Advancing People-Centred Justice in Canada: Data Sharing and Knowledge Building
May 26–28, 2026
Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Aaron Leakey
Aaron Leakey is a Research Fellow at the BC Access to Justice Center for Excellence and the Director of the Legal Design Lab at the University of Victoria. Aaron is a PhD student in Law and Society at the University of Victoria who studies the intersection of perceived justice and participatory legal design in the context of violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV). Over the summer of 2026, Aaron will be conducting research on the way that participatory legal design methodologies vary by cultural, legal, institutional, and political context in various jurisdictions around the globe. At UVic, Aaron is a sessional professor in law in the fields of dispute resolution, access-to-justice and legal design. Additionally, Aaron is a mediator who holds certifications from Family Mediation Canada (Cert. FMC Advanced) and Mediate BC (Cert. RMM), and has a history of instruction at the Justice Institute of BC, the BC Ministry of Attorney General, and Mediate BC, where Aaron is the current manager of training. Academically, Aaron holds a Master's Degree in both theology (MDiv) and dispute resolution (MAdr), with the latter focusing on the specialized discipline of dispute system design. Aaron trains in conflict resolution and legal design on the following specialized topics: trauma-informed mediation, intimate partner violence, intersectional design, and decolonial approaches to mediation process and design.
Ab Currie
Ab Currie, Ph.D. (Sociology, University of Toronto) is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice where he is mainly involved in research on various topics related to the everyday legal problems experienced by the public. He is also presently conducting research with a number of community legal clinics in Ontario on innovations in service delivery based on outreach, and developing people-centered and community-focussed approaches to justice. Prior to joining the Canadian Forum Ab was Principal Researcher at the Department of Justice Canada where he conducted research in legal aid and other areas of access to justice for more than three decades. He has conducted extensive research in criminal and civil legal aid, including unmet need for criminal legal aid and four national civil legal needs surveys in Canada.
Adrian Di Giovanni
Adrian Di Giovanni is the Team Leader for Democratic and Inclusive Governance at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), where has worked since 2011. In his current role, he oversees a portfolio of applied research projects that seek to improve human rights, justice and democracy across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Prior to that, at IDRC, he spearheaded a stream of research on law and development, focusing on public law, human rights and legal empowerment. Past professional roles have included Counsel for the Department of Justice Canada’s Human Rights Law Section, and for the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency. Adrian holds an LLM in international law from New York University and a JD from the University of Toronto. He occasionally teaches on justice, human rights and development and has worked previously in Uganda and Tanzania. A proud dad of two inquisitive if mischievous boys.
Alexandra Pasca
Alexandra Pasca est avocate depuis 2011. Diplômée d’un Baccalauréat en droit de l’Université de Montréal (2007), d’une maîtrise en droit comparé (2016) et un doctorat en droit civil de l’Université McGill (2023), elle est récipiendaire de plusieurs bourses et prix d’excellence pour ses travaux. Son mémoire de maîtrise a reçu le Prix de l’Association Henri-Capitant. Sa thèse de doctorat a reçu plusieurs bourses, notamment du Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FQRSC).
Alexandra Pasca a une expérience significative en recherche et en gestion. Depuis plus d’une décennie, elle collabore à des projets d’envergure, subventionnés et en équipe, menés en partenariat avec la communauté juridique et le milieu communautaire. Elle a assuré la direction par intérim à la Fondation du Barreau du Québec (FBQ), avant de se joindre en 2022 à l’Institut québécois de réforme du droit et de la justice (IQRDJ) à titre de directrice générale.
Allison Leadley
Allison Leadley, PhD, is the Guided Pathways Manager at Community Legal Education Ontario (CLEO), where she helps lead a multidisciplinary team in the maintenance and expansion of CLEO’s Guided Pathways—free online tools that help Ontarians fill out legal forms, draft letters, and identify their next steps for various areas of law.
She holds a PhD from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies.
Amélia Souffrant
EN: Amélia Souffrant is a member of the Quebec Bar and a Fellow at the Law Commission of Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Juris Doctor (B.C.L/J.D.) with a Minor in Sociology from the Faculty of Law of McGill University. Prior to joining the Law Commission of Canada, she clerked at the Federal Court. Following her term as a Fellow, she will clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada.
FR: Amélia Souffrant est membre du Barreau du Québec et boursière à la Commission du droit du Canada. Elle est titulaire d'un baccalauréat en droit civil et d'un Juris Doctor (B.C.L/J.D.) avec une mineure en sociologie de la Faculté de droit de l'Université McGill. Avant de joindre à la Commission, elle a été auxiliaire juridique à la Cour fédérale. Au terme de son mandat comme boursière, elle occupera un poste d'auxiliaire juridique à la Cour suprême du Canada.
Andrew Eckart
Andrew is the founding staff lawyer of the Class Action Clinic, a project of the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law.
The Clinic is the first of its kind with a mandate to provide legal services directly to class members by providing claims assistance, representation at settlement approval hearings, and independent legal advice, amongst other things. Since the Clinic’s founding in 2019, it has recovered over $2 million for class members.
Andrew teaches, supervises, and mentors student caseworkers who work directly with class members. He frequently guest lectures at Windsor Law and other faculties on class member rights.
Andrew previously practiced as a plaintiff-side class action litigator following a clerkship at the Superior Court of Justice, where he assisted judges on class action related matters. Andrew continues to also maintain a civil mediation practice.
Andrew Pilliar (Organizing Committee)
Andrew Pilliar is the Research Director at the BC Access to Justice Centre for Excellence (ACE), located at the University of Victoria. Previously he was an Associate Professor at the Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Law. Andrew holds a PhD and LLM in law from UBC, a JD from the University of Toronto, and a science degree from Queen’s University. He has been a visiting researcher at Central European University and at the University of Otago, has been an Action Canada Fellow, and was a Junior Fellow of Massey College.
Andrew’s research on access to justice has included mapping and modeling the supply of and demand for legal services in Canada, a case study of an innovative legal services organization, and research projects on public legal education and information, self-represented litigants, the motivations and experiences of pro bono lawyers, and justice epidemiology and how knowledge about the legal system is structured. He has presented on these topics to law students, lawyers, mediators, and judges across Canada and internationally.
Andrew is grateful to currently reside in Vancouver on the traditional and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
The Honourable Andromache Karakatsanis
Justice Andromache Karakatsanis is the longest serving justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, appointed in 2011. A judge since 2002, she served first as a trial judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and then as a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal. Before her appointment to the bench, she worked in the justice system in diverse capacities over two decades: as a lawyer in private practice; as Chair and CEO of a regulatory tribunal; as Secretary of Native Affairs for Ontario; and as Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Ontario. She subsequently served as Deputy Minister to the Premier, Clerk of the Privy Council and head of the Ontario Public Service, providing leadership to the Deputy Ministers and to 60,000 public servants.
