Around the world the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged borders. Governments have shut their borders to travel or layered in quarantine, testing, and vaccination requirements. This “new normal” for borders has severely challenged mobility between nations, including within regional blocks such as the E.U. It has also done the same within nations. Even more locally, restrictions on access to long-term care homes and hospitals are their own kind of border control.

Border closures can work to stymie the spread of a virus. But they come at cost. Industries and livelihoods reliant on travel can be impacted. Supply chains of food, medical supplies, and other necessities can be compromised. The ability of migrants and refugees to access safe havens can be jeopardized. Travel restrictions may effectively discriminate against countries with unequal access to vaccines. Some governments may use COVID as a guise for border measures that are in fact motivated by political opportunism. The list goes on...

How should we rethink our approach to borders, both within this pandemic and in pandemics to come? Borders, Boundaries, Pandemics brings together speakers from across disciplines and across the world
to explore the answers.

Location

Social Sciences Building, Room 4007
120 University Private, Ottawa, Canada

Languages

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

Registration

In-Person – Both Days: $375 / Day 1 or 2 Only: $225

Zoom – Both Days: $275 / Day 1 or 2 Only: $150

Student – Both Days:
In-person: $100 / Zoom: $50

All prices in CAD

A limited number of tickets at reduced rates are available for those who cannot attend due to price.
For more information, please contact us at healthlaw@uottawa.ca explaining your situation.

Please note

FOR IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE WE REQUEST THAT MASKS BE WORN WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

Anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 must not attend the in-person event. In those cases we will refund the conference fee or exchange it for a Zoom attendance fee according to your preference. If you are travelling to attend the conference we recommend purchasing travel insurance that covers this contingency.

With kind support from

Fernando Aith

Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine
Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)

Professor Aith’s research focuses on people’s right to health care, participatory democracy and sanitation law. He graduated in Law, earned a master’s degree in Philosophy and General Theory of Law, and a doctorate in Public Health from the University of São Paulo. He specialized in Medical and Health Law at Université de Vincennes à Saint-Denis (France), and did post-doctoral work in the area of Sanitation Law at Université Panthéon-Assas (France). At USP he is also member of the Deliberative Council of the Research Center in Sanitation Law and of the Board of the UNESCO Chair on Education for Peace, Human Rights, Democracy and Tolerance.

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Céline Bellot

Professor, School of Social Work
Université de Montréal

Céline Bellot obtained her doctorate (Ph.D.) in criminology from the Université de Montréal in 2001. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the Université du Québec à Montréal, she became a professor at the School of Social Work of the Université de Montréal. In addition, she directs the Observatoire sur les profilages (OSP) and is a member of the Centre internationale de criminologie comparée (CICC). Her research focuses on understanding the experiences of deviance among young people and on understanding the logic of intervention in their regard. Currently she is researching the judicialization of homeless populations and populations living in poverty in Canada (homeless people, drug users, Aboriginal populations and youth living on the margins). She also conducts evaluations of innovative interventions with marginalized populations, either in terms of their social participation or their social and professional integration.

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Emmanuelle Bernheim


Professor, Faculty of Law, Section de droit civil
University of Ottawa

Emmanuelle Bernheim has a dual background in social sciences (Ph.D. - École normale supérieure de Cachan) and law (LL.D. - UMontréal). She is currently a Professor at the Civil Law Section of University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Mental Health and Access to Justice. Emmanuelle’s research focuses on the role of law and courts in the production and reproduction of social inequalities, more specifically through the study of judicial practices and the experience of litigants in the justice system. Her current projects focus on mental health, youth protection and self-representation. As an extension of her work, Emmanuelle is the Director of the Outaouais Social Rights Interdisciplinary Clinic, a legal clinic serving marginalized groups in Outaouais region.

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Y.Y. Chen

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa

Y.Y. Brandon Chen (SJD, MSW, JD, University of Toronto) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law (Common Law Section). A lawyer and social worker by training, his research program examines legal, policy, and ethical questions that emerge at the intersection of international migration and health. His published work has touched on such topics as migrants' health and rights, social determinants of health, philosophy of health care, and medical tourism. Professor Chen's scholarly pursuits are complemented by his engagement in community-based work and advocacy in related fields. For example, between 2009 and 2011, he was publicly appointed to the Ontario Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS. He has also served on the board of directors of such organizations as the Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment, the Canadian Centre on Statelessness, and most recently the HIV Legal Network.

