This course will seek to provide students with an understanding of the legal powers and duties of municipalities and the rights available to citizens, residents and taxpayers when dealing with local government. The course will examine the history of municipalities in Canada and their legal and policy frameworks, including the lack of constitutional status for local government. The course will trace the evolution of municipalities and their powers from the “Baldwin Act” in 1849 to the “modern” municipal legislative model that has been adopted in virtually every jurisdiction in Canada, with specific reference to the Municipal Act, 2001 and the City of Toronto Act, 2006.
Topics will include a review of the form and structure of municipal government; municipal powers and jurisdiction as well as duties and liabilities; the role of municipal council and the head of council; the role of statutory officers and municipal administration; by-laws and resolutions as municipal legislation; the doctrine of ultra vires; the open meeting rule; the inapplicability of the indoor management rule; the enforcement of municipal by-laws and challenges to municipal actions; the discretionary enforcement principle and the unique self-help remedy available to taxpayers in Ontario. The recent introduction of “strong mayor” powers for larger urban municipalities will be examined.
The course will also canvas municipal elections, conflict of interest legislation, municipal accountability and transparency, the municipal financing framework and municipal freedom of information and protection of privacy laws.
Course or Seminar Category: Constitutional and Administrative Law
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
The principal aim of this section of the course is to develop critical understanding of those parts of Canadian constitutional law that pertain specifically to Indigenous peoples. Topics will include the notions of sovereignty and self-determination, relevant British imperial law, the honour of the Crown and the enforceable Crown obligations to which it gives rise, federal and provincial legislative authority, section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, Aboriginal rights and title, treaties and treaty rights, and Indigenous self-government (statutory and constitutional). The plan is for one class session, late in the term, to feature Toronto lawyers who represent or advise Indigenous clients, discussing practice-related issues.
The course will also acknowledge the reality, the coherence and the efficacy of Indigenous law. Early in the term, an Indigenous law scholar will spend one class session introducing the students to an Indigenous legal order. But Indigenous law will figure somewhat less prominently in this section of the course than it does in some other sections, because the instructor, who is not Indigenous, has neither authority nor permission to pronounce on matters internal to any Indigenous legal order. Students whose primary interest is in Indigenous law may prefer another section of this course, or may wish to supplement this course with a companion course whose specific focus is Indigenous law.
This course satisfies the prerequisite requirement for the Intensive Program in Aboriginal Lands, Resources and Governments. It may also be useful background for advanced seminars about Indigenous Peoples and the Law.
Indigenous Peoples and Canadian Law
This substantive law course will explore the interactions between Canadian common law and Indigenous law, primarily Anishinaabe law. The content will be viewed through the lens of Indigenous worldviews. Topics will include, but are not limited to: Indigenous sources of law; historical context and constitutional framework re: Indigenous Peoples; Aboriginal Rights, Title and the Doctrine of Discovery; treaties; resource rights and consultation; and the Indian Act and Identity. The course will be presented from a practitioner’s perspective working within Anishinaabe communities, with attention to practical intersections between the various topics. This course fulfills the prerequisite requirements for the Intensive Program in Indigenous Lands, Resources and Governments.
Conflict of Laws
In a world of cross-border communication, trade and travel, crossborder disputes arise in every field of private law. A good understanding of the subject is vital for most careers in legal practice and scholarship and it provides an important foundation for the study of other international law subjects. Once based on arcane principles and complex doctrines, the conflict of laws has changed dramatically over the years to facilitate the flow of products, wealth and skills across borders and to ensure that disputes with connections to other provinces and countries are resolved fairly.
This course provides a solid grounding on the basic questions of whether a court has authority to decide a dispute and whether it should exercise that authority; what effect the court should give to the judgments of courts in other provinces or countries; and which law a court should apply to determine the issues in dispute. Also considered are the particular rules that have been developed for key areas of private law.
The rules applied by Canadian common law courts are compared with the rules applied in other common law countries — the United States, Québec, and Europe. This course also addresses the special rules that apply in federal and regional systems.
Criminal Procedure
This course will provide students with an overview of the Canadian criminal process. It will begin with an exploration of police investigative powers. The authority of Canadian police to detain, search/seize, question and arrest will all be considered in detail. Special attention will be given to the limitations imposed on each of these powers by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The course will then shift to a consideration of the criminal process after charges are formally brought, including intake procedures, bail, disclosure (the effects of non-disclosure and/or lost evidence), election and plea, preliminary inquiries, the right to trial within a reasonable time and plea-bargaining. The course will then focus on the trial, including trial venue, jury selection and trial procedure. This will be followed by an overview of the law of sentencing, and a brief consideration of appeals.