Throughout her career, Andromache Karakatsanis has volunteered extensively and served on the boards of many community and professional associations. She has been recognized with numerous Medals and awards in her profession and community. She currently serves as Chair of the Action Committee on Access to Justice.
Anne Levesque
Anne Levesque is an associate professor in the French common law program at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, where she holds the Gordon Henderson Chair on Human Rights. She studied history and political science before receiving her LLB from the University of Ottawa. Anne obtained her Master’s in International Human Rights from Oxford University in 2016. Her research and her publications focus on human rights and public interest litigation. Anne was admitted to the bar in Ontario in 2008 and practiced human rights law in private practice and also in a community legal clinic. She appeared before several administrative tribunals, Canadian courts of all levels, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and regional and international human rights bodies. Anne is one of the lawyers who represented the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in its human rights case leading to a historic victory in 2016 which affirmed the right to equality for more than 165 000 First Nations children. Anne is actively involved in her community. She is currently a fellow with the Broadbent Institute and member of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.
Argyri Panezi
Dr. Argyri Panezi joined UNB Faculty of Law in 2023, after being awarded the Canada Research Chair in Digital Information Law and Policy. At UNB Argyri established and directs the Legal Innovation Laboratory. Together with her research team, she studies participatory policy-making methods in e-justice design to enhance access to justice for underserved communities. They are also exploring how to resolve some of the tensions that are arising from the digitization of justice systems, such as privacy, security and accessibility.
Ashley Stasiewich
Ashley Stasiewich is an instructor in the Paralegal Studies program at MacEwan University, where she has taught for the past six years, and a doctoral student in the Doctor of Education (Distance Education) program at Athabasca University. With over 20 years of experience in the legal field, her work focuses on paralegal education specifically, bridging the realities of paralegal practice, teaching, and curriculum design. Her teaching has been recognized with multiple awards for innovation and student-centred practice.
Audrerie Adeline
Biography to come.
Barbara Captijn
Barbara Captijn is a graduate of Queen's and McGill Universities. After a career in communications and advertising, she became interested, through her experience as a self-represented litigant, in the challenges facing new home buyers in Ontario who try to get construction defects fixed, or recover their deposit money, through the complex maze of laws and government agencies in Ontario.
For the last twelve years she has done unpaid advocacy work on consumer protection issues, accompanied many self-represented litigants to court as a friend and support, and advocated at various levels of government for improvements in consumer protection laws and better access to justice for new home buyers.
Over the past ten years, Barbara has written twenty-four articles published in The Toronto Sun newspaper, on new home buyer protection and access to justice, from the layperson's perspective. She has been active on social media as an advocate for consumers, made deputations to legislative Committees on consumer protection legislation, and provided input to Justice Douglas Cunningham's review of the Ontario warranty administrator (Tarion) in 2017, as well as the Auditor General of Ontario's review of this agency in 2019.
Part of Barbara's work on access to justice was inspired by a friend's wise words: being right and proving you're right in court are two different things.
Bérangère Desfonds
Biography to come.
Brea Lowenberger (Organizing Committee)
Brea Lowenberger is Strategic Advisor to the National Action Committee on Access to Justice; Saskatchewan's first Access to Justice Coordinator; Cofounder/Director of CREATE Justice, an access to justice action research lab at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) that is working on transforming legal and justice services and the removal of systemic barriers to justice; and a sessional lecturer for the award-winning Dean’s Forum on Access to Justice and Dispute Resolution course at the U of S.
Charlene Moore K.C.
Charlene joined Nova Scotia Legal Aid in August 1999 as a family lawyer. Her practice extended to include child protection and adult protection matters. She worked at the Dartmouth Legal Aid Office until 2012 when she joined the Halifax North Office and began a combined practice in family and social justice. Her social justice practice included administrative tribunal hearings for residential tenancies, Income Assistance and CPP-Disability along with judicial review hearings and strategic litigation. She was also co-counsel with Vincent Calderhead on the Emerald Hall human rights case involving the long-term institutionalization of persons with complex disabilities until February 2017 when she joined the Executive Office as Service Delivery Director. In January 2022, she became CEO of Nova Scotia Legal Aid. Charlene holds a B.A. in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University and an LL.M from Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University.
Charlene is a committed advocate for access to justice always looking for opportunities to adopt innovative and client centered approaches to the delivery of legal aid services. As Service Delivery Director and now as CEO, Charlene has been instrumental in the development of early intervention services for child protection, the provision of non-lawyer legal aid services in the areas of social justice, prison law, mental health and, social work services for NSLA's Indigenous and African Nova Scotian clients. Under her leadership in 2024, Nova Scotia Legal Aid in partnership with Sipekne’katik First Nation, opened a Legal Aid Office in Sipekne’katik First Nation.
Charlene is an active member of the Association of Legal Aid Plans and is an active participant in national conversations on the future of legal aid.
Christian Crytes
Biography to come.
Christiane Saad
Christiane Saad brings an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving, with experience at the intersection of law, higher education, technology, and management. She is committed to improving the collective quality of life through inclusive leadership, collaboration and responsible innovation.
She currently serves as the Director of Justice at the Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie. Previously, she contributed to access to the legal profession and competency development as Director of the University of Ottawa's Law Practice Program. She advises her clients in both English and French on corporate governance, responsible data management and privacy.
She holds both a JD and a civil law degree from the University of Ottawa and a Bachelor of Science in Urban Planning from the University of Montreal. She recently completed a master’s degree in law and technology, focusing her research on artificial intelligence and automated decision-making in the justice system.
Christiane also serves as Chair of the Privacy and Access Section of the Canadian Bar Association, Ontario Bar Association’s Chair of the Official Languages Committee, member of the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice in French of the Attorney General of Ontario and actively involved with several other community organizations.
===
Me Christiane Saad apporte une approche interdisciplinaire de la résolution de problèmes, avec une expérience à l'intersection du droit, de la formation postsecondaire, de la technologie et de la gestion. Elle s'est engagée à améliorer la qualité de vie collective par son leadership inclusif, la collaboration et l'innovation responsable.
Elle est la directrice du Réseau national de formation en justice à l'Association des collèges et universités de la Francophonie canadienne. Elle a contribué à l'accès à la profession juridique et au développement des compétences en tant que directrice du programme de pratique du droit de l'Université d'Ottawa. Elle conseille ses clients dans les deux langues officielles sur la gouvernance organisationnelle, la gestion responsable des données et la protection de la vie privée.
Elle est titulaire d'un juris doctor et d’une licence en droit civil et d'un baccalauréat ès sciences en urbanisme de l'Université de Montréal. Elle a récemment complété une maîtrise en droit et technologie, axant ses recherches sur l'intelligence artificielle et la prise de décision automatisée dans le système de justice.
Christiane est actuellement la présidente de la Section de la protection de la vie privée et de l'accès de l'Association du Barreau canadien, présidente du Comité des langues officielles de l'Association du Barreau de l'Ontario, membre du Comité consultatif sur l'accès à la justice en français du Procureur général de l'Ontario et active auprès d'organismes communautaires.
