Public Interest Litigation in Canada

Cheryl Milne, LL.B., M.S.W., is the Executive Director of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. Prior to this position she was a legal advocate for children with the legal clinic Justice for Children and Youth for 17 years. There she conducted Charter litigation at the Supreme Court of Canada including the challenge to the corporal punishment defence in the Criminal Code [Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (2004)], the striking down of the reverse onus sections of the Youth Criminal Justice Act for adult sentencing [R. v. D.B. (2008)], and an intervention involving the right of a capable adolescent to consent to her own medical treatment (A.C. v. Manitoba Child and Family Services ]. She has represented numerous young people in education related proceedings under the Education Act, child welfare and family law proceedings, and in youth court under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, among others. She has been Chair of the Ontario Bar Association’s Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights section, the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, and Justice for Children and Youth. She is the past Chair of the CBA Children’s Law Committee and sits on the Steering Committee of the National Association of Women and the Law. She was appointed to the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying for Mature Minors and was cross-appointed to the Child and Family Services Review Board and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario from 2018 to 2020. She teaches a clinical course in constitutional advocacy as well as child and youth law at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and has taught Social Work & the Law at Toronto Metropolitan University. In 2019, Cheryl was awarded the Law Society Medal by the Law Society of Ontario.

Kent Roach is Professor of Law and Prichard-Wilson Chair of Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and of Yale, and a former law clerk to Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada. In 2015, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. In 2016, named (with Craig Forcese) one of the top 25 influential lawyers in Canada (change-maker category) by Canadian Lawyer. He was awarded the Molson Prize for the social sciences and humanities in 2017.He is the author of 14 books including Constitutional Remedies in Canada (winner of the Owen best book Prize); Due Process and Victims’ Rights (short listed for the Donner Prize), The Supreme Court on Trial (same); (with Robert J. Sharpe) Brian Dickson: A Judge’s Journey (winner of the Dafoe Prize) and The 9/11 Effect: Comparative Counter-Terrorism (winner of the Mundell Medal) and (with Craig Forcese) False Security: The Radicalization of Canadian Anti-Terrorism (winner of the Canadian Law and Society Association best book prize). He is the author of the Criminal Law and Charter volumes in Irwin Law’s essentials of Canadian law series. His 14th book Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley/Colten Boushie Case was published by McGill Queens in early 2019. He has won awards for his pro bono work and contributions to civil liberties. He has represented Aboriginal and civil liberties groups in many interventions before the courts, including Gladue, Wells, Ipeelee and Anderson on sentencing Indigenous offenders, Latimer on mandatory minimum sentences, Stillman, Dunedin Construction, and Ward on Charter remedies, Golden on strip searches, Khawaja on the definition of terrorism and Corbiere and Sauve on voting rights. He is involved with the Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights.