Refugee board disputes Professor Sean Rehaag's study on bias and refugee boards

Asylum rejection rates have no bearing in the quality and consistency of decisions made by adjudicators, says Canada’s refugee board, reported the Toronto Star March 4: In fact, the board insists that each decision must be examined on a case-by-case basis. “Statistics on the acceptance and rejection rates of individual IRB members who determine refugee […]

Osgoode Professor Sean Rehaag's study raises concerns about bias on refugee board

If you were a refugee seeking protection in Canada, you wouldn’t want to cross the path of David McBean, wrote the Toronto Star March 4, in a story about a new York study that shows evidence of bias among different adjudicators on the Immigration & Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada: According to an analysis of […]

Professor Alan Young calls appeal of prostitution-decriminalization ruling ‘knee-jerk’

Last September, Justice Susan Himel of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down three provisions in Canada's Criminal Code: living off the avails of prostitution; keeping a common bawdy house; and communicating in a public place for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, reported the Kingston Whig-Standard Feb. 18, in a series examining the […]

Osgoode Professor Dayna Scott on Sarnia's need for local study on pollution

A forum held last week in our community has further raised the profile of pollution and its impact on our health, and underscores the need for a local study on the issue to commence immediately, wrote The Sarnia Observer Feb. 16 in an editorial: The devastating effects of pollution were discussed at the Community Forum […]

York University launches commercialization presence in York Region

If collaboration across industry, academic and public sectors is key to bridging Canada’s innovation gap, how do you make university research more accessible to the people and organizations who need this expertise? York University has answered this challenge by launching Innovation York (IY). Strategically located in York Region, IY is the public face and conduit […]

Upcoming Health and Environment Forum in Sarnia to focus on First Nations youth

Organizers of an upcoming environmental forum are hoping to engage First Nations youth, wrote The Sarnia Observer Jan. 30: The event, hosted by the Aamjiwnaang First Nations Health and Environment Committee, in partnership with York University, is a follow-up to a 2008 health symposium held in Sarnia to share research findings with members of the […]

Is Eating People Wrong? Professor Allan Hutchinson's tasty new book

Is snacking on morsels of human flesh wrong? Apparently it is, if it involves murdering the person first – even if you’re stranded at sea without food or water. According to common law, necessity is no defence to murder. Such a 19th-century case of murder and cannibalism is highlighted in Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Allan Hutchinson's […]

Canadian Forum on Civil Justice moving to York University

York University is the new home of the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice. The forum is moving to York from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Law and will partner with the York Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL) and Osgoode Hall Law School on various socio-legal research initiatives. “The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice […]

Student-driven Innocence Project behind preservation of evidence challenge

Osgoode Hall Law School’s Innocence Project, which provides up to 10 Juris Doctor (JD) students every year with supervised clinical work on cases of suspected wrongful conviction, is the driving force behind a constitutional challenge over preservation of evidence in murder cases. The students, who are supervised by Innocence Project Director and Professor Alan Young […]

Professor Dayna Nadine Scott: Chemical Valley compromises First Nation people's rights

The cumulative impact of the relentless release of pollutants into the air from Canada’s "Chemical Valley" affects the members of Aamjiwnaang in a way that is fundamentally unfair, and is now argued to be unconstitutional, wrote Dayna Nadine Scott, professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and co-director of the National Network on Environments & […]