Category: Legal News

Posts about legal news generally: new cases, interesting external posts, events, or items of legal news not necessarily connected to UVic Law.

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Jeremy Webber to be inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Congratulations to Jeremy Webber, Dean of Law, who will be inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Webber will be inducted as a Fellow on November 18th at Royal Society of Canada’s Induction and Awards Ceremony in Kingston, Ontario.

Election to the Royal Society of Canada is the highest honour granted to Canadian scholars in the fields of arts, humanities and sciences.

From the Royal Society of Canada citation:

Jeremy Webber, Trudeau Fellow and twice-appointed Canada Research Chair in Law and Society, is among the world’s most influential scholars in constitutional theory and legal pluralism. He has made outstanding contributions to both Canada and other countries on issues of constitutional reform, Indigenous rights, religious freedom, transitional justice and minority rights…

You can read Webber’s full RSC citation here and more about his induction in UVic News.

Webber has produced a number of groundbreaking works over the past 30 years including two authored and one coauthored books, four edited books, and over 60 book chapters and articles. Below are just a sample of the publications Webber wrote or contributed to:

  • The Constitution of Canada : A Contextual Analysis / Jeremy Webber (2015). Call number: KE4219 W42 2015
  • Recognition Versus Self-Determination : Dilemmas of Emancipatory Politics / edited by Avigail Eisenberg, Jeremy Webber, Glen Coulthard, and Andrée Boisselle (2014). Call number: GN495.4 R43 2014
  • “A Two-Level Justification for Religious Toleration” (2014) 4 Journal of Indian Law and Society 1. Online
  • Storied Communities : Narratives of Contact and Arrival in Constituting Political Community / edited by Hester Lessard, Rebecca Johnson, and Jeremy Webber (2011). Call number JC311 S84 2011
  • Between Consenting Peoples : Political Community and the Meaning of Consent / edited by Jeremy Webber and Colin M Macleod (2010). Call number: JC328.2 B465 2010
  • “The Grammar of Customary Law” (2009) 54 McGill Law Journal 579. Online
  • Let Right be Done : Aboriginal Title, the Calder Case, and the Future of Indigenous Rights / edited by Hamar Foster, Heather Raven, and Jeremy Webber (2007). Call number: KE7715 L47 2007
  • “Legal Pluralism and Human Agency” (2005) 44:1 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 167. Online
  • “Beyond Regret: Mabo’s Implications for Australian Constitutionalism” in Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples edited by Duncan Ivison, Paul Patton and Will Sanders (2000). Call number GN380 P65
  • Reimagining Canada : Language, Culture, Community and the Canadian Constitution / Jeremy Webber (1993). Call number: JL27.5 W42 1993 and Online

 

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National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

On Tuesday (August 2), the federal government released the terms of reference for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The government also released the names of the five inquiry commissioners, including two UVic Alumni, the Honourable Marion Buller (B.A. 1975; LLB 1987) who will serve as Chief Commissioner, and Quajaq Robinson (LLB 2005). The other three Commissioners are:

  • Michèle Audette
  • Marilyn Poitras
  • Brian Eyolfson

The terms of reference, in part, call on the Commissioners to:

Inquire  into and to report on:

  • systemic causes of all forms of violence — including sexual violence — against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, including underlying social, economic, cultural, institutional and historical causes contributing to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and
  • institutional policies and practices implemented in response to violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada, including the identification and examination of practices that have been effective in reducing violence and increasing safety.

Make recommendations on:

  • concrete and effective action that can be taken to remove systemic causes of violence and to increase the safety of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and
  • ways to honour and commemorate the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

Read the full Terms of Reference here.

For more background information see the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls website and the several research, studies and reports that the Commissioners are referred to in the Terms of Reference:

  • Final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015). E96.5 T78 2015; [Electronic]
  • Report of the inquiry concerning Canada of the Committee of the Elimination of Discrimination against Women under article 8 of the optional protocol to the Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women / United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (2015) [Electronic]
  • Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia, Canada / Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2014). [Electronic]
  • Missing and murdered Aboriginal women : a national operational overview / Royal Canadian Mounted Police (2014). [Electronic]
  • Invisible women : a call to action : a report on missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada : report of the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women / Stella Ambler, chair (2014). [Electronic]
  • Forsaken : the report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry / Oppal Commission, British Columbia (2012). [Electronic]
  • What their stories tell us : research findings from the Sisters in Spirit initiative / Native Women’s Association of Canada (2010). [Electronic]
  • Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. KF8205 A3384 1996
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Section 35 Métis Rights and the Manitoba Metis Federation Decision

Metis Report

Thomas Isaac,  the Ministerial Special Representative to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada,  released his report on Métis reconciliation yesterday. Last June Mr. Isaac was appointed by the federal government to lead engagement with the Métis organizations and other interested parties to set out a framework for dialogue on Métis rights and reconciliation in response to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Manitoba Metis Federation et al v Canada, 2013 SCC 14.

