Profound Implications

Jumping Off the Ivory Tower with Prof JulieMac

Our episode this week deals with the most recent case that NSRLP has acted as intervenor for, at the Ontario Court of Appeal – Kawartha-Haliburton CAS v MW, Curve Lake First Nation and Office of the Children's Lawyer; it dealt with the use of summary judgements against parents in Children’s Aid Society cases. Julie speaks with Kate Kehoe, the lawyer who graciously acted as NSRLP’s pro bono lawyer in this case. Kate was counsel to the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto from 1999 – 2007. She also acted as a Policy Analyst & Writer for the Motherisk Commission, and is now a consultant in Ottawa. They discuss the impact of this case, and why it may be important in clarifying how summary judgements are used against SRLs in general. Julie then speaks with Tammy Law, a family lawyer in Toronto who specializes in child protection cases; Tammy represented another intervenor in this case, the Ontario Association of Child Protection Lawyers. Tammy describes the importance of the Kawartha decision and what it means – and reflects on the subsequent Legal Aid Ontario cuts that have effectively eliminated the advances made here. In other news: the Supreme Court of Canada has announced that they will be hearing two appeals in Winnipeg, as part of their access to justice efforts; SCC Justice Gascon was briefly reported missing, found to be safe, and later released a statement attributing his absence to depression and anxiety disorders – mental health is an important topic, both among the general public and in the legal profession, and we are grateful to Justice Gascon for publicly stating his history with mental health; the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law hosted the 11th annual Open Access Symposium this past weekend, with access to justice being at the forefront of conversations; the Government of Canada hosted a symposium on Indigenous justice systems last week, at a two-day event that brought together Indigenous leaders, Indigenous law students, experts, and government officials from across Canada and around the world; and finally, NSRLP published a new blog post last week, by SRL Aaron Huizinga, examining questions of customer service in the legal system. For related links and more on this episode visit our website: https://representingyourselfcanada.com/profound-implications/ Jumping Off the Ivory Tower is produced and hosted by Julie Macfarlane and Dayna Cornwall; production and editing by Brauntë Petric; Other News produced and hosted by Ali Tejani; promotion by Moya McAlister and Ali Tejani.