David Wiseman (Organizing Committee)
Biography to come.
Desy Wahyuni
Biography to come.
Diana Lowe K.C.
Diana Lowe, KC is the Senior Director of the Centre for Transformation at the University of Calgary. She is a lawyer by training, with 40 years of experience which includes legal practice, research, reform and transformation of the civil and family justice systems in Canada. The Centre supports the ongoing efforts to Re-imagine the Family Justice System, while also developing a deeper understanding of transformational change processes.
Prior to taking on this role with the Centre, Diana was the Executive Counsel to the Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta. She has been a Co-Lead of Alberta’s Re-imagining the Family Justice System (RFJS) initiative since it began in 2013. In the years after retiring from the Court in late 2020, she established a consulting practice – “Re-imagining Justice” which provided support for the Re-imagining the Family Justice System (RFJS) initiative in Alberta, and also supported collaborations with other Canadian jurisdictions interested in family justice system transformation.
The RFJS collaborators are seeking the outcome of family well-being, which they define as “helping families thrive”.
Dolapo Asaju
Dolapo Asaju is a Project Manager with over seven years of experience leading justice, community, and social service initiatives. She has a strong background in designing and implementing government funded programs, building community partnerships, and supporting teams to deliver trauma-informed, person-centred services.
Her work has focused on supporting individuals impacted by the justice system, with particular attention to addressing systemic barriers affecting BIPOC communities. Drawing on both professional experience and lived experiences, Dolapo brings a culturally responsive, strengths-based approach to program development that centers dignity, accountability, and meaningful outcomes. She is passionate about creating programs that empower participants and celebrate their successes.
Donald Netolitzky
Donald Netolitzky initially studied biology, receiving a Microbiology Ph.D. in 1995. After employment as a Department of National Defence biological defence researcher and biosciences and biochemistry instructor, Donald graduated from the University of Alberta Faculty of Law in 2005. In 2007, Donald joined the Alberta Court of King’s Bench as a court legal counsel, and between 2018–2025 was the Court’s Complex Litigant Management Counsel, where he assisted the Justices and Judges of the Court and Court personnel in management of and responses to abusive and vexatious litigants and litigation until his retirement. Alberta appointed Donald as King’s Counsel in 2022.
Donald has published and presented extensively in Canada and internationally on the history, nature, and implications of the pseudolaw phenomenon. His 2020 LL.M. thesis on 2017 Supreme Court of Canada SRLs was the first statistically valid population study of Canadian self-represented litigants. Twelve follow-up studies have further quantified Canadian trial and appellate litigation and self-represented litigant activities in multiple Canadian appeal and trial courts.
Doug Downey K.C. MPP
Biography to come.
Doug Ferguson (Chair, Organizing Committee)
Doug Ferguson is a passionate advocate for access to justice and organ donation. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Action Committee on Access to Justice and chairs its Research and Data Advisory Group, which organized this week’s conference.
Doug practised law privately for 20 years before becoming Director of the student legal clinic at the Faculty of Law at Western University, a role he held until 2020. It was there that he developed his enduring commitment to access to justice. He founded the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education and served as its first president.
With the Canadian Bar Association, Doug served on the Access to Justice Committee, authored a chapter in the landmark Reaching Equal Justice report, and chaired the Legal Aid Committee. He is a former director of the Ontario Bar Association and currently serves on its Council.
Doug continues to represent mental health patients and the Family Responsibility Office while also serving as a Small Claims Court judge and a member of a Law Society of Ontario Bar Exam Advisory Group.
A dedicated community leader, Doug has served as president of the Covent Garden Market during its redevelopment, president of the Canadian Club of London, and director of numerous community boards.
Doug is also a liver transplant recipient, an experience that deepened his commitment to organ donation. He served on the board of the Trillium Gift of Life Network and chaired the fundraising campaign for the transplant unit at University Hospital in London.
Drew Jackson
Drew Jackson, Digital & Content Lead, People's Law School
A lawyer and librarian, Drew has spent two decades advancing public legal education. He is the Digital & Content Lead at People’s Law School, a non-profit serving British Columbians. In this role, he leads content strategy and digital initiatives across websites, webinars, and the GenAI-powered Beagle+ chatbot. Drew is particularly interested in applying GenAI in bold, thoughtful ways to help people better understand and navigate everyday legal issues.
Elizabeth Sigouin
Biography to come.
Éliane Boucher
Éliane Boucher est doctorante en droit à l’Université d’Ottawa. Elle est également conseillère législative au ministère de la Justice du Canada depuis 2021. Ses recherches portent sur l’accessibilité des textes législatifs rédigés en français.
Éliane Boucher is a PhD candidate (Law) at the University of Ottawa. She has worked as a legislative counsel with the Department of Justice Canada since 2021. Her research focuses on the accessibility of legislative texts written in French.
L’Honorable Frédéric Pérodeau, j.c.s.
Frédéric Pérodeau est juge de la Cour supérieure du Québec depuis décembre 2020. Il y occupe les fonctions de juge coordonnateur du district de Montréal depuis novembre 2022.
Monsieur le juge Pérodeau a été admis au Barreau du Québec en 1998 après avoir obtenu un baccalauréat en droit de l’Université de Montréal où il s’est vu décerner la médaille de la Faculté. Il est également titulaire d’une maîtrise en droit des affaires de la même université et d’un baccalauréat en économique de l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il détient les titres d’administrateur de sociétés certifié (ASC) et de juriste d’entreprises agréé (JEA.C). Il a récemment complété le programme de transformation numérique offert par l’école d’ingénierie de l’Université Stanford, le Judicial Executive Programme du Singapore Judicial College et le Judicial Executive Leadership Program offert par Harvard Law School.
Il a entrepris sa carrière au sein du cabinet McCarthy Tétrault, dont il est devenu associé en 2005. Il y a pratiqué dans les domaines du litige civil et commercial et de la responsabilité professionnelle. Au moment de sa nomination à la Cour supérieure, il était surintendant de l’assistance aux clientèles et de l’encadrement de la distribution à l’Autorité des marchés financiers.
Giulia Reinhardt
Giulia Reinhardt is a Lawyer and the Executive Director of Halton Community Legal Services (HCLS). She is a graduate of the University of Ottawa and has practiced at several legal clinics in Ontario. Her work at HCLS has focused on shifting the clinic’s approach to holistic client service in the delivery of legal services.
Glenn Ng
Glenn Ng is a manager of program evaluation at the Social Security Tribunal Secretariat, a branch of the Administrative Tribunals Support Service of Canada. His work applies mixed-methods research to better understand tribunal performance, user experience, and access to justice—particularly for self-represented and vulnerable users.