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Raywat Deonandan

Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences
University of Ottawa

Raywat Deonandan is an Epidemiologist and Associate Professor with the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa. He is a researcher with the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics and the LIFE Research Institute, as well as a Senior Fellow with Massey College at the University of Toronto. During the pandemic, he has been an active consultant to pharmaceutical companies, law firms, labour unions, the media, and government on epidemiological aspects of the disease.

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Stephen Duckett

Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health
University of Melbourne (Australia)

Dr. Stephen Duckett has held top operational and policy leadership positions in health care in Australia and Canada, including as Secretary of what is now the Commonwealth Department of Health. He has a reputation for creativity, evidence-based innovation, and reform in areas ranging from the introduction of activity-based funding for hospitals to new systems of accountability for the safety of hospital care. An economist, he is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

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Vera Etches

Medical Officer of Health
Ottawa Public Health

Dr. Etches was appointed medical officer of health (MOH) for Ottawa Public Health (OPH) in April 2018, having served as deputy MOH for three years and associate MOH for five years before that. She is passionate about preventing illness and injury and working with partners across many sectors to keep people well and promote population health. She is known for fostering a culture of community and client engagement and providing information to help people navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also committed to public health work to address inequities in health status stemming from racism and colonialism. Prior to joining OPH, Etches served as an associate medical officer of health, acting medical officer of health and director of clinical services for the Sudbury & District Health Unit (SDHU), after completing her specialty training in public health and preventive medicine in 2005 at the University of Toronto. Etches is also an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and continues to learn about and further public health by supervising residents.

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Tim Evans

Director and Associate Dean, School of Population and Global Health
Associate Vice-Principal, Global Policy and Innovation
McGill University

Tim joined McGill University in September 2019 as the Inaugural Director and Associate Dean of the School of Population and Global Health (SPGH) in the Faculty of Medicine and Associate Vice-Principal (Global Policy and Innovation). He joined McGill after a six-year tenure as the Senior Director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group. From 2003 to 2010, Tim was Assistant Director General at the World Health Organization (WHO). Prior to this, he served as Director of the Health Equity Theme at the Rockefeller Foundation. Earlier in his career he was an attending physician of internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and was Assistant Professor in International Health Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. Tim has been at the forefront of advancing global health equity and strengthening health systems delivery for more than 20 years. At WHO, he led the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and oversaw the production of the annual World Health Report. He has been a co-founder of many partnerships including the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) as well as efforts to increase access to HIV treatment for mothers and innovative approaches to training community-based midwives in Bangladesh.

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Patrick Fafard

Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
University of Ottawa

Patrick Fafard has enjoyed a lengthy career that spans both government and academe. While with the Government of Canada he served as a Director General in the Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat of the Privy Council Office. Earlier, he served in multiple capacities with three provincial governments, including as Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Commission on Medicare (2000-2001), and Executive Director, Policy and Planning, Saskatchewan Department of Health. Patrick’s academic interests are wide-ranging, and he is the author, co-author or editor of numerous publications on health, trade, and environmental policies, and federalism and intergovernmental relations in Canada. His current teaching and research includes the role of senior public health leaders in Commonwealth countries, global health governance to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance, the governance of organ donation and transplantation, and developing public health political science.

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Colleen M. Flood

Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
Director, Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics
University of Ottawa

Colleen M. Flood (FRSC, FCAHS) is a University of Ottawa Research Chair in Health Law & Policy and inaugural Director of the Ottawa Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. Her research interests are focused on the role of law in shaping health and health care systems and the appropriate roles for the public and private sectors. She is the editor of Halsbury's Laws of Canada - Public Health (2019 reissue), co-editor of Vulnerable: The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19 (2020), and teaches a course called The Law of Modern-Day Plagues.

