Asper Centre

Statement on Ontario’s Attempts to Avoid its Climate Change Obligations and its Legal Commitments Issued by the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights on December 9, 2025 The Asper Centre condemns Ontario’s recent legislative efforts to deny its Charter-based obligations with respect to clim...

🚨🌍 The Asper Centre opposes Ontario’s recently passed Bill 68, which removes the province’s duty to set greenhouse gas targets — a last-minute attempt to avoid Charter accountability on climate change.

Read our Statement here: aspercentre.ca/statement-on...

David Rabban argues for a distinct theory of the right to academic freedom, as the U.S. and state governments tighten the screws on universities By Daniel Minden As the Trump administration and state governments ramp up efforts to regulate American universities, David M. Rabban, an expert on the law of academic freedom and professor at the Un...

New on the Asper Centre Blog:

@uoftlaw.bsky.social JD student Daniel Minden highlights Professor David Rabban’s recent lecture, calling for a clearly defined First Amendment right to academic freedom amid growing political pressure on U.S. universities.🎓✨

READ: aspercentre.ca/david-rabban...

Great thought leadership piece by the Asper Centre on the role of interveners at all levels of court

I am proud to have been part of the group of counsel who contributed to the discussion that led to this paper.

🚨New Asper Centre report: More than Busybodies looks at the status of public interest interveners in Canadian courts & makes 7 key recommendations to strengthen their role.

Read more 👉 aspercentre.ca/wp-content/u...

#AccessToJustice #ConstitutionalLaw #PublicInterestLitigation

📢 In collaboration with CELA, we've created an Environmental Legal Action Guide — for activists fighting for environmental justice in Ontario.

Covers:
*Environmental Bill of Rights
*Nuisance law
*Charter & Indigenous rights
*Proposals for law & policy reform

Read: aspercentre.ca/wp-content/u... 💚

Meet Megan Savard, the Asper Centre’s new Constitutional Litigator in Residence for Fall 2025 By Tyler Lee & Romina Hajizadeh  During her term at Downtown Legal Services, a young and eager Megan Savard was called upon by an elderly man who had been accused of a domestic assault. He struggled ...

Meet Megan Savard, the Asper Centre’s Fall 2025 Constitutional Litigator in Residence! U of T Law alum, founder of Savards LLP, and defender of Charter rights, she’s back to mentor students + push for systemic change. READ Blog post ⬇️ #CharterRights #AccessToJustice

aspercentre.ca/meet-megan-s...

Encampments and the Charter Workshop: Charter Challenges, Systemic Barriers, and Indigenous Legal Perspectives by Aurora Lawrence and Jay Wai On February 28, 2025, the Centre for Constitutional Studies at the University of Alberta and the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights co-hosted a “Encampments a...

NEW on the Asper Centre BLOG >> "Encampments and the Charter Workshop: Charter Challenges, Systemic Barriers, and Indigenous Legal Perspectives"

by @uoftlaw.bsky.social JD Candidates Aurora Lawrence and Jay Wai🙏

READ: aspercentre.ca/encampments-...

@centreconststud.bsky.social

ICYMI 📢 Call for Papers: The Asper Centre invites abstracts for a symposium on litigating positive rights under the Charter (at U of T Law).

Deadline for Abstracts: June 30, 2025.

Details: aspercentre.ca/event/call-f... — please share!🙏

We're intervening w/NAWL @nawlanfd.bsky.social at the SCC next week in this case about Quebec’s exclusion of refugee claimants fr/subsidized daycare as a s.15 Charter violation.

FACTUM: aspercentre.ca/.../05/41210...

Thanks to pro-bono counsel Kerri Froc @kerrifroc.bsky.social & Suzanne Zaccour🙏

Should the voting age in Canada be lowered? These young Yukoners think so | CBC News Some young people in Yukon don't see why they have to wait so long to be old enough to vote.

Should the voting age in Canada be lowered?