He previously served in a similar capacity at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, the largest administrative tribunal in the country. Over 25 years working at the intersection of administrative justice and evaluation, Glenn has contributed to Government of Canada publications and spoken widely on topics related to evidence-informed tribunal design.
He is a graduate of York University and lives in Ottawa with his many legal dependents—3 kids and 2 cats.
Gustavo Maurino
Biography to come.
Hannah Main
Hannah Main is a Community Legal Worker at Dalhousie Legal Aid Service in Halifax, where she leads the Eviction Prevention Program. This involves coordinating research on access to justice for tenants and facilitating training on tenants’ rights.
Before coming to the legal aid world, she completed a PhD in Sociology at Dalhousie University and taught courses related to community engagement and economic development. She remains connected to her PhD research by serving as the administrative coordinator of the Common Ground Network, focusing on social science and humanities expertise in agriculture and food systems.
Hannah is securely housed on the south shore of Nova Scotia.
Jamie Maclaren
Biography to come.
Jasmine Redfern
Biography to come.
Jennifer Dagsvik
Jennifer Dagsvik teaches law at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, and works as a lawyer in immigration and refugee law in Thunder Bay. Called to the bar in 2007, she has appeared at all levels of court and has worked in a variety of practice settings, including the Department of Justice Canada, large and small private practice, and a legal clinic. She founded the Newcomer Legal Clinic 2021, in partnership with the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law and the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association. The clinic is the only free immigration and refugee legal service in Northern Ontario and focuses on representing clients and training future lawyers to serve remote and northern communities. Jennifer’s teaching and research focus on access to justice for migrants and refugees, with an emphasis on practical, community-engaged legal education. She is completing a research LLM at Osgoode Hall under the supervision of Janet Mosher.
Jennifer Leitch (Organizing Committee)
Jennifer Leitch, JD, LLM, PhD is the Executive Director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project. The NSRLP is a national note-for-profit corporation that engages in access to justice research, the development of resources for self-represented litigants and systemic advocacy and civil justice reform. She is also the Associate Director of and Assistant Professor in the Ethics, Society & Law program at Trinity College, University of Toronto. She researches and writes in the fields of access to justice, dispute processes and legal ethics. She also practiced civil litigation at Goodmans LLP in Toronto for 10 years.
Jennifer Stone
Jennie Stone is the Executive Director of Neighbourhood Legal Services (NLS), a community legal clinic serving downtown east Toronto. She previously worked at NLS as the clinic’s staff immigration lawyer (2011–2019) and, prior to joining NLS, co-founded the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre (now Justice Centre Hong Kong). She has held leadership roles with the Canadian Council for Refugees, including on its Executive Committee and as co-chair of its Legal Affairs Committee. At NLS, she and her colleagues lead the Health Justice Program, which provides embedded legal services for patients at St. Michael’s Hospital’s Family Health Team and supports cross-professional education and systemic advocacy on key social determinants of health.
Jessica Moye
Jessica Moye est titulaire d’un baccalauréat en droit coopératif de l’Université de Sherbrooke et d’une maîtrise en gestion de l’innovation sociale de HEC Montréal.
Membre du Barreau du Québec depuis 2018, Me Moye a acquis de l’expérience en litige civil et commercial, tant en cabinet privé qu’à l’Aide juridique de Montréal. Depuis juin 2024, elle occupe le poste de Directrice des programmes et des relations avec la communauté à la Fondation du Barreau du Québec.
Avocate, chercheuse et conférencière, Me Moye s’intéresse particulièrement à l’économie sociale et à l’accès à la justice. Son mémoire de maîtrise, déposé en 2025, explore le rôle de la participation citoyenne dans l’amélioration de l’accès à la justice au Québec.
Elle est également engagée dans des initiatives juridiques et socio-écologiques, notamment comme membre du Comité collaboratif citoyen de la Cour supérieure du Québec, et comme cofondatrice du Comité de transition écologique des pompiers et pompières de Montréal.
-
Jessica Moye holds a co-op bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Sherbrooke and a master’s degree in Social Innovation Management from HEC Montréal.
A member of the Quebec Bar since 2018, Me Moye has gained experience in civil and commercial litigation, both in private practice and with Legal Aid. Since June 2024, she is the Director of Programs and Community Relations at the Quebec Bar Foundation.
A lawyer, researcher, and speaker, Me Moye is particularly interested in the social economy and access to justice. Her master’s thesis, submitted in 2025, explores the role of citizen participation in improving access to justice in Quebec.
She is also involved in legal and socio-ecological initiatives, notably as a member of the Comité collaboratif citoyen of the Superior Court of Quebec, and as co-founder of the Comité de transition écologique des pompiers et pompières de Montréal.
Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly (Organizing Committee)
Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly is a lawyer and assistant professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, where his research focuses on access to justice in civil matters. He is particularly interested in legal and judicial reforms that promote people-centred justice and community participation. He holds a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from the University of Toronto, where he was a Vanier Scholar and a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada and as a civil litigation associate at Norton Rose Fulbright in Montreal. In addition to his research and teaching, he remains involved in several community initiatives, including pro bono constitutional litigation, various committees of the Canadian Bar Association, the National Self-Represented Litigants Project, and the Action Committee on Access to Justice. He is also a research affiliate at the Quebec Institute for Law and Justice Reform.
***
Jérémy Boulanger-Bonnelly est avocat et professeur adjoint à la Faculté de droit de l'Université McGill, où ses recherches portent sur l'accès à la justice civile. Il s’intéresse, plus particulièrement, aux réformes du droit et de la justice qui mettent de l’avant la justice centrée sur les personnes et la participation communautaire. Titulaire d’un doctorat en sciences juridiques de l'Université de Toronto, qu’il a obtenu à titre de boursier Vanier et de boursier de la Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau, il a également été auxiliaire juridique à la Cour suprême du Canada et avocat de litige civil chez Norton Rose Fulbright à Montréal. Parallèlement à ses activités de recherche et d'enseignement, il continue de s'impliquer dans plusieurs initiatives communautaires, notamment des recours constitutionnels pro bono, divers comités de l'Association du Barreau canadien, le Projet national sur les plaideurs non-représentés et le Comité d'action sur l'accès à la justice. Il est également chercheur associé à l’Institut québécois de réforme du droit et de la justice.
Josh Paterson K.C.
Josh Paterson, KC (he/him) is the Executive Director of the Law Foundation of British Columbia. The Foundation invests in work that empowers people and strengthens communities, through funding, collaborative relationships, and shared learning. The Foundation’s grantmaking is driven by its vision of a future where systems of law and justice support all people to live and thrive in dignity.
Josh was previously the Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, Canada’s oldest and most active civil liberties and human rights organization. During his time at the BCCLA, the organization’s groundbreaking legal challenges created substantial change in Canadian law, from winning the right to medical assistance in dying to overturning solitary confinement practices in Canada’s prisons. In 2020, Josh was the joint winner of the inaugural Hillman Canada Prize for Democracy and Social Justice.