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Lisa Forman

Associate Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
University of Toronto

Lisa Forman is an international human rights law scholar whose research explores the contribution of the right to health in international law to remediating global health inequities. She holds a Canada Research Chair Tier 2 in Human Rights and Global Health Equity. From 1996-1999, Forman worked as a human rights lawyer on HIV/AIDS at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, and then as a consultant on HIV/AIDS and human rights at the South African National Commission on Gender Equality. From  2009-2017, she was the Lupina Assistant Professor in Global Health and Human Rights at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and Director of the Comparative Program on Health and Society (CPHS) at the Munk School of Global Affairs. She is now a tenured Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

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Véronique Fortin

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law
Université de Sherbrooke

Véronique Fortin is interested in the different modes of control of marginalized populations, such as people experiencing homelessness, people with mental health problems and social assistance recipients. Her research focuses on the judicialization of homelessness, penal governance, the control of public space, the concept of decriminalization and punitive measures in social assistance. She favours an empirical approach, most often ethnographic, for her research. Professor Fortin holds a double degree in civil law and common law from McGill University, as well as a master's degree in sociology of law from Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Basque Country, Spain). In 2015, she completed a PhD in Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. During her doctoral research, her ethnographic approach led her to work closely with people experiencing homelessness and protesters who had received tickets for their occupation of public space in Montreal.

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Katherine Ginsbach

Associate
O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law (U.S.A.)

Katherine Ginsbach is an associate with the Center for Transformational Health Law at the O’Neill Institute. Before joining the O’Neill Institute, Ginsbach worked as a medical-legal partnership attorney at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, Alaska, where she addressed legal issues affecting patients’ health. Her research has focused on influenza pandemic preparedness, vaccine development and deployment, global health governance, and Indigenous access to health care. She previously interned at the American Indian Catholic School Network. During law school, she was a church, state, and society fellow and a research assistant for the Eck Institute for Global Health. Ginsbach holds a J.D. and an M.S. in global health from University of Notre Dame. She is also a member of the Colorado Bar.

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Roojin Habibi

Ph.D. Candidate, Law
York University

Roojin Habibi is a research fellow, international consultant and lawyer specialized in global health and human rights law. Her work is guided by the premise that the interplay of laws, norms and power relations from global to grassroots levels is what ultimately shapes health equity and the fulfillment of health as a human right. As a doctoral candidate at Osgoode Hall Law School (York University), Roojin bridges law, human rights, and global health, and interweaves methods from the health, social, and juridical sciences. She holds a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Doctoral Award, and has published in a range of peer-reviewed medical and public health journals, scholarly legal journals, and edited volumes.

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Sam Halabi

Senior Associate Vice-President for Health Policy and Ethics and Professor

Colorado School of Public Health

Senior Scholar and Visiting Professor
O'Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law (U.S.A.)

Sam F. Halabi (JD, MPhil) is a Senior Scholar at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Senior Associate Vice-President for Health Policy and Ethics at Colorado State University. His research career has focused on the ethical, legal, and regulatory dimensions of biomedical innovation and collaboration especially in the context of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response. He has published 4 books and more than 70 manuscripts in areas including data sharing during infectious disease emergencies, the development and deployment of vaccines in routine and emergency circumstances, the philosophy of medicine, international technology transfer, public health ethics, and vector-borne disease surveillance.

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Tamara Hervey

Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law
The City Law School (U.K.)

Tamara Hervey is Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law ad personam. Tamara is currently working in three broad areas: transnational, global and comparative health law; equality and diversity; and legal education. She was Principal Investigator of Health Governance after Brexit, an ERSC-funded project that investigated the effects of Brexit on health and the NHS and compared the views of legal and policy experts with those of 'ordinary people' in towns in Northern Ireland and the north of England. She is one of the Co-investigators on the Jean Monnet network on EU health law and policy in comparative contexts. She is working on patient and professional autonomy, human rights, and trans-national law on cross-border trade, and is contributing to COVID Lex-Atlas, a major comparative study of legal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Steven Hoffman

Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science
York University

Dr. Steven J. Hoffman is the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology and a Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University, the Director of the Global Strategy Lab, and the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance. He is an international lawyer licensed in both Ontario and New York who specializes in global health law, global governance and institutional design. His research leverages various methodological approaches to craft global strategies that better address transnational health threats and social inequalities. Past studies have focused on access to medicines, antimicrobial resistance, health misinformation, pandemics and tobacco control.

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Adam Houston

Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa

Adam’s academic and professional interests lie at the intersection of health, human rights and globalization. He has lived and worked in Southern Africa, the South Pacific and all over Canada, with organizations such as Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation (PIAF), and Avocats sans frontières Canada (ASFC). He holds a JD from the University of Victoria, an MA in Global Development Studies from Queen’s University, and won the Outstanding Student Award in his LL.M (Health Law) from the University of Washington. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Law at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Amir Attaran, while also continuing his involvement with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) in their litigation against the United Nations over the Haitian cholera epidemic.

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Adelina Iftene

Associate Professor, Schulich School of Law
Dalhousie University

Adelina teaches criminal law, evidence, sentencing, and imprisonment and prison policy. Her past, current and upcoming major research projects investigate issues surrounding aging in Canadian penitentiaries; the regulation of health care provision in prisons; the regulation of end of life and medical assistance in dying in prisons; prison release mechanisms, in particular compassionate release; access to justice behind bars; and sentencing of older and sick individuals.

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Lou Janssen Dangzalan

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer
Founder, LJD Law (Toronto)

Lou Janssen Dangzalan is an immigration lawyer whose practice is based in the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the New Credit, specifically in Toronto. As a recent immigrant, he brings his diverse background in the work he does for his clients. His areas of focus are in economic immigration and family reunification. He assists students and workers in their pathways to permanent residency in Canada. He received his legal education at the University of Ottawa, trained in both civil law and common law. Prior to that, he received his masters in social sciences from the National University of Singapore, and another masters in global politics at the Ateneo de Manila University. He appears frequently in Canadian and Filipino-Canadian media, in English, French, and his native language, Tagalog. He is currently working on improving his Spanish.

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Esyllt Jones

Dean of Studies, St. John's College
Professor, Department of History
University of Manitoba

Esyllt Jones is Dean of Studies at St. John’s College, University of Manitoba. Professor Jones teaches and conducts research into the history of health and disease in Canada and elsewhere. She also specializes in 20th century health and social activism; working class history; and the history of Winnipeg. Her publications include Influenza 1918: Disease, Death and Struggle in Winnipeg (University of Toronto Press, 2007). Her work also encompasses a collection of essays entitled, Epidemic Encounters: Influenza, Society, and Culture in Canada, 1919-1920, co-edited with Magda Fahrni (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012).

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Jeff King

Professor of Law
University College London (U.K.)

Jeff's research interests include U.K. and comparative public law (including international law), constitutional theory and socio-legal studies. Within these, he is particularly interested in the relationship between public law, democracy and social policy. He is currently working on the use and abuse of delegated powers, comparative legal responses to COVID-19, and is writing a book on the social dimension of the rule of law. He is the lead investigator on the Lex-Atlas:COVID-19 project and the Co-General Editor of the Oxford Compendium of National Legal Responses to COVID-19. He joined the UCL Laws as a Senior Lecturer in 2011, and has been Professor of Law since 2016. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, and was between 2019-2021 a Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution.

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Vivek Krishnamurthy

Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
Director, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)
University of Ottawa

Vivek’s teaching, scholarship, and clinical legal practice focus on the complex regulatory and human rights-related challenges that arise in cyberspace. He advises governments, activists, and companies on the human rights impacts of new technologies and is a frequent public commentator on emerging technology and public policy issues. Along with his former colleagues at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, Vivek is the author of a landmark study for Global Affairs Canada that evaluates the risks and opportunities for human rights that artificially intelligent systems present. Vivek was previously the Assistant Director of Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic and Counsel in the Corporate Social Responsibility Practice at Foley Hoag LLP. He is a Rhodes Scholar and clerked for the Hon. Morris J. Fish of the Supreme Court of Canada upon his graduation from Yale Law School.

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Martine Lagacé

Associate Vice-President, Research Promotion and Development
Professor, Department of Communication
University of Ottawa

Martine Lagacé was appointed Associate Vice-President, Research, Promotion & Development at University of Ottawa in August 2018 for a five-year term. She is a professor in the Department of Communication and is affiliated with the School of Psychology. Professor Lagacé was Vice-Dean, Governance of the Faculty of Arts from 2014 to 2018, and Director of the Department of Communication from 2011 to 2012. In addition to her administrative experience, she has extensive expertise in journalism, having worked at Radio-Canada for more than 10 years. Professor Lagacé has contributed greatly to the advancement of knowledge on the psychosocial aspects of aging, particularly as they relate to discrimination based on age. She has led several field surveys in Canada and abroad, with workers as well as elderly patients to better understand the impact of age-based discrimination.

