Honouring the retirement of Martha Jackman from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, this Symposium will centre on the legal commitments that have animated Professor Jackman's career pursuing social justice through teaching, scholarship, test case litigation and feminist activism.

Martha Jackman graduated from law school in 1985. While she was a law student, Canadian feminists fought for and secured broadly framed equality guarantees in the text of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the Charter came into force. Professor Jackman's professional life as a feminist legal activist was shaped by these events. For 35 years, her work has been dedicated to insisting that Canada's new constitutional rights, particularly sections 7 and 15, be interpreted expansively and that Canadian governments be held accountable for failures to conform to these constitutional mandates.

Throughout her career, Professor Jackman has pressed for interpretation of s. 7 as substantive guarantee of positive social and economic rights, not just as a guarantee of procedural protections or civil liberties. She has demanded a substantive approach to s. 15 in line with its language and legal history. She has been a fierce advocate for dispossessed groups, especially people living in poverty, and has pursued their constitutional rights to a humane standard of living, to housing, to secure and adequately funded safety nets, and to the social and economic determinants of good health, including universally accessible public health care. She has advocated for Charter protections for undocumented migrants, refugees and applicants for immigration. As a teacher and advocate, Professor Jackman has also created tools to equip new generations of feminists as substantive rights advocates.

This Symposium gathers scholars, lawyers and equality activists who continue to see meaning in pursuing social justice through legal—including constitutional—change.

Location

Desmarais Building, Room 12102
55 Laurier Ave. E.
Ottawa, Canada

Languages

The majority of panels will be in English. Live translated captions in both languages will be available for all panels.

Registration

Registration is free to all.

With kind support from
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Speakers

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