Tag: UN SDG 16

Osgoode Fellow to focus on environmental law, Indigenous land rights

Trowbridge Conservation Area Thunder Bay Ontario Canada in summer featuring beautiful rapids and Canadian Forest with blue sky on summer

Osgoode Hall Law School master’s student Julia Brown, the 2023-24 Environmental Justice & Sustainability Clinic (EJSC) Fellow, hopes she can play a part in ensuring the development of Ontario’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire region, on First Nations land in the environmentally sensitive Hudson Bay Lowlands, does not take place without the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous people who live there.

Julia Brown
Julia Brown

Brown will work with leaders of Neskantaga First Nation in an effort to draft the terms of a workable partnership with the Government of Canada as it prepares to undertake a regional environmental assessment prior to any mineral development. The assessment is taking place under Canada’s Impact Assessment Act, which replaced the Environmental Assessment Act in 2019.

Brown said the original terms of reference for the regional assessment gave First Nations in the area only token participation in the process. After strong pushback, the federal agency involved agreed to review the terms.

“That was disappointing,” she explained, “because this legislation was supposed to be a real improvement in terms of the roles that First Nations would play.

“That was a glaring omission,” she said. “Whether development should go ahead really should be up to the people who live there and whose land it is.”

While various levels of government have recognized the importance of reconciliation, they are still reluctant to give up control – especially when it comes to mineral wealth, Brown remarked.

The federal assessment will be among the first to look at a whole region; environmental assessments are typically project specific. Brown said the Ontario government has, to date, declined to participate in the federal process and is carrying out separate assessments focused only on proposed roads connecting the area to the provincial highway system.

“There is no precedent for the federal government in terms of how this regional assessment has to be structured,” she explained. “So we’ll be working on how it could be structured so there is a real partnership between First Nations and the federal government.”

Last year, Neskantaga First Nation marked its 10,000th day of being under a hazardous drinking water advisory, despite federal commitments to fix the problem. Located 463 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont., the fly-in community is situated amid a vast wetland that acts as a huge carbon sink.

Some have called the region the “lungs of Mother Earth,” and the First Nations people there call the region the “Breathing Lands.” In total, the Ring of Fire region spans about 5,000 square kilometres and is rich in chromite, nickel, copper, platinum, gold, zinc and other valuable minerals – some of which are required for battery production.

Brown, who previously worked as a lawyer for Toronto-based OKT Law, the country’s largest Indigenous rights law firm, said she feels fortunate to be working with the Environmental Justice & Sustainability Clinic and its current director, Professor Dayna Nadine Scott – and the feeling is mutual.

“We feel very fortunate this year at the EJSC to have someone with Julia’s depth of knowledge and experience to be stepping into the role of clinic Fellow,” said Scott.

As part of her graduate research, Brown will focus on the issue of emotion in judicial reasoning and how that influences Indigenous title cases. Her research adviser is Professor Emily Kidd White.

Copyright could make or break artificial intelligence, says prof

Artificial intelligence: A human hand shakes a robot hand

Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Carys Craig is stepping into the role of associate dean of research and institutional relations at a time when her own scholarship is posing fundamental questions about society’s next technological shift and the future of artificial intelligence (AI).

Carys Craig
Carys Craig

Craig, who will serve in this new role over the next year, argues in a series of recent articles and presentations that the text and data mining required for AI to produce anything could potentially clash with copyright law, significantly hampering the development of the technology or changing its direction.

“The way I see it now, copyright is the thing that could make or break AI,” she said. “The question about whether training AI involves making copies that constitute copyright infringement is an enormous issue.”

An internationally recognized intellectual property (IP) law expert, Craig said that, more than ever, the interaction of law and technology is forcing legal scholars to re-examine legal principles and concepts that may have been taken for granted – especially when it comes AI. In many areas, she added, Osgoode is at the forefront of that process.