Disability & the Law
This course examines disability as a legal category with implications for the rights of persons with disabilities. Students will be introduced to alternative conceptions and theories of disability and impairment, and will examine how law constructs and regulates the lives of individuals with disabilities. Throughout the course we will examine statutory provisions and jurisprudence in different areas including: family, reproduction, death and dying, health, human rights, education, social assistance and economic supports to understand how disability is defined and regulated by law. This course analyzes and evaluates how law can best achieve the goals of social justice, inclusion and equality for individuals with disabilities.
This course offers in-class instruction in an interactive lecture/discussion/presentation format. Students are expected to read the assigned materials before class and to participate in class discussions. From time to time, guests will be invited to speak about their area of expertise and/or their experience of law and disability.
Environmental Law
This course is an introduction to Canadian environmental law. Major issues in environmental law are brought to life via guest lectures, videos, and exercises drawn from real-world environmental controversies. Course topics will include legislative jurisdiction and federalism, pollution regulation and regulatory instrument choice; climate change; toxic substances; environmental compliance and enforcement; economic instruments of regulation; public participation and environmental rights; judicial review of administrative action; common law environmental actions; environmental/impact assessment; endangered species law; review of environmental regulation in other jurisdictions, for comparison.
Additional principles and experiences will be gleaned from inherently related matters including indigenous issues, environmental sciences, natural resources and waste management, land use planning and brownfield development, and environmental case law. The practice of environmental litigation is addressed in the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot.
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
• understand the jurisdictional framework and core principles of environmental law in
Canada;
• understand the sources of federal, provincial and local environmental law in Canada, including key legislation, regulatory instruments, and court decisions and assess the effectiveness of the environmental legal regimes
• understand the structure and operation of the main agencies and institutions that
play roles in the development and implementation of environmental law in Canada;
• evaluate developments in environmental law in Canada, with some comparison to
other jurisdictions; and
• examine, in depth, selected case studies of environmental law in Canada in order
to understand the political/economical/societal dimensions of environmental regulation.
Family Law I
The course is intended to provide an introduction to the legal regulation of the family in Canadian and provincial law. The course is divided into six sections in order to facilitate an examination of the creation of the family unit, the regulation of the ongoing family, and the problems of family breakdown.
The first three classes present an introduction to various definitions of the family and provides relevant sociological and demographic context to the range of viable definitions. An overview of the seminal issues and tensions in family law will be canvassed. The introductory materials also cover the constitutional dimensions of family law.
The introductory materials are followed by a series of classes on the creation of the family. Several weeks of classes will cover adult relationship formation (including marriage) and the creation of parent-child relationships including adoption and reproductive technologies.
This is followed by a series of classes on the dissolution of the family. It is in this section that students will be exposed to the technicalities of divorce, along with topics such as the private ordering of dissolution (via mechanisms such as contract, mediation, and collaborative lawyering).
The fifth section covers the consequences of dissolution for adults by an examination of property division on dissolution, dealings with the matrimonial home, and spousal support.
The sixth and final section of the course deals with the consequences of family dissolution for children and covers issues such as custody and access, and child support.
In examining the rights and responsibilities of family members, we will explore questions such as: What is a family? What is a spouse? What is a parent? The answers to these questions are no longer as settled as they once seemed. We will consider the law’s answer to these questions, and the extent to which the legal regulation of the family is responding to changing and diverse family forms. Attention will be given to the issues of gender, race and class.
The course will be taught from a critical and policy-oriented perspective. The course emphasizes the role of law in defining and enforcing family arrangements, and the rights and responsibilities of family members. The course pays particular attention to law reform and policy choices in the legal regulation of the family in Ontario. The objective of the course is to provide a social, political and economic context within which legislative policies and judicial approaches can be understood and critically evaluated.
Immigration Law
This course begins with an overview of the Canadian immigration system and international migration patterns with the objective of understanding who is coming to Canada and why. The basic features of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Regulations will then be discussed including: family sponsorship, economic immigration and inadmissibility. Embedded in this discussion will be an overview of how immigration decision-making takes place and the reviewability of immigration administrative decisions. A portion of the course will be devoted to looking at current topics in immigration law.
Administrative Law
Administrative law is the body of law that governs public decision-making. It aims to ensure that all public authorities use their powers legally, reasonably, and fairly.
This course will be both theoretically rigorous and highly practical. We will study a set of foundational administrative law concepts (grants of authority, the limits of discretion, the duty of procedural fairness, the right to an unbiased decision maker, standards of review, and public law remedies) as well as their real-world applications including in the courtroom.
Each of the four Adjunct Professors maintains a broad public law practice. As such, case studies will include ministerial decisions, public inquiries, various administrative tribunals, municipal council decisions, environmental assessments, copyright rate-setting, supply management matters, indigenous elections, and parliamentary proceedings.