Plenary Session 4
Integrating Critical Race Theory into the Curriculum of Canada’s Law Schools
November 13, 1 - 2 p.m. EST
“Critical Race Theory'' has been much-discussed but little-understood over the past year in the wake of global uprisings for racial justice. Various state authorities across the United States have sought to limit discussion of race and racial inequality, while a group of benchers at the Law Society of Ontario are organizing for the next Law Society election on a campaign to “STOP WOKE” and “REMOVE social engineering, identity politics and critical race theory from the Law Society''. In contrast, various calls have been made for more critical study of race in law: many law schools across Canada have specifically sought out new hires whose work explores racial justice and groups of scholars in the United States have been organizing to develop new law school curriculums that better engage with the exigencies of the present moment. Why does critical analysis of racial inequality inspire so much opposition amongst certain groups? Is the current cycle of censorship against speech linked to racial justice unique or part of a broader historical pattern? And what does it mean to integrate critical race theory into the Canadian legal curriculum specifically, and in Canadian legal education more broadly?
Moderator:
Joshua Sealy-Harrington, Assistant Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law
Panelists:
Scott Franks, Assistant Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law
Dr. Angela Lee, Assistant Professor, Lincoln Alexander School of Law
Patricia J. Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law Emerita, Columbia Law School
Donna E. Young, Inaugural Dean, Lincoln Alexander School of Law
Joshua Sealy-Harrington is a passionate teacher, scholar, and advocate. Drawing on critical race theory, Sealy-Harrington’s current research, external link explores the ways in which law mediates racial hierarchy, with a particular focus on how criminal and constitutional law subordinate Black and Indigenous people, and relatedly, construct notions of racial identity — including through dialogue with gender, sexuality, disability, and class.
Further, as a functionally bilingual lawyer at Power Law, external link, Sealy-Harrington’s advocacy strategically mobilizes criminal and constitutional law to advance the interests of marginalized communities. He has appeared before various courts, including as lead counsel before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Sealy-Harrington writes and speaks broadly. His writing has been featured in several law journals and news outlets (including The Globe and Mail and Newsweek), and has been cited by various tribunals (including the Supreme Court of Canada). Further, he is a frequent speaker to public, private, and academic institutions, including law schools across Canada, the National Judicial Institute, the Department of Justice, the Indigenous Bar Association, and the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada.
Also an active volunteer, Sealy-Harrington was editor-in-chief of the Canadian Bar Association’s Law Matters magazine for three years, drafts the annual moot problem for the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada’s Isaac Moot, and is a mentor with Black Future Lawyers.
Scott Franks is an assistant professor in the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. His doctoral research investigates the judicial construction of Métis legal identity in the Alberta Métis settlements. His LLM research investigated barriers and opportunities to the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action in law schools.
Franks clerked for the Honorable Madam Justice Andromache Karakatsanis at the Supreme Court of Canada and practised at Olthuis Kleer Townshend L.L.P., a national Indigenous rights law firm. He has a juris doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School and is an alum of McGill University (Political Science) and Lester B. Pearson, United World College of the Pacific. Franks is a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation and is from northern Saskatchewan.
Dr. Angela Lee joined the Lincoln Alexander School of Law as an Assistant Professor in 2020. She received her JD at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia and her PhD from the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law. As a first-generation immigrant, law school graduate, and academic, she strongly believes in the importance of representation, and is committed to mentoring and supporting those who are similarly situated.
Lee’s research interests lie at the intersection of law and policy, technology and innovation, the environment, society, and various forms of justice. Her doctoral work, in which she develops a framework for "technology justice" in the context of Canada's agri-food sector, was supported by a number of scholarships and awards, including a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law’s Shirley E. Greenberg Scholarship and Scholarship in Environment and Sustainability. Her recent research examines the state of innovation policy in Canada, arguing that improved understanding and broadened conceptions of innovation are necessary in order to better direct innovation towards shared social and environmental ends.
Patricia Williams is the James L. Dohr Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia Law School.
She has served on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin School of Law, City University of New York Law School, and Golden Gate University School of Law. Williams was a fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth College, as well as at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Williams practiced as deputy city attorney for the Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney and as staff lawyer for the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
She is published widely in the areas of race, gender, and law, and on other issues of legal theory and legal writing. Her books include The Alchemy of Race and Rights; The Rooster's Egg; and Seeing a ColorBlind Future: The Paradox of Race. Williams has also been a columnist for The Nation.
Williams was a MacArthur fellow, and served on the board of trustees at Wellesley College.
Donna E. Young is the inaugural dean of the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. Before assuming her deanship, she was the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School and a joint faculty member at the University at Albany’s Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her teaching and scholarship focus on law and inequality, race and gender discrimination, and academic freedom and university governance. She has taught courses in Criminal Law, Employment Law; U.S. Federal Civil Procedure; Gender and Work; and Race, Rape Culture, and Law.
Dean Young is much sought after as a speaker and has been invited to present her work at conferences and other venues around the world. She has been a staff member at the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP) Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure, and Governance, in Washington, D.C. and was a member of the AAUP's Committee A, the preeminent national body setting standards and investigating academic freedom disputes in the United States. She has been a Fellow at Cornell Law School's Gender, Sexuality, and Family Project; a Visiting Scholar at Osgoode Hall Law School's Institute of Feminist Legal Studies; an Associate in Law at Columbia Law School; a Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Law at Roma Tre University in Rome, Italy; and a consultant to the International Development Law Organization for whom she traveled to Uganda to conduct field research on the relationship between gender inequality and law in the context of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Dean Young was an articling student at Cornish Roland, a labour law firm in Toronto; at the Ontario Human Rights Commission; and at the Legal Department of the City of New York, Mayor's Office of Labor Relations. She is admitted to practice in New York State.