Law and foundingChair of the Law Reform Com-mission of Saskatchewan.

Peter A. Howlett, BCL’66, étaitl’une des quatre personnalitéshonorées lors de la réceptionHommage aux Grands Montréa-lais 2008 de la Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropo-litain, le 29 octobre, où l’on acélébré son engagement excep-tionnel et ses contributions à lacommunauté (Heather Munroe-Blum, Principale et vice-chance-lière de McGill, était honoréeaussi). Peter Howlett est aussiprésident des Amis de la Montagne.

Michael D. Levinson, BCL’64,was appointed to the Commis-sion de la protection du territoireagricole du Québec starting Dec. 1, 2008. Previously, he hadbeen at McCarthy Tétrault ascounsel. At the time of his appointment, he said he waslooking forward to the new chal-lenge with a sense of excitement.Levinson was president of theLord Reading Law Society in2001–02.

George Springate, OC, BCL’68,LLB’69, was appointed SeniorCitizenship Judge last Octoberby Citizenship and ImmigrationCanada. He served as a Citizen-ship Judge in Montreal, a spokes-person for the Montreal PoliceDepartment, a member of theQuebec National Assembly and afounding member and tenuredprofessor in civil and criminal lawat the Police Technology Depart-ment at John Abbott College.Springate was also a kicker forthe Montreal Alouettes, andplayed on the 1970 Grey Cup–winning team.

THE 70s

Ken Dryden, MP, LLB’73, was re-elected in York Centre last October and currently serves theLiberal Party of Canada as theNational Outreach Advisor, Work-ing Families and Poverty, and asthe Special Liaison, NationalFundraising.

Thomas Mulcair, MP, BCL’76,LLB’77, a été réélu dans la circon-scription d’Outremont en octobre2008. Il siège actuellement auParlement à titre de chef adjointdu NPD et porte-parole enmatière de finances.

Larry Smith, BCL’76, wasnamed to the Canadian OlympicCommittee this year, and in Feb-ruary was among four recipientsof the Desautels Faculty of Man-agement’s 2009 ManagementAchievement Awards, chosen fortheir leadership, entrepreneur-ship, ethics and corporate socialresponsibility. As a star runningback for the Alouettes from 1972through 1980, Smith was part oftwo Grey Cup championshipteams (1974 and 1977), and wenton to work as team President andCEO. He also served as commis-sioner of the Canadian FootballLeague for five years.

Ian M. Solloway, BCL’73, 48thPresident of the Lord ReadingLaw Society, recently served asChair of the Society’s 60th Anniversary which culminated ina gala-dinner attended by over200 lawyers and judges at theMontefiore Club in Montreal. Specializing in family law, Solloway was elected in 1992 as aFellow of the International Acad-emy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Healso served three mandates as aCommissioner on the Commis-sion d’appel sur la langue d’en-seignement du Québec under theCharter of the French Language.

THE 80s

Gerry Apostolatos, BCL’88,LLB’88, a été nommé à la vice-présidence de l’Association duBarreau Canadien, divisionQuébec, en février 2009, pour unmandat d’une année. Gerry Apos-tolatos est membre actif de l’exé-cutif de cette association et de sasection en droit des affaires ainsique membre votant du Conseilnational de l’Association du Bar-reau canadien. Il est associé chezLanglois Kronström Desjardins.

Steven Chaimberg, BCL’80,LLB’81, qui se spécialise en droitimmobilier et en matière de bauxcommerciaux depuis plus de 25ans, s’est joint à Fraser MilnerCasgrain à titre d’associé en2009. Il a développé une exper-tise de pointe dans toutes lesquestions relatives aux relationsentre propriétaires et locataires,en plus d’exercer en droit com-mercial général. M. Chaimbergest d’ailleurs reconnu comme avocat émérite en matière de ocation immobilière dans l’édition2009 du magazine Lexpert.

Jeffrey Edwards, BCL’86,LLB’86, a publié la seconde édi-tion de son ouvrage, La garantiede qualité du vendeur en droitquébécois (Wilson & Lafleur) durant l’hiver 2009. Spécialisé en droit de la construction, Jeffrey Edwards est chef dusecteur litige au cabinet TutinoEdwards Joseph à Montréal et il a été également été chargé decours à la Faculté de droit deMcGill. Me Edwards agit égale-ment comme arbitre et média-teur auprès de plusieurs centresd’arbitrage, particulièrementdans les différends pour lessecteurs de la construction et dela responsabilité du fabricant.