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Sarah Lazin

LL.M. Candidate, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa

Sarah J. Lazin is an LL.M. Candidate at the University of Ottawa. She completed her Juris Doctor at the University of Alberta and her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Victoria, graduating with distinction from both programs. Her primary areas of interest include reproductive rights and autonomy, global and public health, organ donation and transplantation, and similar intersections between law, medicine, and ethics. Her thesis, supervised by Professor Jennifer Chandler, will look at legal and ethical questions surrounding autonomy and consent in the organ donation context.

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Kelley Lee

Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance
Scientific Co-Director, Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics and Society
Simon Fraser University

Dr. Lee is trained in International Relations and Public Administration with a focus on international political economy. She spent over twenty years at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Lee‘s research focuses on the impacts of globalization on population health, and the ways collective action and global governance can mitigate these impacts. Her current research, leading the Pandemics and Borders Project, focuses on the use of cross-border measures (travel and trade) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the implications for global responses governed by the WHO International Health Regulations.  She is also working with leading scholars worldwide to advance the conceptualization and measurement of the commercial determinants of health.

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Jamie Liew

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
Director, Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies
University of Ottawa

Jamie Chai Yun Liew joined the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) in 2011. She is an expert in immigration, refugee and citizenship law, as well as administrative law and public law. Jamie’s current research examines the meaning of citizenship, legal barriers for stateless persons to obtain citizenship/nationality, gendered implications of Canadian law on migrants, and how Canada’s immigration and refugee system marginalizes those navigating the process. She is currently completing a book manuscript on statelessness and the law. Jamie holds degrees in law, international affairs (NPSIA), commerce, and political science. She was called to the Law Society of Ontario in 2006. After articling at a national full-service law firm in Toronto, Jamie clerked for Justice Douglas Campbell at the Federal Court, was a member of the Issa Sesay defence team at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and was Commission Counsel at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

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Audrey Macklin

Professor & Rebecca Cook Chair in Human Rights Law
University of Toronto

Audrey Macklin holds law degrees from Yale and Toronto, and a bachelor of science degree from Alberta. After graduating from Toronto, she served as law clerk to Mme Justice Bertha Wilson at the Supreme Court of Canada. Professor Macklin’s teaching areas include criminal law, administrative law, and immigration and refugee law. Her research and writing interests include transnational migration, citizenship, forced migration, feminist and cultural analysis, and human rights.

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Carissma Mathen

Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa

Carissima Mathen teaches Canadian Constitutional and Criminal Law, as well as seminars in Advanced Constitutional Law. From 1994-2001, she was Counsel and, later, Director of Litigation for the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) undertaking equality rights litigation before the Supreme Court of Canada and other courts. She was involved in some of the most formative Charter cases of the Lamer court including Vriend v Alberta, R v RDS, Winnipeg Child and Family Services v G, M v H, R v Darrach and R v Mills. She is the new Editor of the leading casebook, Canadian Constitutional Law 6th Edition (forthcoming, Emond). She has authored works on the Charter of Rights, the division of powers, the separation of powers, constitutional litigation, comparative constitutional law and constitutional theory. She is a 2018 recipient of the Law Society Medal, one of the highest honours bestowed by the Ontario bar.

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Jason Nickerson

Humanitarian Representative to Canada
Médecins Sans Frontières

Dr. Jason Nickerson is the Humanitarian Representative to Canada for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), based in Ottawa. Jason is also appointed as a Clinical Scientist at the Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa and as an Adjunct Professor of Common Law at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. He leads MSF’s humanitarian diplomacy in Canada and provides advice on humanitarian operations, medical advocacy and policy, and access to medicines to MSF’s operations in more than 70 countries affected by crises. Jason has over 10 years’ clinical experience as a respiratory therapist working in adult critical care and anesthesia and has worked extensively in global public health response in Canada and internationally during armed conflicts, disease epidemics, and sudden onset disasters.

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Chidi Oguamanam

Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa

Dr. Chidi Oguamanam is a professor in the Faculty of Law (Common Law Section) University of Ottawa, where he is affiliated with the Centres for Law, Technology and Society, the Environment and Global Sustainability as well as the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. Professor Oguamanam has diverse interdisciplinary research interests in the areas of global knowledge governance in general, especially as manifested in the dynamics of intellectual property and technology law with emphasis on biodiversity, biotechnology, including agricultural biotechnology as well as global public health. He identifies the policy and practical contexts for the exploration of the intersections of knowledge systems, particularly western science and the traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities within the broader development discourse and knowledge governance paradigms. Dr. Oguamanam is associated with several research consortia including the Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) Partnership and the Access and Benefit Sharing Canada (ABS-CANADA).