Josh’s legal practice has included constitutional, First Nations, labour, human rights, and environmental law. He has served on several government advisory bodies and taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at UBC’s Allard School of Law for six years. He holds law and master’s degrees from the University of Toronto and clerked at Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice. Josh was designated King’s Counsel (KC) in 2023.
Julia Belanger
Biography to come.
Judy Jaunzems-Fernuk, RTC, MTC
Dr. Judy Jaunzems-Fernuk, RTC, MTC, serves as the Well-being Coordinator in the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan and is a full-time faculty member in the College of Education. She has completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the intersections of health, society, and history, complementing over two and a half decades of experience in education, research, and clinical practice. Judy's work centers on the intersections of mental health, leadership, justice, and education, with a current emphasis on reflective, therapeutic, and healing-centered practices. She is passionate about and dedicated to advancing trauma-responsive care in professional environments to better support teachers, leaders, and their teams. Judy firmly believes that self-care and personal well-being are essential, if not ethical, components of strong leadership, particularly for those in caregiving professions — i.e., anyone in a position that holds humans at the heart of their work.
Kaitlyn Blaser
Kaitlyn Blaser (she/her) is a doctoral candidate at the Peter A. Allard School of Law and a Research Fellow with the Access to Justice Centre for Excellence. Her research engages the question of what an equitable approach to access to civil justice looks like in the context of social and institutional realities that often create wide disparities in bargaining power between parties in a legal dispute. Kaitlyn seeks to answer this question by taking a contextual, interdisciplinary and mixed methodology approach.
Beyond her doctoral research, Kaitlyn is a part-time practicing lawyer in British Columbia focusing on civil litigation, everyday legal problems, and innovative approaches to service delivery. Through her practice, she supports Access Pro Bono’s innovative Everyone Legal Clinic, which aims to fill unmet legal needs by training articling students to provide affordable legal services through a collaborative and virtual legal clinic model.
Karen Campbell (Organizing Committee)
Karen Campbell (she/her) is the Executive Director of the BC Law Institute. She brings over 25 years of experience practicing public interest law in BC – most of which has involved law reform, litigation and advocacy for strengthened legal tools. Her work has consistently been designed to address access to justice issues, using both Indigenous and Crown legal frameworks. She has forged effective relationships with a broad range of stakeholders, developed creative approaches to legal challenges and contributed to both federal and provincial law reform initiatives. She has appeared before the BC Supreme Court, Federal Courts, the National Energy Board and the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon on the Fraser River. She holds a BA from Western University, a Bachelor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University and a Masters in Law, with Distinction, from the University of London.
Katherine Haist
Katherine Haist (she/her) works as a lawyer with Your Way Forward at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO), which is a specialty provincial legal aid clinic based in Toronto. She provides legal services to survivors of gender-based violence. In previous roles at ACTO, she was a staff litigation lawyer and tenant duty counsel. Katherine has spent most of her 20-year legal career in the Ontario legal aid clinic system, including contracts at ARCH Disability Law Centre and the Clinic Resource Office at Legal Aid Ontario. She holds degrees from the University of Guelph and Queen’s University.
Kirsten Wurmann
I am a librarian with a background in public legal education, public libraries, and prisons. I currently work for the Manitoba Library Association, the Prison Libraries Committee and the Manitoba Law Library with the Legal Information for Incarcerated Manitobans project. The common thread for all of my work is a passion for social justice, and creating access to information for all. I strongly believe in humanising the legal process for people engaged with the justice system, and respecting the lived experience and knowledge of people navigating through those systems. I live in Winnipeg, the heart of the continent and One Great City. I love visiting my son in Berlin, walking in Spain, and visiting art galleries and thrift stores wherever I go.
Lachlan Deyong
Biography to come.
Laura Buckingham
Laura Buckingham is legal counsel at the Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI). Laura joined ALRI in 2015 after several years practising employment law and litigation. At ALRI, she has contributed to law reform projects about evidence, family property, family homes, and residential tenancies. Laura also volunteers at Calgary Legal Guidance.
Leah Howie
Leah Howie (B.Eng, B.Sc, LLB, LLM) has served as Director of the Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan since 2016, leading the Commission’s work to modernize and simplify Saskatchewan law in collaboration with the legal profession. She has also taught at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law for the past decade, where she currently offers a law reform seminar and coaches the environmental law moot team. Since 2018, she has been an active member of the Saskatchewan Access to Justice Network, working with justice system partners across the province to advance access to justice. She is also President of the Federation of Law Reform Agencies of Canada, a member of the University of Saskatchewan’s Biomedical Research Ethics Board, incoming Treasurer of the CBA Saskatchewan branch, and serves on the Law Society of Saskatchewan’s Hearing Committee Adjudication Roster.
Leah Morris
Leah Morris (she/her) is a registered social worker who received her Master of Social Work with a specialization in Social Justice and Diversity from the University of Toronto. At the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, she is the Your Way Forward social work program lead. Her work involves supporting survivors of gender-based violence on their journey towards justice and healing within the frameworks of anti-oppressive and trauma-informed practice. She is based in Toronto.
Lisa Cirillo
Lisa Cirillo (she/her) is the CEO of The Law Foundation of Ontario. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2020, Lisa was the Executive Director of Downtown Legal Services, a community-based legal clinic at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law for a decade.
Over the course of her twenty-five years plus in law, Lisa has practiced human rights, education, housing, and family law in a wide variety of social justice organizations including Downtown Legal Services, ARCH Disability Rights Centre, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
Lisa is currently a Board member with Philanthropic Foundations Canada and has served on numerous other Boards and committees over her long career.
Lucie Leonard
Biography to come.
Marcus Manuel
Marcus Manuel is a Senior Research Associate at ODI Global, where he co-leads a research programme on financing access to justice. He has co-authored pioneering papers on domestic and external financing for justice, costing SDG16.3 and scaling up innovative front-line approaches to delivering people centred justice for all. He was the lead author of the technical preparation for the Justice Action Coalition’s Justice Financing Framework published in 2025. His other ODI Global work included researching finance for social protection and advising Ministries of Finance on budget reforms. In 2023-2024 Marcus was appointed by the UK’s development minister to be his policy advisor.
Prior to joining ODI Global in 2010, Marcus held a number of senior management roles within the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), responsible for country offices and their programmes in Africa and Asia. Before working at DFID, Marcus worked at HM Treasury, initially as a macroeconomic adviser on global and UK issues. His final role was head of the department responsible for advice on all aspects of international development.
Marcus has a MSc in Economics from London University, after graduating from Oxford University. For details of his publication see https://odi.org/en/profile/marcus-manuel/
Mary-Anne Popescu
Mary-Anne Popescu is the Executive Director of the Ontario Association for Family Mediation (OAFM) and an Accredited Family Mediator with over two decades of experience in private practice. Her work focuses on supporting families through separation using mediative approaches that prioritize safety, self-determination, and meaningful participation.