Kathy Fisher, BCL’83,LLB’84, was awarded the Life-long Learning Award in March2009 by the University of Alberta. In 2007, she was part of CBC’s Poetry Face-off, and in2009 she won the Spring FeverSpoken Word Poetry Competi-tion in Calgary.

Michael Hamelin, BCL’85,LLB’86, was reappointed to theImmigration and Refugee Boardof Canada by Citizenship, Immi-gration and MulticulturalismCanada for a one-year term. Before his first appointment on November 1997, Hamelin owned aprivate practice specializing incorporate, commercial, familyand immigration law, as well asgeneral litigation. He is also afounding member of the Parc-Extension Community ActionCommittee.

Meg Kinnear, LLB’81, who hasworked for the Canadian govern-ment since 1984, recently left herpost as Director General of theTrade Law Bureau of Canada totake over the helm at the WorldBank’s International Centre forSettlement of Investment Dis-putes in June 2009. Kinnear willbe the first full-time Secretary-General of ICSID; until this point,the job has also involved actingas General Counsel to the WorldBank.

AlumNotes

What’s new? Send your AlumNotes to Laurel Baker, inFocus Editor-in-Chief: telephone (514) 398-3424 or email [email protected].

34 FACULTY OF LAW AUTUMN 200934 FACULTY OF LAW AUTUMN 2009

Richard H. Ling, BCL’83,LLB’86, is Counsel in the Torontooffice of Borden Ladner Gervais.Prior to joining BLG, Ling was asenior partner with Ling andWong. He has spent extensivetime practising corporate law inChina and Canada and currentlysits on the Board of Directors ofPowerstream Inc. and the Sunny-brook Foundation. In 2007, hewas also named chair of CancerCare Ontario.

Jacques A. Nadeau, BCom’79,BCL’82, a été nommé juge à laChambre de la jeunesse de laCour du Québec à Montréal enoctobre 2008. Admis au Barreauen 1983, il a pratiqué le droit danstrois grands cabinets montréalais,principalement en droit du tra-vail, de l’emploi et des droits dela personne. M. Nadeau est notamment membre du Conseild’administration de l’Associationdes Centres jeunesse du Québec.Il est également l’auteur deplusieurs publications en droit dutravail. Au moment de sa nomina-tion, il était associé au cabinetHeenan Blaikie.

Geneviève Marcotte, BCL’86, a été nommée juge de la Coursupérieure du Québec en août2008. Reçue au Barreau duQuébec en 1987, elle exerçait ledroit au sein de la société HeenanBlaikie, après avoir été avocatechez Lavery de Billy entre 1987 et1998. Madame la juge Marcotteest spécialisée dans les domainesdu contentieux des affairesciviles et commerciales.

François Ouimet, BCL’88,LLB’88, a été réélu député de lacirconscription de Marquette,qu’il représente depuis 1994, lorsdes élections provinciales du 8décembre 2008. François Ouimetest actuellement membre de laCommission des institutions etde la Commission de l’Assembléenationale, ainsi que Président dela Commission de l’économie etdu travail et Adjoint parlemen-taire à la ministre de la Justice.

Dr. Henri Pallard, LLB’84, washonoured in November with theLaurentian University’s ResearchExcellence Award for 2007–08. A renowned expert in the prac-tise of French common law, Pallard is a founding director ofthe Centre international de recherche interdisciplinaire sur le droit at Laurentian University,and has been a professor withthe university’s Law and JusticeDepartment since ’86.

Claire Holden Rothman, BA’81,BCL’84, wrote a fictionalized account of Maude Abbott, one of McGill’s first female graduates.Published by Cormorant in March2009, the novel follows Abbott’sjourney to becoming a renownedcardiologist and curator ofMcGill’s medical museum – de-spite having been initially refusedadmission to McGill’s medicalschool in the 1800s. Rothmanworks in Montreal as a teacher,translator and writer.

Martha Shea, BCL’84, LLB’84,was featured as Lawyer of theWeek in the March 6, 2009 edi-tion of the Lawyer’s Weekly. Shea co-founded the QuebecCollaborative Law Group in 2002,the world’s first francophone col-laborative law non-profit organi-zation.