“When you have a technology that has this paradigm-shifting capacity,” she observed, “suddenly you’re looking at the law and you’re thinking, well, we always knew, for example, what copyright laws protected when something was authored, but we didn’t really know what an author was because we hadn’t really encountered that question before.

“We want to future-proof the law,” she added, “but we need to understand that the law will evolve and so we need to look at how technology is shaping the law, as well as the potential for the law to shape technology.”

In her new role as associate dean, research and institutional relations, Craig said she will be focused on continuing to enhance Osgoode’s vibrant research community post-pandemic, supporting its researchers, communicating their successes and improving the public’s understanding of the importance of legal research.

In particular, Craig said, she will work hard to ensure that students feel that they’re an integral part of Osgoode’s research community. The law school’s curriculum aids in that by ensuring students are engaged in legal research and scholarly writing, especially with its upper-year writing requirement, editorial opportunities with its leading law journals and the annual JD Research Symposium.

“It’s easy for them to get caught up in their studies and their deadlines and their exams and their grades, but being at Osgoode gives you a real opportunity to participate in an intellectual community,” she said. “We want to see the students here and engaged in that scholarly conversation.”

In addition to her role as an associate dean, Craig is director of IP Osgoode, which explores legal governance issues at the intersection of IP and technology. She is also editor-in-chief of the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. A recipient of multiple teaching awards, she is often invited to share her work and expertise with academic audiences, professional organizations, policymakers and the press. Her publications are regularly cited in legal arguments and judicial opinions, including in several landmark rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada.

To read some of Craig’s recent work on AI and copyright law, visit works.bepress.com/carys_craig.

Supreme Court justice welcomes first-year students to Osgoode

gavel and notepad

Andromache Karakatsanis (LLB ’80), Osgoode Hall Law School alumna and Canada’s longest-serving Supreme Court justice, welcomed Osgoode’s Class of 2026 with an encouraging speech and some words of wisdom.

Andromache Karakatsanis
Andromache Karakatsanis. Photo by Jessica Deeks Photography,
Supreme Court of Canada Collection

Appointed to the Supreme Court in 2011, Justice Karakatsanis looked back fondly on her legal education at Osgoode, and especially her experience at Parkdale Community Legal Services, which she called “transformative.”

“That was one of the reasons that I came to Osgoode,” she told the students. “I grew up in an immigrant household, in a warm, supportive environment. At Parkdale, I encountered people who had not had that, and it really opened my eyes. It brought home for me that the law is about helping people.”

Karakatsanis, who grew up in Toronto working in her parents’ Greek restaurant, told the students that they will quickly learn in the legal profession that their reputation is everything. And that, while advocacy is important, it should not cloud their ethical standards, analytical skills or good judgment. 

“How you live your life is as important as what you do in your life,” said Karakatsanis. “So how you can enrich the community, the human connections we make and the small kindnesses are just as important as any grade you achieve.”

During a question-and-answer session following her speech, incoming Osgoode Dean and Professor Trevor Farrow noted that Justice Karakatsanis’s message resonated strongly with the school’s distinctive emphasis on legal ethics – beginning in first year with its first-semester Ethical Lawyering in a Global Community course.

Karakatsanis went on to advise students against feeling the need to have a grand plan for their law career. “No matter what you choose to do in life, law school will serve you well,” she said. “These skills will prepare you to open your mind to the world and to become involved in your communities. Be open to opportunities that interest or challenge you.”

She left the students with one final takeaway about dealing with career or academic disappointment and persevering despite it. After law school, she said, her goal was to become a Crown attorney, but she was passed over. “I was devastated,” she recalled. “I thought my career was over before it began.

“Why do I tell you this story?” she asked. “Because when one door closes, another opens.”

Osgoode prof co-edits book celebrating work of legal philosopher John Gardner

glasses and pen resting on notebook

Osgoode Hall Law School Professor François Tanguay-Renaud has co-edited the first book celebrating the contributions to legal thought of John Gardner, a former professor of jurisprudence at the University of Oxford, who succeeded renowned legal philosophers H. L. A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. Gardner was a giant of legal philosophy in his own right, who died after a fight with cancer in 2019.