Mary-Anne has played a leadership role in advancing family mediation across Ontario, including the development of training, standards, and resources for mediative professionals working in complex family situations. She teaches in the Family Mediation Certificate Program at York University and has extensive experience in intergenerational, and high-conflict family mediation. She is also a contributor to the Family Dispute Resolution Handbook (7th Edition), including work on screening for intimate partner violence and process appropriateness.
She is a co-author of the HELP-M Toolkit, a national initiative designed to support mediative professionals in identifying and responding to family violence, coercive control, and power imbalances within mediative processes. This work reflects her ongoing commitment to strengthening trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and ethically grounded approaches to family dispute resolution.
Through her leadership, Mary-Anne continues to contribute to broader access to justice efforts by supporting the development of safer, more inclusive, and more responsive dispute resolution systems.
Matthew Burnett
Biography to come.
Matthew Dylag
Biography to come.
Mavis Morton
Dr. Mavis Morton is an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph. In collaboration with community partners and students, her research focuses on critical community-engaged approaches to addressing social justice issues, particularly in relation to gender-based violence. Current research examines: intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors' experiences with the Ontario Family Law system; IPV survivors' pathways in and out of homelessness; the suitability of restorative/transformative justice for IPV cases; and Ontario Community Safety Wellbeing Plans. She integrates community engaged teaching and learning projects that have been identified as priorities for community partners into undergraduate and graduate courses for students to work collaboratively on real world social problems. Dr. Mavis Morton was the recipient of the University of Guelph's John Bell Award, 2025 and the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Association (OCUFA), Teaching Award of Distinction, 2024.
Max Bilson K.C.
A graduate of the Faculty of Law, McGill University, Max Bilson has worked in the Ministry of Saskatchewan Justice as a litigator, in policy, as a manager and most recently in senior leadership.
Since June 2023, Max has been the Deputy Attorney General for Saskatchewan. In that role, he is the senior legal advisor to the Attorney General and has general oversight of all legal services and the conduct of litigation for the province. Max also oversees and upholds the independent prosecutions service for Saskatchewan. The senior legal officers for the province report to him.
Max has long been involved in the Canadian Bar Association and other community organizations. He has also studied at the University of Saskatchewan, where he obtained a degree with Hossain in history, and Georgetown University in Washington D.C., where he did his graduate studies in history. Max obtained his KC in 2024.
Meg Holden
Meg Holden is a self-represented litigant in her own family matter in B.C., an utterly ordinary separation that is nonetheless unresolved after over a decade. On the bright side, the insights this experience has offered into the inner workings and not workings of the justice system are remarkable. Meg is also a social and policy scientist and Professor and Director of the School of Resources and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University, where her research examines urban social infrastructure and sustainability. A proud single mom of two, she is a board member of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project.
Megan Capp
Biography to come.
Megan Siksik
Biography to come.
Meris Bray
Biography to come.
Michele Leering
Michele is a Visiting Scholar at Queen’s Faculty of Law. Her research and advocacy are informed by her prior work over four decades as Executive Director/Lawyer with Ontario’s non-profit Community Advocacy & Legal Centre. She works to transform legal services to be more holistic and evidence-based to respond to the multi-faceted and intersecting needs of clients and marginalized communities. Her approach is informed by a four-country study of the evolution and impact of health justice partnerships, and her doctoral research exploring integrative reflective practice as an essential meta-competency and catalyst for a more robust justice-aligned professional competency framework for 21st century lawyers. Her research advances “people-centred justice,” a concept advanced by the OECD and other international organizations in response to the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 16.3 on ensuring access to justice and the rule of law. As a founding member of Ontario’s Health Justice Partnerships’ Community of Practice, she is advising and supporting the organizing of the September 2026 Law Foundation of Ontario-funded Championing Health Justice Partnerships Conference. She has been inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada for her work on access to justice.
Monica Chohan
OBA member, Monica Chohan is an Ottawa-based lawyer, workplace investigator, and governance expert with over 18 years of experience spanning law, policy, and organizational leadership. A member of the Law Society of Ontario since 2010, Monica began her career in the private sector as a regulatory lawyer before founding her own legal practice, Chohan Law, in 2017. Her work is defined by a commitment to helping organizations thrive through a trauma-informed, anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and decolonizing lens.
A recognized leader in not-for-profit governance, Monica has provided legal counsel to boards and executives navigating complex, multi-faceted legal challenges with significant financial, reputational, and strategic implications. Drawing on her extensive governance expertise and facilitation training, she delivers dynamic, engaging presentations and workshops that help boards and leaders reimagine governance models, strengthen accountability, and align their structures with their values.
Beyond governance, Monica is a trusted advisor in HR, workplace investigations, and mediation. Known for her ability to bridge law, leadership, and humanity, Monica brings both depth and practical insight to every session, making concepts relevant and accessible to her audience through storytelling. She leaves audiences inspired to lead and govern equipped with the knowledge, tools and confidence to make well-informed decisions for their organizations.
Lee Nevens
Biography to come.
Natasha Jaczek
Natasha Jaczek is a lawyer and PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. Her doctoral work examines how young people understand and experience law, and how they engage with it through public legal education. Her research and practice explore alternative approaches to legal education, including critical arts-based and community-driven projects. She works with a range of legal, community, and non-profit organizations across Ontario and previously practiced at the Department of Justice Canada. Her recent work focuses on research, evaluation, and funding in public legal education and access to justice, with particular attention to how expert-driven metrics shape legal problems, solutions, and indicators of success.
Noel Semple
Biography to come.
Nye Thomas
Nye Thomas is the Executive Director of the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO), where he is responsible for producing independent, balanced and authoritative advice on complex and important law reform issues.
Nye has led projects in Ontario’s justice system for more than 25 years. His expertise includes access to justice, law reform, technology and legal rights, and legal services for low-income communities.
At the LCO, Nye’s current projects include AI and human rights, AI in the criminal justice system, family law protection orders, regulation of deep fakes and employee surveillance. His earlier LCO projects addressed consumer protection, environmental accountability, defamation, consent and capacity and class actions.
Before joining the LCO, Nye was Director General, Policy at Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) where he was responsible for policy and planning at one of the world’s largest legal aid plans. At LAO, Nye led projects on financial eligibility, client service strategies, tariff reform, client needs assessments and quality standards. Nye has also been Policy Director on major provincial inquiries, including the Ipperwash Inquiry.
Nye is a member of the Law Society of Ontario’s Access to Innovation Committee and Action Group on Access to Justice. He also sits on the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Strategic Advisory Committee.
Nye studied at the University of Toronto (BA), Queen’s University (LLB), and New York University (LLM).
