2015-16 Positions with the Obiter Dicta Hey Osgoode! The Obiter Dicta is Osgoode’s source for news, stories, and opinions about your school and the legal community. If you want to become involved with one of Osgoode’s most wellrecognized, independent student organizations, you can apply now by emailing obiterdicta@osgoode.yorku.ca We are looking for students interested in the following...
OSGOODE HALL LAW SCHOOL 2012 – 2015 It is a beautiful coincidence that two of the last three film reviews published in the Obiter Dicta during the 2014-2015 academic year are Wild Tales and It Follows. The latter reinforces the significant impact that Osgoode will have on our future lives and careers moving forward, while the former rather accurately captures our experience over the past...
On 1 April, the Toronto Public Library will launch their first ever Law at the Library series, which focuses on helping Torontonians solve common legal problems. According to CFCJ Executive Director Nicole Aylwin who sits on the Law at the Library Steering Committee, the goal of Law at the Library is to “empower people by expanding access to knowledge and resources that may help Torontonians more...
To Faculty Council: We are very pleased to learn that the University and CUPE 3903 appear to have reached an agreement that meets the membership’s demands. As law students burdened with debt and facing uncertain futures, we recognize CUPE 3903’s needs—for affordable tuition, for equitable employment practices, for job security—as consistent with our own. CUPE 3903 struck to create better...
We are a group of Osgoode Hall Law School alumni writing to you in regards to the CUPE 3903 strike at York University. We wish to address both the administration and students in voicing our support for CUPE 3903 and the law students who are refusing to cross the picket lines in solidarity. Our Message to the Administration of Osgoode Hall Law School Why we support CUPE 3903 and Osgoode Hall Law...
Societies are judged by the manner in which they treat their most vulnerable. How will ours be judged? Over the course of less than one week in January, two homeless men died out in the cold. They died because they were exposed to the elements with no place to go, not in a far-flung developing nation, but here in Toronto. In an epoch when nearly everyone has a phone that can count steps walked...
Editorial Note: Second-year JD student Ryan Robski was chosen as this year’s Dean for a Day. He was supposed to have moved into the Dean’s Office on 5 March. In light of the labour disruption, however, Ryan and Dean Lorne Sossin decided to forego trading places. Here is Ryan’s award-winning essay submission for the 2015 Dean for a Day contest. Remember “Big Block of Cheese Day”...
“We have to overcome distrust and hostility, make things compatible, and become agreeable. For this to happen, from the Inuit perspective, many things need to be considered.” – Amagoalik, Jon. 2012 The Arctic is changing. The thawing of permafrost and icecaps induced by climate change has shaken Inuit livelihood and led to an international push for resource exploration and development...
It’s not our fault; saving the world from climate change just isn’t in our nature There’s nothing terribly sexy or salacious to be found in talks of environmental degradation or resource depletion—and rest assured, you likely won’t be the life of the party as you enlighten your guests on the disastrous effects of oil spills, acid rain, and urban runoff. In fact, for many people, environmental...
As the composition of the law school student body has evolved, so too, have the rules of the game. Some have welcomed these changes, while others demand more; others still lament what they consider to be hyper-sensitivity and the stifling of free speech. These changes probably seem radical to those who have never been exposed to critical perspectives on topics such as gender and race. A thorough...
Why are we so apathetic about environmental injustice and indigenous suffering, Canada’s two most famous shames? “Going green” is not just a seasonal recommendation for Canadians; it is a moral imperative. “Continuance of life depends on sustenance and it is the duty of everyone to nurture and protect the land. As women we have a special relationship to Our Mother the Earth because we also give...
A plan without enforcement is no plan at all Alberta has released a new set of rules that it says are designed to limit water use from the Athabasca River. In addition, companies will be expected to diminish the growth of tailings ponds (pools of wastewater from bitumen extraction) and ensure that these ponds have been reclaimed within ten years of the end of a mining project. While these new...