Joseph-John Varga, BA’87,BCL’91, LLB’91, and his wifeEdith-Cecilia were blessed withthe birth of their first child,Joseph-John Varga, Jr in October2008. Varga has participated inmany McGill phonathons, andserved as Professional and LegalOfficer for the McGill Associationof University Teachers since 1994.

Kathleen Weil, BA’77, BCL’82,LLB’82, was elected to the Que-bec National Assembly repre-senting the Montreal riding ofNotre-Dame-de-Grâce and ap-pointed to the Executive Councilof Quebec in December 2008(see story, page 9). She also sitson the Comité ministériel dudéveloppement social, éducatifet culturel, and serves as vice-chair of le Comité de législation.

THE 90s

Hugo Cyr, BCL’97, LLB’97, apublié en mars un ouvrage s’inti-tulant Canadian Federalism andTreaty Powers – Organic Consti-tutionalism at Work (Bruxelles:P.I.E. / Peter Lang, 2009). HugoCyr est professeur au Départe-ment des sciences juridiques dela Faculté de science politique et de droit de l’Université duQuébec à Montréal. Il se spé-cialise dans les domaines du droitconstitutionnel et de la théoriedu droit.

Caroline Ferland, BCL’95,LLB’95, a été élue présidente duConseil d’administration du Centre d’accès à l’information juridique en septembre 2008. Le CAIJ a pour mission de rendre accessible l’information juridiqueaux membres du Barreau duQuébec et de la magistrature, oùqu’ils soient. Caroline Ferland estdirectrice des Services juridiques(Corporatif), chez Imperial Tobacco Canada.

Douglas W. Garson, BCL’91,LLB’91, was appointed AssistantDeputy Attorney General withthe Department of Justice by thegovernment of Nunavut. Garsonhas been living and working inIqaluit since the mid-’90s.

Véronique Hivon, BCL’94,LLB’94, a été élue députée de lacirconscription de Joliette lorsdes élections provinciales du 8décembre 2008 et aussi nomméeporte-parole de l’opposition offcielle en matière de justice.

Robert Keller, BA’97, BCL’01,LLB’01, not only works as alawyer in the Big Apple, but hasalso been spotted performingstand-up comedy at some ofNew York City’s top comedyclubs, including Caroline’s, StandUp New York and the Gotham

Comedy Club. He has also per-formed at L.A.’s Comedy Store,as well as in Canada and the U.K.

Martin Jan Valasek, BCL’98,LLB’98, was selected by the International Chamber of Com-merce (ICC) as the Canadian representative to the Young Arbitrators’ Forum. Valasek prac-tices in the area of internationalarbitration at Ogilvy Renault, and serves as both President ofYoung Canadian Arbitration Practitioners and the RegionalRepresentative for North America (Canada) of the YoungInternational Arbitration Group,an organization sponsored by theLondon Court of International Arbitration.

THE 00s

William Amos, BCL / LLB’04,helped to successfully intervenebefore the Supreme Court ofCanada in the Ciment du St-Laurent v. Barrette case. Amosand a team of pro-bono lawyersfrom Ecojustice and the firm ofLauzon Bélanger were challeng-ing a Quebec Court of Appealdecision they argued would impair the rights of citizens tolaunch class action lawsuits overenvironmental harm. Amos is apart-time professor at the uOttawa–Ecojustice Environ-mental Law Clinic.

Ava Chisling, BA’86, BCL /LLB’06, is a long-time magazineeditor who went into privatepractice specializing in medialaw, after articling at the Montrealoffice of Borden Ladner Gervais.Her clients range from club DJsand rock stars to publishers andauthors, and she is a frequentcontributor to the National Magazine of the Canadian BarAssociation. Chisling is also theManaging Director of Strut, acompany which produces an


Got a story idea? See contactinformation on facing page.

AlumNotes

award-winning magazine and an online website for a major retailer.

Julien Fouret, LLM’03, publiaitce printemps son Recueil descommentaires des décisions duCIRDI (2002–07) aux ÉditionBruylant dans la collection Droitet mondialisation, dirigée par letitulaire de la Chaire Oppen-heimer en droit public interna-tional, François Crépeau. JulienFouret est avocat au Barreau deParis, au sein du cabinet Derains Gharavi & Lazareff.

Jeff King, BCL / LLB’03, was recently appointed to a four-yearCUF Fellowship in Law. King is aFellow and Tutor in law at BalliolCollege (Oxford) and a ResearchFellow at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. Previously, he wasa Research Fellow and Tutor inpublic law at Keble College(2007–08) and Legal ResearchFellow at the Centre for Interna-tional Sustainable DevelopmentLaw (2002–07). Having gone toOxford to read for a DPhil in2004, he has been focusing hisresearch on the role of courts inwelfare rights adjudication.

Stephen Gough, BA’98, BCL /LLB’08, was inducted in the NewBrunswick Sports Hall of Fame inSaint John on June 6, 2009.Today, the medal-winning formerspeedskater lives in Montreal,where he coaches the nationalshort-track speedskating team inpreparation for the VancouverOlympics.

Gregory Rickford, MP, BCL /LLB’05, won his first bid for theriding of Kenora during the October 2008 elections. He is amember of the House of Com-mons Standing Committee onAboriginal Affairs and NorthernDevelopment, as well as the JointStanding Committee on the Library of Parliament. He alsoChairs the All Party Tourism Caucus for the 40th Parliament.

Pierre-Etienne Simard,BCL’02, LLB’02, was chosen bythe Quebec Government as“young volunteer of the year”and was presented with theClaude-Masson Award in a ceremony on April 22, 2009 inQuebec City. As an active volun-teer, Simard has served on morethan 20 executive committeesand boards of directors, notablyas Vice-President of the McGillLaw Students’ Association and President of the Montreal JuniorBoard of Trade. ]

Architectural details: Old Chancellor Day Hall andNahum Gelber Law LibraryPHOTOS BY GERRY L’ORANGE

Kudos & Recognitions 2009 Lifetime AchievementAward from the CanadianGeneral CounselDavid P. Miller, BCom’72, BCL’75, LLB’76

2008–2009 Lexpert’s Leading Lawyers Under 40Eric Levy, BA’91, BCL’95, LLB’95Bryan C. G. Haynes, BA’90, LLB’93Marie-Andrée Vermette,LLB’95, BCL’97

WXN 2008 Canada’s MostPowerful Women: Top 100Isabelle Courville, BCL’91Françoise Guénette, BCL’76

Celebrating Bar Anniversaries50 YearsHarold Ashenmil, BA’54, BCL’57, QCTrevor H. BishopBA’54, BCL’57Lawrence Capelovitch, BA’52, BCL’56Paul Dingle, BCL’57, QCIrving Finkelberg, BCL’57William N. Gagnon, BCL’57H. David Gregory, BCL’57Harold Gossack, BCL’57H. Laddie Schnaiberg, BA’54, BCL’57, QC

60 YearsJérôme Choquette, BCL’48, crP. Emmet Kierans, BCL’48, QC ]

Jean-Paul Dufour,BCL’58

Bruce Cooper, BSc’85, LLM’85

Arthur Bruneau, BA’47, BCL’49

Dianne Lillian Dutton, BCL’91, LLB’91

Richard F. Pennefather,BSc’48, BCL’55

Isle A. Cohen (née Sternberg), the widow of

Professor Emeritus Maxwell

Cohen (1910–1998), passed

away on Friday Nov. 14, 2008,

in Ottawa. Mrs. Cohen was

very attached to the Faculty

in which her husband served

as Dean and had some of

the finest moments in his

distinguished career as an

international law scholar, a

celebrated teacher and inno-

vator in university-based legal

education. The Maxwell and

Isle Cohen Fund was estab-

lished this year to honour

the memory of both Isle and

Maxwell Cohen and will be

used to create a graduate

symposium in international

law (see story on page 8). ]

In Memoriam



Class of 1958 pays homage to popular professor

As a law student at McGill in the ’40s,Gerald Le Dain studied under notedpoet and lawyer F. R. Scott. He laterwent on to become a McGill law profes-sor himself, and eventually a Justice ofthe Supreme Court of Canada. Now, justover a year after his death, many of thepopular professor’s former students

from the Class of ’58 have joined the Le Dain family in establishing a new fund designed to support student activi-ties at McGill’s Faculty of Law.

Justice Le Dain’s son Eric called the fund a fitting tribute tohis father, who was known for his commitment to younglawyers not only as a professor, but also through his work asa Supreme Court Justice, where he helped provide guidanceand inspiration to law students selected for clerkships. “Hewas particularly fond of his early classes, and took pride intheir many accomplishments.”

The Gerald Le Dain Fund in Constitutional and Adminis-trative Law will be used to support student activities connected to legal education, notably student researchassistantships. The endowed fund now sits at $50,000, including gifts and pledges received over the past year, andis expected to grow as more donations come in.

Gerald Le Dain was born in Montreal on Nov. 27, 1924.After service overseas during the Second World War, he returned to his hometown and enrolled at McGill’s Facultyof Law. He obtained his BCL in 1949, and later that yearpursued further studies in France. During the 1950s and1960s, Gerald Le Dain practised law in Montreal and alsotaught constitutional law at McGill University for eightyears. He later accepted a position as Dean of Osgoode HallLaw School. In 1975, Le Dain was appointed to the FederalCourt of Appeal and the Court Martial Appeal Court, waselevated to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1984, and madea Companion of the Order of Canada in 1989. Justice Gerald Le Dain died at the age of 83 on Tuesday, Dec. 18,2007, in Toronto. ]

For information on contributing to the Le Dain fund, please contact:

Tribute Paid to Gerald Le Dain

Melissa PoueymirouInterim Director of DevelopmentFaculty of LawMcGill University3644 Peel StreetMontreal qc h3a 1w9(514) [email protected]

Former Supreme Court Justice passes away at age 80

Charles Doherty Gonthier, BCL’51,LLD’90, was known to the legal commu-nity as a scholar, philosopher and origi-nal thinker. To us, at the Faculty of Law,he was a close friend and role model.

After graduating from McGill, CharlesGonthier was called to the Quebec Bar

in 1952 and began his legal career in Montreal. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1971, elevated to the Benchin 1974 and appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1989. Thefollowing year he joined the ranks of the Supreme Court ofCanada, from which he retired in 2003. He then returned to private practice with McCarthy Tétrault, and brought re-newed energy to the Faculty as a Wainwright Senior Fellow,and as a governing board member at the Centre for Interna-tional Sustainable Development Law.

Justice Gonthier is fondly remembered by generations ofMcGill Law students who were fortunate enough to workwith him as law clerks. Most of them will never forget thesplendid summer reunions he organized in the idyllic set-ting of his country home. They will remember him as a manof extraordinary kindness, humanity and wisdom who possessed a tireless determination to do the right thing.

Après avoir quitté la magistrature, l’honorable CharlesGonthier a donné un appui considérable à l’élaborationd’une normativité juridique du développement durable enconsacrant un temps combien précieux au cisdl. Cet appuidélibéré s’inscrivait parfaitement dans la philosophie poli-tique du juge Gonthier qui, à une époque parfois fortementcentrée sur l’individu conçu dans l’immédiat, aura souventrappelé l’importance des valeurs de communauté et de fra-ternité envisagées sur la durée. La disparition de cette voixunique est une perte immense pour nous tous.

En plus de cette pensée riche et originale, Charles Gonthiernous laisse en héritage le souvenir d'un homme empreintd'humilité, dans un monde où l'orgueil est si répandu. Ilétait toujours affable et bienveillant et surtout, il montraitun intérêt sincère pour les jeunes juristes auxquels il donnaittemps et énergie sans compter. It is for this commitment toyoung jurists that the Faculty created the Charles D. Gon-thier Outstanding Young Alumni Award last September (seestory, page 7).

Charles Gonthier passed away on July 17, 2009. He leaveshis wife of nearly 50 years, Dr. Mariette Morin, MD, MSc,frcs(c), facog, five sons, and nine grandchildren. ]

Daniel Jutras, doyen intérimaire

Faculty Mourns Charles Gonthier

PHOTO © SUPREME COURT OF CANADA

MARC CRAMER

Canada Post CorporationPublications Mail Agreement 40613662

Communiquez avec nous / Keep in touchThe McGill community offers a host of events, career developmentand networking opportunities for its alumni. To stay connected, let us know where you are and what you’re up to.

Update your contact information online:www.mcgill.ca/law/alumni/stayintouch

Or contact the Faculty of Law:Office of Development and Alumni Relations3644 Peel StreetMontreal QC H3A 1W9

Phone (514) 398-3679Fax (514) 398-4659Email [email protected]

www.mcgill.ca/law

The third floor of the newlyrenovated New ChancellorDay Hall is completely devoted to student space(see story, page 33).

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