Owen Ripley
Owen Ripley is Senior Assistant Deputy Minister and leads the Policy Sector at the Department of Justice Canada. The Sector works to support the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada in relation to criminal law, victims, federal family law, youth criminal justice, Indigenous justice, international development, and access to justice.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Owen worked for over 12 years at the Department of Canadian Heritage where he spearheaded policy work related to the impact of digital technologies on arts, culture and media. Significant achievements included the passage of the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act, as well as developing a legislative framework related to online safety (proposed Online Harms Act).
Owen has Common Law and Civil Law degrees as well as a Bachelor of Arts in History and Political Science from McGill University.
-
Owen Ripley est sous-ministre adjoint principal et dirige le secteur des politiques au ministère de la Justice du Canada. Ce secteur soutient le ministre de la Justice et procureur général du Canada dans les domaines du droit pénal, des victimes, du droit familial fédéral, de la justice pour les jeunes, de la justice autochtone, du développement international et de l’accès à la justice.
Avant de rejoindre le ministère de la Justice, Owen a travaillé pendant plus de 12 ans au ministère du Patrimoine canadien, où il a dirigé des travaux stratégiques sur l’impact des technologies numériques sur les arts, la culture et les médias. Parmi ses réalisations importantes figurent l’adoption de la Loi sur les nouvelles en ligne, ainsi que le développement d’un cadre législatif relatif à la sécurité en ligne (projet de loi sur les préjudices en ligne).
Owen est titulaire d'un diplôme en droit civil et en Common Law, ainsi que d'un baccalauréat en histoire et en sciences politiques de l'Université McGill.
Pamela R. Kovacs
Pam holds a Masters in International Law and Human Rights from the United Nations University as well as degrees in Law from the University of Saskatchewan and Commerce from McGill University with concentrations in International Business and Strategic Management. Following her call to the Bar in 2006, Pam worked in private practice in Regina until seconded by the Law Society to start up Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan, a clearinghouse for pro bono legal services in the province. Prior to re-joining the Law Society in 2020, Pam was the Manager of Research and Learning at the International Development Law Organization and worked on rule of law and access to justice programs in East and North Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Pam currently works on a number of portfolios with the Law Society, including communications, equity, diversity and inclusion, Truth and Reconciliation, and the future of legal services.
Paul Aterman
Paul Aterman is committed to making justice systems simple, quick and fair – so they work for the people who need to use them. He was the Chairperson of the Social Security Tribunal of Canada from 2018 to 2023. Now he offers consulting and training services to tribunals, regulators and government. He also sits as an adjudicator on Ontario’s Law Society Tribunal.
He is a lawyer with extensive experience in human rights, immigration and refugee matters, workers' compensation and tribunal management. He has held senior positions at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, as a Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and at Canada’s Privy Council Office.
Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Law Society of Ontario. Paul volunteers as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Plain Language, as a member of the Board of Directors of both the International Plain Language Federation and the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals… and as a gardener at Ottawa’s Shepherds of Good Hope community garden.
Pierre Noreau
Professeur à la Faculté de droit de l’Université de Montréal et chercheur au Centre de recherche en droit public, Pierre Noreau œuvre dans le domaine de la sociologie du droit. Pierre Noreau a présidé l’Association francophone pour le savoir (l’ACFAS) de 2008 à 2012 et fut Vice-recteur à l’Agence universitaire de la Francophonie de 2011 à 2014. Il est membre de la Société royale du Canada. Ses travaux portent sur l’évolution du droit contemporain, sur l’accès au droit et à la justice et sur la participation publique à la définition des lois. Pierre Noreau a été Directeur scientifique du projet Accès au droit et à la justice (adaj.ca) et dirige actuellement le projet LEXIS sur la participation publique à la conception des lois. En 2018, il fondait l’Institut québécois de réforme du droit et de la justice et Co-Préside les États généraux sur le droit et la justice (2025-2028). Il publiait en 2023 l’ouvrage Le droit : une forme du lien sociale aux Presses de l’Université Laval et, en 2024, Droit, justice et changement social, publié, à la Librairie de droit et de jurisprudence (Paris). Il recevait, la même année, le Prix de la Justice du Québec et le Prix Impact du Conseil de recherche en sciences humaine du Canada (CRSH).
Rami Shoucri
Biography to come.
Rebecca L. Sandefur
Rebecca L. Sandefur is Professor in the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics and, by courtesy, in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where she previously served as Director of the Sanford School. Sandefur is also Faculty Fellow at the American Bar Foundation, where she founded the Access to Justice Research Initiative in 2010.
Her research focuses on access to civil justice, with particular attention to how legal services are delivered and experienced, how civil legal services are structured, and how individuals understand and navigate everyday justice problems. She studies the effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability of different models for expanding access to justice.
Her work bridges research, policy, and practice. She serves on the Arizona Commission on Access to Justice and with Matthew Burnett co-founded Frontline Justice and the Justice Worker Lab, initiatives advancing community-based approaches to civil legal assistance. She is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Robert Lapper K.C.
Robert Lapper KC, is a lawyer and professor whose career and interest has been in public law. After several years in private practice, he joined the Province of British Columbia serving in positions as Senior Counsel Aboriginal Law, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Deputy Secretary to Cabinet, Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Relations, and Deputy Minister of Labour. In 2012, he moved to Toronto to become the Chief Executive Officer, Law Society of Upper Canada (now Law Society of Ontario) where he served for six years.
Robert is the David and Dorothy Lam Chair – Law and Public Policy, cross appointed to the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria. He teaches Legal Ethics, Law Legislation and Policy, Dispute Resolution and Access to Justice, and serves on the Executive of the Access to Justice Centre for Excellence at the University of Victoria. He is Chair of Admissions for the Law School, and Masters Program Advisor for the Master of Public Administration programs. His teaching and community-based research focuses on bringing a cross-disciplinary approach to access to justice, His community work includes service on the Steering Committee of Access to Justice British Columbia.
Sandra Petersson
Sandra Petersson is the Executive Director of the Alberta Law Reform Institute and Past President of FOLRAC. Her career spans nearly a quarter century of policy analysis and development. After clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada, she completed an LLM in legislative drafting and gender equality as a Commonwealth Scholar. She has published articles and law reform reports on a wide-variety of topics, including wills and estates, property law, civil procedure, assisted reproduction, legal theory and law reform process. She has provided training to new law reformers from Trinidad and Tobago, Samoa, and South Sudan.
Sandra is a second-term Bencher of the Law Society of Alberta. Through Law Society and CBA Alberta task forces, she has developed a niche specialty in strategic planning and governance review. She was designated Queen’s Counsel in 2021.
Sandra lives in Edmonton with her spouse and daughter, a menagerie of dogs and cats, and more yarn than she can knit in one lifetime.
The Honourable Sean Fraser P.C. M.P.
Biography to come.