François Tanguay-Renaud
François Tanguay-Renaud

From Morality to Law and Back Again: A Liber Amicorum for John Gardner was also edited by Michelle Madden Dempsey, a law professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. The edited collection features essays by 16 leading legal academics who benefited from Gardner’s guidance or were once his graduate students, including Tanguay-Renaud and Madden Dempsey themselves. It includes contributions from legal scholars from Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the U.K., Israel and Hong Kong, and is available for pre-order now from Oxford University Press.

The term “liber amicorum” from the title is Latin for “book of friends” – and that captured the spirit of the project, said Tanguay-Renaud. Unlike some prominent legal thinkers, he noted, “John was someone who really invested a lot of time and effort in his students. His incisive thought and extraordinary generosity really impacted a lot of people.”

Tanguay-Renaud described the volume as a handbook or guide to the many issues of legal philosophy that Gardner explored, and an attempt to spark new discussions.

His own chapter, titled “State Crimes,” draws on Gardner’s scholarship to examine whether legal norms should be developed that criminalize some instances of state wrongdoing. “The chapter argues that they may be, both conceptually and legitimately, at both the levels of international and domestic law,” he explained. “In the process, the essay makes the case for the introduction of more overtly punitive remedies in the public law context, such as under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”

Tanguay-Renaud, a former lecturer in law at Oxford, said the title of the book captures one key organizing thought underlying Gardner’s thinking: that the law often tracks moral norms that apply to all of us and often derives its justification from them. But the law also refines, reshapes and adds to morality.

Gardner applied this insight not only to general legal philosophy, but also to the study of specific fields of the law such as tort law, contract law, discrimination law, criminal law and public law, said Tanguay-Renaud. Many of Gardner’s insights are collected in the numerous books he published over the years, including Law as a Leap of Faith: Essays on Law in General (2012), From Personal Life to Private Law (2019) and Offences and Defences: Selected Essays in the Philosophy of Criminal Law (2007).

”In many ways, John’s work showcases the practical value of legal philosophy for both lawyers and ordinary citizens,” said Tanguay-Renaud, who regularly teaches courses on criminal law, criminal procedure, emergency law, foundations of Canadian law, the philosophical foundations of criminal law, jurisprudence and the rule of law.

“John’s work really gives us a window into a certain perspective of what the foundations of the law are,” he said. “I think it’s important for lawyers and judges to sometimes take a deep breath and ponder the underlying rationales for the doctrines they’re applying and the larger social enterprise they are engaged in. It allows them to be more deliberate professional actors and to help guide the evolution of the legal systems within which they act in sounder ways.”

The image of Justitia on the cover of the book, Tanguay-Renaud explained, is taken from a gargoyle at Oxford’s All Soul’s College that was sculpted in Gardner’s memory. A guitar is hidden in the hair of the gargoyle because the prominent legal philosopher was also an avid musician and an all-around lover of life.

Tanguay-Renaud added that the book underlines Osgoode’s strength in legal philosophy, which is also reflected in the work of Osgoode professors such as Allan Hutchinson, Emily Kidd-White, Jennifer Nadler and Dan Priel.

Dahdaleh Institute summer interns to showcase global health research

Global health

The Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research (DIGHR) invites York University community members to its fifth Summer Global Health Intern Symposium on Aug. 30.

DIGHR poster

Throughout the summer term, Dahdaleh global health interns have been undertaking exciting research projects that address critical global health challenges.

On Aug. 30, eight interns will reflect on their internship and deliver a short presentation about the experience, knowledge and skills they have gained, and will share progress on their research projects, including:

DIGHR research
Global health interns
  • experiential-based simulation learning;
  • effects of resource insecurity on health outcomes;
  • mental and emotional health and wellness;
  • post-pandemic public health reforms; and
  • impact of human behaviour on antimicrobial resistance.