Our ED Cheryl Milne (@cherylmilne.bsky.social) says there are many potential benefits to lowering the voting age. For example, it would encourage politicians to pay more attention to issues that matter to young people.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

The City of Toronto’s Potential New Bylaw Limiting Public Demonstrations by Rob De Luca In December 2024, Toronto’s City Council moved to require the City Manager to develop a new public demonstrations by-law.  If the by-law roughly contemplated in the City’s motion is pr...

On the BLOG today >> Our Research Associate Rob de Luca writes about "The City of Toronto’s Potential New By-law Limiting Public Demonstrations" and its Charter implications.

Details about how to engage in the City's ongoing consultation process are included.

READ: aspercentre.ca/the-city-of-...

Our 2025 OUTLOOK Newsletter is out, with contributions from @uoftlaw.bsky.social students about recent constitutional law decisions from the SCC and Ontario Court of Appeal, Asper Centre working group updates, and an update about our Voting Age challenge🙏

READ: aspercentre.ca/wp-content/u...

📢 CALL for PAPERS📢

Attention legal scholars and practitioners❗❗

The Asper Centre is pleased to announce a call for papers for an upcoming symposium focused on litigating positive rights under the Charter.

Abstracts are due JUNE 30, 2025.

READ: aspercentre.ca/event/call-f...

Pls share widely 🙏

🏆 👏 🎉CONGRATULATIONS to our Executive Director, Cheryl Milne @cherylmilne.bsky.social, who has been awarded the University of Toronto's 2025 Chancellor’s Distinguished Leadership Award!!!

READ: people.utoronto.ca/award/chance...

Supreme Court concludes limits on third-party spending for political advertising violate the right to vote By Taoran Li On 7 March 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision in Ontario (Attorney General) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc., 2025 SCC 5, where the majority of the Court ...

On the BLOG today > LLM student Taoran Li on the SCC's decision in Ontario (A.G.) v. Working Families Coalition (Canada) Inc., in which the Asper Centre intervened.

Thanks to Debbie Boswell & Earl Cherniak of @lerners.ca for representing us in this intervention🙏

aspercentre.ca/supreme-cour...

Supreme Court of Canada rules to bolster rights of inmates in provincial jails The judgement, which considered question of how inmates are disciplined, is a rare reversal from the Court on established law

“This is a huge victory for prisoner rights,” said Samara Secter, a lawyer at Addario Law Group LLP in Toronto, who represented an intervener in the case, the Queen’s Prison Law Clinic. “A prison is not a Charter-free zone.”

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

LEAF is looking for a skilled, inspiring, feminist leader to serve as its next Executive Director LEAF's Executive Director oversees the organization according to the strategic direction set by the Board of Directors. They are an ambassador of the goals and vision of LEAF, promoting the rights of ...

LEAF is hiring a new Executive Director. Please share this with people in your networks who may be a good fit!

www.leaf.ca/news/leaf-is...

image of kim murray with information and link to the event registraion page here: https://www.law.utoronto.ca/events/morris-gross-lecture-kim-murray

We are pleased to be convening this upcoming special lecture at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, featuring Kim Murray on:

Crimes Against Humanity and Indian Residential Schools in Canada

February 25, 2025 at 5:00pm EST. Registration Required.

More information here: uoft.me/mg25

Many thanks to Prof Margot Young for a terrific Constitutional Roundtable yesterday - enthralling us with her talk on Zombie Concepts: Contagion in Canadian Equality Law!

Don't miss another chance to hear Prof Young at our BOOK LAUNCH event tomorrow. More INFO here: aspercentre.ca/event/litiga...

🎧🎙 Episode 6 of Season 4 of Charter: A Course podcast is now available!

With special guests, UofT Law's Professor John Borrows & Jessica Orkin of Goldblatt Partners LLP.

Listen to this episode wherever you stream your podcasts OR find it on our website here: aspercentre.ca/charter-a-co...

🎧🎙️Thanks for tuning in to "Charter: A Course" in 2024🙏

We’ve wrapped up 5 of the 7 episodes of Season 4 of the podcast - the last 2 episodes will drop in Jan 2025!

Please LIKE & FOLLOW us wherever you stream your podcasts, so you won't miss any future episodes.

aspercentre.ca/charter-a-co...