By Behnam Nadimfard As I began my first week as a Research Assistant/Case Worker with the Winkler Institution at Osgoode, I took it upon myself to learn as much as possible about mediation. In doing so, I had the privilege of attending the “Applying Findings from Neuroscience to Community Mediation” webinar/workshop. In this webinar, Tim Hicks, the author of Embodied Conflict, briefly walked us through the major topics of his book (you can find the link to this book at the end of this post), which sheds light on the neural basis of conflict and communication. Here are my two takeaways from…
By Nyasha Size Working with The Winkler Institute as a PBSC volunteer has been an experience of a lifetime, I feel privileged to have been chosen to be part of the team. It has also been a humbling experience, coming from an Alternative Dispute Resolution background I assumed that I knew a fair amount about Alternative Dispute Resolution, it is safe to safe one should not make assumptions. The database introduced me to areas that I had not previously ventured into. Going through the database initially identifying the broad areas that it covers. I was drawn from several countries I…
By Braelyn Rumble My placement with the Winkler Institute for Dispute Resolution in partnership with Pro Bono Students Canada has been one of the most informative experiences that I have had in my first year of law school. Upon my first meeting with Jean-Paul, the program supervisor, Jean-Paul made a joke about how “mediation” typically autocorrects to “meditation” on smartphones. Jean-Paul explained that much of the work my partner and I would be doing over the course of the placement would entail creating plain-language graphics explaining alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes. While laughing at his joke, it suddenly occurred to…
By Rachelle Paquet and members of the Osgoode Mediation Clinic This is a blog review of a few of the usual advocacy events that were transitioned from in-person to online over the last year, due to the unusual and unprecedented circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dentons Cup The Osgoode Advocacy Society (OAS), formerly the Osgoode Negotiation Club, is a student-run club that was established in 2016 and aims to advance the negotiation, mediation, and general oral advocacy skills of Osgoode Hall Law School students through training boot camps and advocacy-based competitions. The Dentons Negotiation Cup is Osgoode’s flagship advocacy-based competition…
By Shaun Odes ADR has often been championed as a tool for enhancing access to justice; however, the recent necessity of pivoting towards online forums has accidentally enhanced access to justice in ways we have never seen. While the COVID-19 pandemic was the root cause of this transition, OADRs benefits will likely lead to its normalization outside the confines of the pandemic, and therefore have a lasting impact on access to justice. 142
By Mihail Salariu People usually turn to the courts because they need a conflict resolved. A common scenario is one where a party has a complaint against another and their demand is resisted by arguing for something different, counter-claiming, or silence. If the dispute is over a matter that affects the public interest, like environmental or constitutional issues, it is best addressed in a public forum, like the courts of the justice system. This idea was famously championed by Owen Fiss in Against Settlement (1984) and continues to hold true nearly 40 years later. It is a common phrase to…