Osgoode’s environmental law mooting program is alive and well. As a member of Osgoode Hall’s 2015 Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot team, I am pleased to report that the 7 March competition went (almost) as well as we could have hoped for. While nine law schools from coast to coast were represented at the competition (from the University of Victoria all the way to Dalhousie University)...
Shaking up the Business Community’s Climate Change Complacency Climate change—although a hot-button issue for environmentalists and a concern of many Canadians—has taken a political backseat in recent years. This has allowed the fossil fuel industry and investors to delay thinking about transitioning to a low-carbon economy. The wait is over. The growing understanding of the carbon bubble is set...
Scarcity, Precarity, and the Untenable Living Conditions of Our First Nations in the North It is not without hesitation that I use the term “third world”—a term long fallen out of favour. In the next few lines, I hope to prove that my choice was justified. Dirty floors, little, if any, access to healthcare, and food staples priced out of reach. This is the reality for many rural Aboriginal...
On 13 March 2015, the Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters—which was assembled in 2008 at the invitation of the Chief Justice of Canada as a catalyst for meaningful action to justice reform—convened a meeting for provincial and territorial access to justice groups in Toronto, Ontario. The groups met to discuss the future of access to justice in Canada following the...
Brought to you by the Osgoode Sustainability Committee As we lead up to the end of the semester here are some tips to reduce the environmental footprint (although maybe not entirely the stress) of exams and final papers. Choose double-sided printing for your summaries: Preparing summaries can be hard enough! Save your back and binder space by printing your summary out on both sides. You can do so...
What comes first for faculty during the strike? Osgoode Hall Law School is caught in the crosshairs of yet another York University labour disruption by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903 (CUPE 3903). The union represents contract faculty, graduate assistants, and teaching assistants, only the latter two of which remain on strike. On 3 March, the university suspended all classes...
The Travails of Resuming Law School on a Struck Campus Recent developments at Osgoode Hall are conspiring to introduce an unseemly innovation on 16 March 2015: two-tiered legal education. But first, a brief recap on how we got to this point. On 6 March, following four days of strike action, CUPE 3903 leaders agreed to put the York administration’s latest offer to a ratification vote. The offer...
135 Osgoode students urge Dean Sossin to respect the CUPE 3903 strike and not resume classes until a negotiated deal is reached. Dear Dean Sossin, We are writing to express our support for members of CUPE 3903 currently on strike at York University. As students and future practitioners of law, we view this strike as the exercise of a constitutionally-protected right, one which deserves...
From Vulvas to Butt-Sex For the first time since the Spice Girls reigned supreme, Ontario’s students through grades one to eight will have a new Health and Physical Education curriculum. On 23 February the new curriculum was released. It details learning correct terms for body parts in grade one, different sexual orientations and gender identities in grade three, masturbation in grade six, and...
Bill C-51 and Bill C-279 as Obstacles for the Progression of Social Justice in Canada The law can be used as a tool to empower people associated with social differences—which pertain to the social construction and intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, ability, class, and caste in society—but it can can also be used to further oppress people associated with social differences. The actions...
Canada’s Aboriginal Women A domestic violence issue: that is how Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt characterized the crisis of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Implicit in this characterization is that this is an Aboriginal problem of which Canadians and the Canadian government can wash their hands. The very premise is fallacious, and the consequences could not be more dangerous...
The Social Injustices of Clinical Drug Trials in the Global South Capitalism: a word that describes a society where an alarming number of things can be bought and sold. Land, air, resources, people’s thoughts and ideas—all are liable for exploitation and depletion in service of an expanding market. The human body has also become a site of market expansion and profit generation. Countries such as...
CLEO’s Fiona MacCool on accessible information In November 2014, the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice launched a new series on the A2J blog titled “Access to Justice Advocates.” The series is a response to recent reports that have underscored the importance of innovation and imagination in the pursuit of access to justice. At CFCJ, we understand that such efforts come down to people—to the diverse...