To learn more about this event, or to register to attend, visit yorku.ca/dighr/events/5th-summer-global-health-intern-symposium.

Lunch will be provided. All are welcome to attend.

The Dahdaleh Institute is currently hiring the next cohort of global health interns for the upcoming Fall/Winter 2023-24 academic year. All interested applicants are encouraged to visit the DIGHR website to learn more.

York community supports Black inclusion through action

Black female students women alumni

York University’s second Annual Report on Black Inclusion is now available to the community. The annual report provides highlights and updates to the community on work and progress relating to York’s Framework on Black Inclusion and Action Plan on Black Inclusion.

Annual Report on Black Inclusion

The report outlines the progress made on the 81 calls to action under the nine thematic areas in the framework. In addition to renewing York’s commitment to addressing anti-Black racism, the report highlights that many partners across the York community encountered challenges in implementation and calls on the community to be supportive, collaborative and creative in finding solutions to overcome these challenges.

The community has continued to advance the work and supported more than 100 activities that took place across the University in the second year of implementation. Continued support from community members and efforts toward combating anti-Black racism on York’s campuses will be significant in working toward systemic change based on the guiding values in the framework.

“The actions reported in the Annual Report on Black Inclusion are aimed at breaking down the systematic barriers that for too long have affected the Black community on our campuses,” said Interim Vice-President Equity, People and Culture, Alice Pitt. “York continues to be committed to social justice and addressing the impact of anti-Black racism and white supremacy that pervades academia. Transformation of systems and colonial institutions takes time, and the York community is taking up the work to enable such transformation.”

York University remains a signatory to the Scarborough Charter and is committed to promoting intersectional Black flourishing, fostering inclusive excellence, enabling mutuality and ensuring accountability. In addition, the recently launched Decolonizing, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy connects to plans across the University, including the Framework on Black Inclusion.

For a detailed review of the actions undertaken across the University community, visit: Annual Report on Black Inclusion.

Osgoode students help win deportation reprieve for Kazakh family

Judge signing papers

Louis Althaus and Brandon Jeffrey Jang, second-year students at Osgoode Hall Law School, spent three weeks in June testing their practical knowledge of frontline immigration law learned through the School’s Community & Legal Aid Services Program (CLASP) to advocate for an at-risk migrant family facing expulsion.

Guided by CLASP’s veteran immigration lawyer, Subodh Bharati, the pair mobilized every legal strategy available to keep the family – who remain unnamed for privacy purposes – from being forcibly returned to Kazakhstan, where they faced potential persecution and death.

Thanks in part to their hard work in winning a last-minute reprieve, the family’s 14-year-old daughter, who was voted valedictorian by her Grade 8 classmates days before the deportation was to take effect, now has a chance of realizing her dream of becoming a doctor in Canada.

“It was a privilege to work on this case and have so much of the family’s trust,” said Althaus. “We were so thrilled to turn it around and get them the best result we could have hoped for.”

Throughout the case, Jang and Althaus filed a 180-page stay motion to the Federal Court of Canada; detailed affidavits to support a humanitarian and compassionate (H&C) application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC); and submitted a deferral request to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Getting to know the family helped the students add critical information to the H&C application, originally prepared by a Toronto law firm. “It was important to us that we brought their stories to life,” Jang said.

Louis Althaus and Brandon Jeffrey Jang
Louis Althaus and Brandon Jeffrey Jang

The family’s 2017 escape from Kazakhstan, where the father, a shopkeeper, was beaten and threatened with death by a local gang, reunited him with his brother and sister in Canada and enabled him to care for his sister, who was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. In the six years that followed, the family’s three children became fluent in English and excelled in school.

Althaus, who is originally from Germany, and Jang, a Scarborough native, said many law firms would not have had the resources to delve so deeply into the family’s story on a legal aid retainer. The experience “truly highlighted the magic” of Osgoode’s clinic system, added Althaus.

The two Osgoode students said they were also inspired by Bharati’s guidance and will carry those lessons with them.

“Subodh taught us to be courageous and to take initiative,” said Althaus. “He’s willing to fight for his clients on all fronts and to exhaust every avenue possible within the judicial system – and he has instilled that in us, too.”

Bharati said CLASP offers an incredible opportunity to students.

“They are able to work directly with vulnerable and marginalized people who truly need them,” he explained. “In doing so, they see, not only the privilege an Osgoode education affords them but their immense capacity to do good. These experiences will stay with them for the rest of their careers.”

“Just hearing the real difference you can make actually doing work on a case and having a real influence on someone’s life – that was something I was drawn to,” Jang said of his reason for joining CLASP. “I wanted an opportunity to help give a voice to people who need it the most, and CLASP provides a specialized opportunity to do so. After a few months working here, I can truly say that the clinic believes in its students.”

Althaus likewise said Osgoode’s wide selection of clinical programs was intriguing when it came time to pick a law school.

“When I chose Osgoode, I chose it knowing it has the most extensive clinical system in the country,” he noted. “I don’t think I could have worked on a case like this at any other law school.”

Study abroad offers unparalleled experiential education opportunity

Klassen and students looking out onto the DMZ and North Korea

Professor Thomas Klassen led students to Seoul for his course South Korea: The Politics of Youth and Old Age, which saw them tour universities, museums, the Canadian embassy, palaces, temples, the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and demonstrated the uniqueness of experiences provided by York University.

York students visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace dressed in traditional hanbok
York students visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace dressed in traditional hanbok, from left: Oshini Gamage, Diana Shytakova, Jedd Kenedy, Sarah Persaud and Parmeen Khaira

Offered amongst an array of courses organized yearly by the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) for the newly relaunched summer abroad program, South Korea: The Politics of Youth and Old Age (GLBL 3581) led students through the streets of Seoul as they navigated the political debates of the day, sparked by the friction between competing generations in South Korea – a young country with an aging population.

Common across this year’s summer abroad courses, the global political studies course began with a period of intensive study at York’s Keele Campus, where – in this case – students learned an overview of Korean history, culture and the topography of the current political landscape. The class departed for Seoul in May, where they attended seminars at Yonsei University and Chung-Ang University alongside local students; visited exhibits at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, the Seoul Museum of History, the National Museum of Korea and the Seodaemun Prison History Hall; and met with policy experts in one of the world’s most politically fraught regions.

Central to York’s University Academic Plan is the “goal of providing every student with an experiential learning opportunity, regardless of program,” which inspired Klassen to arrange a personalized briefing from staff at the Canadian Embassy. There, the students asked diplomats questions pertaining to everything from Canada-Korea relations to how to join Canada’s foreign service.

York University and Chung-Ang University students visiting the Korean House cultural centre
York University and Chung-Ang University students visiting the Korean House cultural centre

Rouslan Kats, head of the Political, Economic & Public Affairs Office at the Embassy of Canada in South Korea, said following the visit, “It was such a pleasure hosting you and the students at the Embassy.

“Fantastic to see so much interest for Korea and the work we do here,” Kats added. “The future of Canada-Korea relations is in excellent hands.”

For the students, one element of the trip stood out as the climactic event – a full-day trip to the DMZ separating North and South Korea, where they would enter the iconic blue negotiating building that straddles the border.

While in the northern part of the building the students officially stood on North Korean territory, an accomplishment claimed by an exceedingly small number of people. Visiting one of the most heavily armed borders in the world offered an opportunity for the class to experience the impact of the division of the Korean peninsula.

Klassen and students looking out onto the DMZ and North Korea
Klassen and students looking out onto the DMZ and North Korea

“It was an extraordinary experience… my classmates and I were able to learn about Korean history, politics and culture firsthand,” said Jedd Kennedy, a student who took part in the course. Classmate Oshini Gamage added, “This course will be one of my fondest memories of my undergraduate university education.”