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Eva Ottawa

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Section de droit civil
University of Ottawa

Eva Ottawa is an Atikamekw Nehirowisiw researcher from Manawan, Quebec. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Laval University and is currently completing a Master's thesis at the University of Ottawa on customary practices and norms regarding the circulation and care of children among the Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok of Manawan. Eva Ottawa decided to pursue graduate studies following an exceptional career path. She has been very involved for over 20 years in the political life of her nation, and has served as Grand Chief of the Atikamekw Nation for two terms, from 2006 to 2013. In this capacity, she assumed, among other things, major responsibilities in connection with the negotiation of the Atikamekw's land claims and self-government, and the implementation of innovative governance approaches within the Nation. More recently, in addition to her ongoing involvement in her community, she was able to put her legal training to good use by serving as a commissioner with the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Commission.

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Jane Philpott

Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences
Queen’s University

Queen’s University appointed the Honourable Jane Philpott as the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Director of the School of Medicine for a five-year term effective July 1, 2020. Dr. Philpott also serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization (SEAMO) and represents Queen’s University in its relations with partner hospitals as well as the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care. Dr. Philpott is an accomplished family physician, educator, and global health champion, and is best known for having held several senior cabinet positions with the Government of Canada. Elected as the Member of Parliament for Markham-Stouffville in 2015, she served in a number of prominent federal cabinet roles, including as Minister of Health, Minister of Indigenous Services, President of the Treasury Board, and Minister of Digital Government. She currently serves as Special Adviser on Health for Nishnawbe Aski Nation, an organization representing 49 First Nation communities across Treaty 5 and Treaty 9 in northern Ontario. Prior to entering politics, Dr. Philpott spent over 30 years in family medicine and global health. She spent the first decade of her career in Niger, West Africa, where she provided clinical care to patients and training to community health workers.

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David Robitaille

Professor, Faculty of Law, Section de droit civil
University of Ottawa

David Robitaille is a full professor in the Civil Law Section at the University of Ottawa. He has been teaching and conducting research in constitutional and administrative law, municipal law, environmental law and rights and freedoms since 2005. His recent research and publications have focused on the division of federal-provincial-municipal powers in the areas of land use planning, the environment, transportation and human rights and freedoms. His doctoral thesis was awarded the Gold Medal of the Governor General of Canada in 2008, the Prix d'excellence of the Association québécoise des professeurs de droit, and the Médaille du Barreau de Paris. Some of his publications have been cited with approval by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, the Quebec Court of Appeal, the Superior Court of Quebec, the Court of Quebec and the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal.

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Christabelle Sethna

Associate Professor, Feminist and Gender Studies
University of Ottawa

Dr. Christabelle Sethna is a historian and Full Professor in the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa. She has published widely on sex education, contraception and abortion histories, focusing on Canada. She is the co-author or co-editor of the following books: Animal Metropolis (2017, UCalgary), Just Watch Us (2018, UMcGill), Abortion Across Borders (2019, Johns Hopkins), and No Place for the State (2020, UBC). She is currently PI on a SSHRC-funded project about women’s transnational travel for abortion services from 1960s-1990s.

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Will Tao

Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer
Co-Founder, Heron Law Offices (Burnaby)

Will Tao is a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Lawyer. He co-founded Heron Law Offices in 2021 and provides legal services in all areas of Canadian immigration and refugee law with a particular focus on complex refusals, appeals, and judicial reviews of international student, family class, and foreign worker-related applications. He won the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Immigration Section Founders' Award for his accomplishments in his first five years of practice (2020) and won the CBA Immigration's Volunteer Recognition Award (co-winner) for his work with the Section's Anti-Racism Committee (2021). Will also provides strategic advice and consultation to government, media, educational institutions, and businesses on immigration-refugee, decolonization, and race/inclusion-related issues. Will previously taught Immigration Law through the UBC Certificate in Immigration: Laws, Policies and Procedures (CILPP) program. He is currently studying the impact of Canadian immigration’s use of automated decision-making systems and artificial intelligence on applicants from the Global South.

