Attacks on the Rule of Law from Within

Joanna Baron is Executive Director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a legal charity which defends the rights and freedoms of Canadians in courts of law and public opinion. Previous to that, Joanna was the founding National Director of the Runnymede Society.

A native of Toronto, Joanna studied classical liberal arts at St. John’s College, MD, and earned civil and common law degrees at McGill University. She clerked at the Court of Appeal for Ontario and was called to the bar in Ontario in 2013. Following her clerkship, Joanna worked in barrister’s chambers in London, UK as a Harold G. Fox Scholar. Following her return to Canada in 2014, Joanna practiced criminal law with the late Edward L. Greenspan, appearing at all levels of court in Ontario, including the Supreme Court of Canada.

Joanna also writes about politics, culture, philosophy and the arts with recent publications in City Journal, the Walrus, the Globe and Mail, the National Post and Standpoint UK. She is a regular commentator on legal and cultural issues on radio and news.

Maxime St-Hilaire holds a doctorate in law (LLD) from Laval University and is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law at Université de Sherbrooke, where he teaches constitutional law and legal philosophy. In 2021, he won this University’s research and creation award, in the human sciences category, for his book titled Les Positivismes juridiques au XXe siècle. Normativismes, sociologismes, réalismes (PUL, 2020). In 2014, he won the “Prix Minerve 2014” award for his book titled La lutte pour la pleine reconnaissance des droits ancestraux: problématique juridique et enquête philosophique (Yvon Blais, 2015). He co-edited, with Joanna Baron, the book/special-issue Attacks on the Rule of Law from Within (Lexis/SCLR, 2019), and has published more than 35 articles and chapters, among numerous other publications in scholarly and media sources, and given more than 60 talks around the world. While a doctoral student, he served as law clerk to the hon. Marie Deschamps J., at the Supreme Court of Canada (2009-10), after an internship at the Venice Commission (2007-8).