Episode January 2016–Accessibility, Name Changing, Slavery and the Law

Bienvenues à LegalEase, une émission consacrée au droit qui vise à
en rendre le jargon plus accessible tout en évaluant de manière
critique ses institutions.

LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of former
and current law students at McGill that explores the law and its
institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the
jargon of the law more accessible.

First off, LegalEase’s Emma Noradounkian interviews the McGill
Faculty of Law’s Universal Access Consultant, Gift Tshuma, on his
accessibility report, which was released in the late Fall of 2016.
They discussed the details of the report and ways that students can get involved to make the Faculty more accessible and inclusive for all.

Next, we’ll hear from the McGill Legal Information Clinic on the current status of name changing in Quebec, brought to you by Alexa Franckzak.

The Legal Information Clinic is a non-profit,
student-run, bilingual and free information legal service. Their
mandate is to provide legal information, student advocacy services,
referral and community services to the McGill and Montreal
communities, with a continuing commitment to meeting the needs
of marginalized groups. The clinic is located in the SSMU building
on McTavish.

Finally, we’ll feature a talk which Professor Afua Cooper gave
during Professor Adelle Blackett’s “Slavery and the Law” seminar.

A scholar, historian, poet, and commentator– she currently is an
Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social
Anthropology at Dalhousie University and founded a minor in
Black Canadian Studies. She discusses her research and the history
of slavery in Canada by pointing to individual narratives and the
cultural entrenchment of the practice in codes and statutes. She
completely demolishes the myth of a benign, slave-free Canada.

Vous écoutez LegalEase sur CKUT 90.3 FM à Montreal.

https://soundcloud.com/user-895652362/january-legalease

 

 

Episode December 2016–A Gift or a Curse?

Bienvenues à LegalEase, une émission consacrée au droit qui vise à
en rendre le jargon plus accessible tout en évaluant de manière
critique ses institutions.

LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of former
and current law students at McGill that explores the law and its
institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the
jargon of the law more accessible.

LegalEase’s Lillian Boctor reports from the Standing Rock resistance encampments where water protectors have, for now, managed to halt construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline…more on that to come. We’ll also get an update on struggles against the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Ensuite, we’ll hear testimonies from members of the Non-Status Women’s Collective of Montreal, a collective of non-status women self-organizing for status for all here in Montreal, who took to the streets this past Saturday, to mark one year of collective struggle and continue their fight in denouncing the arbitrariness of Canada’s immigration system and its particularly violent impacts on women.

Finally, to add a little holiday flavour to our somber program we’ll get a brief law lesson from the Legal Information Clinic of McGill on the subject of gifts.

Vous écoutez LegalEase sur CKUT 90.3 F.M.

https://soundcloud.com/user-895652362/december-legalease-show

“When the Law is Broken:” Professor Val Napoleon Talks of the University of Victoria’s Proposed Dual Indigenous Law Program

(Photo credit: http://www.uvic.ca/law/about/indigenous/indigenouslawresearchunit/)

Click here to download audio.

After over a decade of planning and discussions, the University of Victoria’s (UVic’s) proposed joint Common Law and Indigenous Law degree program (the JID) is nearing fruition. Once approved by both the federal and provincial governments, Canada will see its first ever dual Indigenous law program, starting next Fall of 2017.

LegalEase’s Emma Noradounkian sat down with one of its architects, UVic Director of the Indigenous Law Research Unit and Research Chair, Val Napoleon. We discussed the details of the proposed program, its parallels to the McGill transsystemic model, as well as issues of Indigenous essentialization and reconciliation in creating such a program.

Thank you to Professor Napoleon for her time and patience in agreeing to the interview. Thank yous are also due to Professor Napoleon, as well as Professors Friedland, Anker, and Kong, for having taught first-year students to be brave, to engage with what we didn’t know, and to question what we thought we already knew about Indigenous laws this past Integration Week.