Shauna Van Praagh
Shauna Van Praagh is the President, as of June 2023, of the Law Commission of Canada, an independent federal agency committed to engaging the people of Canada in the ongoing and dynamic evolution of law. She is currently on leave from McGill University, where she is a Full Professor of Law, has taught since 1993, served as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in Law (2007-2010), and received the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2023. Shauna’s areas of teaching, research and writing include children and law, social diversity and law, legal education, civil liability, comparative legal traditions, and storytelling in law. Her service to community includes public lectures, primary school workshops, contributions to literary journals, podcast interviews, opinion pieces in newspapers, and the organization of public symposia. A graduate of the University of Toronto (BSc 1986, LLB 1989) and Columbia University (LLM 1992, JSD 2000), Shauna clerked for the Right Honourable Brian Dickson, Chief Justice of Canada, in 1989-1990. Born in Toronto, she grew up in New Delhi, Singapore and Ottawa.
-
Shauna Van Praagh est présidente, depuis juin 2023, de la Commission du droit du Canada, un organisme fédéral indépendant qui s'engage à faire participer la population canadienne à l'évolution constante et dynamique du droit. Elle est actuellement en congé de l'Université McGill, où elle est professeure titulaire de droit (y enseigne depuis 1993), a occupé le poste de vice-doyenne des études supérieures en droit (2007-2010) et a reçu le Prix d'excellence en enseignement du recteur en 2023. Les domaines d’enseignement, de recherche et de publication de Shauna comprennent les enfants et le droit, la diversité sociale et le droit, la formation juridique, la responsabilité civile, les traditions juridiques comparées et la narration en droit. Son engagement communautaire comprend des conférences publiques, des ateliers dans les écoles primaires, des contributions à des revues littéraires, des interviews en podcast, des articles d’opinion dans les journaux et l’organisation de colloques publics. Diplômée de l’Université de Toronto (BSc 1986, LLB 1989) et de l’Université Columbia (LLM 1992, JSD 2000), Shauna a été assistante du très honorable Brian Dickson, juge en chef du Canada, en 1989-1990. Née à Toronto, elle a grandi à New Delhi, à Singapour et à Ottawa.
Simon Wallace
Biography to come.
Stephanie Clendenning
Stephanie Clendenning is a lawyer and the Executive Director of the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County. She is a graduate of McGill Law and her career is rooted in access to justice and poverty law. She is a passionate advocate for tenant rights and affordable housing preservation and she practices in public benefits and income maintenance, employment law, and human rights, with an emphasis on systemic cases that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
Suzanne Chiodo (Organizing Committee)
Suzanne Chiodo is an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School. Her teaching and research specialties are in access to justice, civil procedure, and class actions. She is the author of several recent articles on summary judgment (with Gerard Kennedy and Alyssa King, forthcoming in the Canadian Bar Review), proportionality in the Rules of Civil Procedure (Western Journal of Legal Studies 2025), honoraria in class proceedings (Osgoode Hall Law Journal 2024), and mass torts (Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 2023). Suzanne is the only academic member of the Civil Rules Review Working Group, which has proposed far-reaching reforms to Ontario's Rules of Civil Procedure.
Sylvie Lamoureux
Biography to come.
Timothy Outerbridge
Registrar Outerbridge, in his present capacity since 2014, performs judicial and quasi-judicial functions, including conducting registrar’s hearings, assessments, and other matters set out by statute or the Rules of Court or referred by a judge of the Court of Appeal. He manages the Office of the Registrar and provides legal, technical, and procedural direction to the deputy registrars and oversight to the registry and its staff. As legal counsel to the British Columbia Court of Appeal from 2011 to 2014, he worked as legal counsel to the Chief Justice of British Columbia, providing advice and direction on legal and administrative questions to the Chief Justice, the Registrar, and the Court. He also supervised the law clerk program and acted as the court’s principal contact with the media. In practice at Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP from 2006 to 2010, he specialized in litigation, appellate law, and legal research. Registrar Outerbridge obtained a JD from the University of Alberta in 2004, an MA from the University of Toronto in 2000, and a BA from McGill University in 1999. He has written and delivered numerous presentations for the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia and other law organizations and is a member of the board of directors of the British Columbia Law Institute. He is former board member for the Access Pro Bono Society of British Columbia and the British Columbia Courthouse Libraries Society and former member of the University of British Columbia/Children’s and Women’s Hospital Research Ethics Board. Registrar Outerbridge is the author of chapter 9 (Practice before the Court of Appeal Registrar) of Practice Before the Registrar. He is also a contributor to British Columbia's Civil Appeal Handbook.
Tonya Pritchett (Organizing Committee)
Biography to come.
Trevor Farrow
Trevor C.W. Farrow, AB (Princeton), BA/MA (Oxford), LLB (Dalhousie), LLM (Harvard), PhD (Alberta), is the Dean and a Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. He is the Chair of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice and was the founding Academic Director of the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution and former Director of the York Centre for Public Policy and Law. Professor Farrow is internationally recognized as a leading scholar on access to justice, legal process and the profession. His scholarship is widely published in Canada and internationally. He has taught and lectured at universities across Canada and around the world. Professor Farrow has received teaching awards from Harvard University and Osgoode Hall Law School. Professor Farrow was formerly a litigation lawyer in Toronto.
Valentine Fau
Biography to come.
Véronique Morissette (Organizing Committee)
Véronique Morissette (she/her) is the inaugural Executive Director of the Action Committee on Access to Justice, a national, cross-sector initiative that convenes leaders from the judiciary, governments, funders, academia, and community organizations to advance people-centred justice in Canada. Véronique previously led the social justice advocacy portfolio at the Canadian Bar Association. Before moving into advocacy, she practised family and civil litigation in both Legal Aid and the private sector, and was a Senior Advisor in equity, diversity, and inclusion policy at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She holds an LL.M. in Social Justice and an LL.L. from the University of Ottawa, and works fluently in French and English. Véronique is the proud mother of two little humans.
Zeynab Ziaie Moayyed
Zeynab Ziaie Moayyed is Certified as a Specialist in Immigration & Citizenship Law by the Law Society of Ontario and is called to the bar in both Ontario and New York. Her practice focuses on complex immigration matters, including judicial reviews before the Federal Court of Canada, where she regularly addresses issues of fairness, transparency, and accountability in administrative decision making.
As co-founder of the Artificial Intelligence Monitor for Immigration in Canada and Internationally (AIMICI), she writes and speaks frequently about the growing use of technology, automation, and artificial intelligence in Canada’s immigration system. Her work examines how digital tools are impacting outcomes for applicants. She is interested in the intersection of law, technology, and institutional design, with a focus on how innovation must be balanced against the need for fairness, transparency, and meaningful access to legal processes as automated decision-making becomes ubiquitous.
In addition to her litigation and advisory work, Zeynab is active in the legal technology community and developing tools to help individuals and lawyers better navigate Canada’s immigration system. She is particularly interested in how people technology can be used to build legal and administrative systems that are more accessible and allow applicants to meet the realities of automated decision-making and AI use by immigration decision-makers.
Note: Biographies are available in the language they were submitted in / les biographies sont disponibles dans la langue dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.