You can read Mr. Isaac’s report and background information about the report here.

For more background information check out these items at UVic Libraries:

  • “Métis” : race, recognition, and the struggle for indigenous peoplehood – Chris Andersen. ELECTRONIC;  FC109 A53 2014
  • Métis in Canada : history, identity, law & politics – edited by Christopher Adams, Gregg Dahl & Ian Peach. FC109 M492 2013
  • Métis-Crown relations : rights, identity, jurisdiction and governance – Frederica Wilson & Melanie Mallet, editors. ELECTRONIC; FC125 M48
  • Métis rights – Thomas Isaac. E99 M47 I83
  • From recognition to reconciliation : essays on the constitutional entrenchment of Aboriginal and treaty rights – edited by Patrick Macklem and Douglas Sanderson. KIB1810 F76 2016
  • From new peoples to new nations : aspects of Métis history and identity from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries – Gerhard J. Ens and Joe Sawchuk. E99 M47E57 2016
  • “The people who own themselves” : recognition of Métis identity in Canada : report of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples –  The Honourable Vernon White, chair ; The Honourable Lillian Eva Dyck, deputy chair. ELECTRONIC
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South China Sea Arbitration

The Permanent Court of Arbitration released its unanimous arbitral award yesterday (July 12, 2016) in  The Republic of Philippines v. The People’s Republic of China. The arbitration between the Philippines and China concerned the status of certain maritime rights of the respective parties and the lawfulness of certain actions by China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s press release and Award can be read here.

To learn more about the dispute, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, check out these resources at UVic Libraries:

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Call for Papers: First Nations, Land, and James Douglas

Readers may be interested in a Call for Papers issued recently by the Songhees Nation and UVic Faculty of Law, for the forthcoming conference, First Nations, Land, and James Douglas: Indigenous and Treaty Rights in the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 1849–1864.

The organizers welcome individual and panel proposals “from researchers, legal professionals, and community members, on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

1) Relations between First Nations and James Douglas
2) Indigenous and Colonial Concepts of Land, Law and Territory
3) Hunting and Fishing Rights
4) The End of Treaty-Making
5) The Roles of the HBC and the Colonial Office
6) The History of Douglas Era Reserves
7) Current relevance of these historical events.”

The deadline for proposals is June 21, 2016.

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Opinion piece by UVic Law graduate student

UVic law graduate student Preeti Dhaliwal wrote a piece published in the Victoria Times-Colonist on the Prime Minister’s recent apology for Canada’s treatment of those aboard the Komagata Maru. She wrote about the historic importance of that apology; the impact and significance of Canada’s decisions at the time of the Komagata Maru event; and the relative emphasis in the press of this apology and the underlying event, as compared with other apologies the Prime Minister delivered the same week and the events giving rise to them.

Read Preeti’s piece, and read more in UVic Libraries’ holdings about the Komagata Maru incident.

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Members of the UVic Law community respond to TRC recommendations

This past June, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) released its executive summary and recommendations. Since the release of the recommendations, members of the UVic Law community have embraced the recommendations. In a recent post on Slaw, Dean Jeremy Webber, writing on behalf of the Council of Canadian Law Deans, outlines what the recommendations mean for Canadian law schools and outlines some of the promising initiatives at UVic Law that can be built upon to meet the goals of the recommendations. Professors Gillian Calder and Rebecca Johnson also recently reflected on the TRC’s recommendations and what it means for legal education in Canada on the Canadian Lawyer blog.

You can read Dean Webber’s post here and Professors Calder and Johnson’s post here. UVic Law’s response to the TRC’s recommendations is also available online.

The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is available online.

To learn more about the TRC, check out these items at UVic Libraries:

  • They came for the children: Canada, Aboriginal peoples, and residential schools / Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Online.
  • Truth and indignation: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools / Ronald Niezen. Call Number: E96.5 N53 2013.
  • Unsettling the settler within: Indian residential schools, truth telling, and reconciliation in Canada / Paulette Regan. Call Number: E96.5 R44 2010.
  • Response, responsibility and renewal: Canada’s truth and reconciliation journey / edited for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation by Gregory Younging, Jonathan Dewar, Mike DeGagné. Online.
  • The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission / Julian Walker. Online.
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March 7: UVic Law Community Conference 2014

The annual UVic Law Community Conference, 2014 edition, is this Friday, March 7. The free event welcomes students from all faculties and communities, and all who are interested are also welcomed.

This year’s focus is to provide a venue to discuss solutions to the problem of access to justice in Canada.

Read about the 2014 Community Conference, and see the Program for the lineup of top-notch speakers and sessions.

Research help service in the law library will be available by appointment on March 7th. Please contact lawref@uvic.ca to schedule an appointment.