A testament to the breadth of opportunities the course offered, students selected a fascinating range of topics for their individual field research. Topics included the politics of kimchi; the controversial legacy of South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee; the mix of art and politics in the Comfort Woman Statue Memorial and the role of the standardized national university entrance exam.

The students returned to Canada in June with a collection of unique memories and a broader, heightened understanding of the careers across the globe to which their educations could lead.

Highlighting the enthusiasm and willingness of the students to engage with a new culture, Klassen said, “they were wonderful ambassadors not only for York University, but for Canada, with all those we met in Korea. I am so impressed with the amazing group of young people for taking every opportunity to learn and explore their environment.”

York scholar examines dental health in Ontario’s Indigenous Peoples

Dentist tools

Vrati Mehra, a York University graduate student, conducted a study that revealed more than one-quarter of Indigenous Peoples go to the dentist only for emergencies, which raises the critical need for policy to improve oral health for the population.

The findings and results of the collaboration with Faculty of Health Professor Hala Tamim were published in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health in an article titled “Prevalence and Factors Associated with Visiting the Dentist Only for Emergency Care Among Indigenous People in Ontario.”

“This study is important because it is one of the first to highlight the extent of poor dental care use among this population,” Mehra explains.

Hala Tamim and Vrati Mehra
From left: Hala Tamim and Vrati Mehra

Mehra’s work utilized data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, one of the biggest national health surveys administered in the nation, which collects health-related data on Canadians aged 12 years and older across all provinces and territories. Mehra’s study also examined a 2017 Auditor General of Canada report, which revealed that Inuit and First Nations people have nearly twice as much dental disease as other Canadians and that Health Canada has little insight into whether dental programming for Indigenous Canadians is improving oral health.

It’s one reason why Mehra’s article also stresses the policy implications of how the social programs that deliver health services to Indigenous Peoples must be routinely assessed and improved to cater to the needs of this population and be better tailored to confront the social determinants – the broad range of personal, social, economic and environmental factors that determine individual and population health – that hinder Indigenous Peoples from using these services.

“This over-reliance on emergency treatment not only means worse health outcomes for patients, but also leads to greater long-term health-care costs for the province as well as the patient,” Mehra says. “Although social dental care programs do exist, it is unclear as to how efficacious they are. It is important that we routinely assess and amend these programs to accommodate the needs of this population.”

York ranks among top universities making global impact for positive change 

Times Higher Education Impact Rankings banner

By Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile editor

York University continues to stand out as a global leader in building a more just and sustainable future by driving positive change through the shared vision and collective actions of its faculty, course directors, staff, students, alumni and community partners.

The University is positioned among the world’s top 40 universities for advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 2023 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings which measure how more than 1,500 universities work to address the most complex and compelling societal issues of our time.

The results of the rankings – the only global report of its kind – recognize York’s interdisciplinary research and innovation strengths in sustainability, inclusivity and equity that have earned the University placing in the top three per cent of universities in the world overall.

Work to advance the SDGs is rooted in the University Academic Plan as reflected in York’s vision to provide a broad demographic of students with access to high-quality education at a research-intensive University that is committed to enhancing the well-being of the communities it serves.

“York University continues to be recognized worldwide for its leadership in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. York’s top 40 ranking is a testament to the ongoing commitment of our faculty, staff, students and instructors who have taken up the challenge outlined in our University Academic Plan to strengthen our impact,” says President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “I am grateful to the entire York community for driving positive change and building a better future for everyone.”

The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings considers factors such as research, stewardship, outreach and teaching to determine the rank for each institution. York’s position in the rankings speaks to its strong global standings in the SDGs, with nine of 17 ranked in the top 100. Learn more about the rankings here.

York’s commitment to answering the call to right the future reflects the dedication of faculty, instructors, staff, students and alumni to research, academic pursuits and campus initiatives that advance more inclusive, equitable and sustainable communities.

York community members are encouraged to update their email signatures with the latest rankings and see other ways to amplify this achievement by using this toolkit.