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Bryan Thomas

Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section
University of Ottawa

Bryan Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. His research spans a wide range of topics including Canadian and comparative health law and policy, health rights litigation, long-term care, global health law, and the role of religious argument in legal and political discourse.  Dr. Thomas holds an SJD from University of Toronto and a Master’s degree in philosophy from Dalhousie.

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Sophie Thériault

Professor & Vice-Dean (Academic), Faculty of Law, Section de droit civil
University of Ottawa

Professor Thériault’s research focuses on Indigenous peoples’ rights in the context of natural resources extraction; Indigenous environmental governance; environmental justice and environmental rights; and food security and sovereignty for Indigenous peoples. She is a member of the Centre interuniversitaire d’études et de recherches autochtones (CIÉRA, Université Laval), the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS, University of Ottawa), and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre (University of Ottawa). She is also a member of the Barreau du Québec (2003). She also served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Louis LeBel at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2002-2003.

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Michael Veale

Associate Professor, Faculty of Laws
University College London (U.K.)

Michael's research sits at the intersections of emerging digital technologies, Internet and data law, technology policy and human­­–computer interaction. His work has previously examined areas such as how the law applies to machine learning techniques in practice, how civil servants grapple with issues of algorithmic discrimination, how data protection law copes with new data processing practices, and the use and limitations of data rights. He is currently working on areas including the compliance of online tracking and advertising systems such as 'real-time bidding' with data protection law, the legal tensions caused by encrypted data analysis and business-side privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), and the implications of synthetic content (such as so-called 'deep fakes’).

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Pedro A. Villarreal

Senior Research Fellow
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Germany)

Pedro A. Villarreal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. His research focuses on international and comparative law on human health issues, as well as its intersections with international economic law. He received his PhD in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). His book, Pandemics and Law: A Global Governance Perspective (published in 2019 in Spanish) was awarded the Prize for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Law and Social Sciences at said University. He is a member, among other associations, of the Global Health Law Consortium, the Global Health Law Committee of the International Law Association, and the German Alliance for Global Health Research. He is currently member of the editorial board of Lex-Atlas:COVID-19.

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Siouxsie Wiles

Associate Professor, Molecular Medicine and Pathology
University of Auckland (New Zealand)

Siouxsie Wiles studied medical microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a PhD in microbiology at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford. Siouxsie heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab, which searches for new antibiotics as well as tries to understand how bacteria evolve to become more infectious. Siouxsie also has a keen interest in demystifying science. She has won numerous awards for her research and science communication efforts. When the pandemic arrived, Siouxsie joined forces with Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris to make the science of the pandemic clear and understandable. Their award-winning graphics have been translated into multiple languages and adapted by governments and organisations around the world. Siouxsie was named as one of the BBC’s 100 influential women of 2020 and Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year for 2021.

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Brenda Wilson

Professor & Associate Dean, Community Health and Humanities
Memorial University

Brenda Wilson trained in the U.K. as a public health physician. She held faculty positions at the Universities of Aberdeen and Ottawa before joining Memorial University of Newfoundland. She is responsible for providing academic leadership in education and scholarship related to population and applied health research and professional public health practice, and supporting Memorial’s social accountability mandate. Over three decades of research, she has brought a population and public health perspective to research on emerging genomic technologies. Her professional contributions have focused on promoting use of evidence and understanding of practice context to public health and disease prevention interventions more generally, including, most recently, her mandate as interim co-chair of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served on federal COVID-19 Testing and Screening Expert Advisory Panel, and was an expert witness to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador on the legal challenge to 2020 restrictions which excluded non-residents from automatic entry to the province.

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Kumanan Wilson

Staff Physician (General Internal Medicine) – The Ottawa Hospital
Innovation Advisor – Bruyère Research Institute
Chief Executive Officer – CANImmunize Inc.

Kumanan Wilson focuses on digital solutions in healthcare. He is also a specialist in General Internal Medicine at the Ottawa Hospital, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He is the CEO of CANImmunize Inc. and is an Innovation Advisor at the Bruyère Research Institute. Working alongside leading scientists and clinicians, Dr. Wilson’s team has developed a pan-Canadian digital immunization record, a digital comic to teach children about immunization, a stroke-rehabilitation platform, and a mobile tool for Emergency Department clinicians. His academic work also extends to big data and he is a member of the University of Ottawa Center for Health, Law, Policy and Ethics.

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