JournalTOCs

Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice
Number of Followers: 3

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 0710-0841
Published by U of Windsor

[4 journals]

Mapping Racial Geographies of Violence on the Colonial Landscape
- Authors: Ingrid Waldron
  Pages: 1 - 9
  Abstract: This paper unpacks the concept of “spatial violence” to examine the social justice dimensions of race, place, space, and the Indigenous and Black communities in Canada. The paper highlights the larger socio-spatial processes that create disproportionate exposure and vulnerability to the harmful social, economic, and health impacts of inequality in Indigenous and Black communities. It also argues that the lived experience of spatial violence and toxic exposure live together and that it is not possible to understand their impacts in Indigenous and Black communities in isolation. The paper also disrupts traditional notions of “the environment” that are centered on harmonizing cities and nature by highlighting the symbolic and materiality of space, especially with respect to how it harms Indigenous, Black and other racialized communities.
  PubDate: 2022-06-09
  Issue No: Vol. 38 (2022)
Integrating Social Work Within Legal Clinics: An Inter-Professional
Perspective to Address Social-Legal Needs
- Authors: Alicia Lam, Vanessa Emery, Renee Griffin, Michael Saini
  Pages: 10 - 29
  Abstract: This project is a key demonstration of the benefits of social workers practising alongside lawyers within a legal clinic. Inter-professional practice between lawyers and social workers responds holistically to the needs of individuals experiencing socio-legal issues by both addressing their legal issues while supporting their mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being and adjustment. We provide lessons learned based on a new initiative that integrates social work within a legal clinic as a means of providing opportunities to receive individualized support while addressing legal issues.
  PubDate: 2022-06-09
  Issue No: Vol. 38 (2022)
The Consequences of Unfreedom: Learning from Story Amidst a Global Climate
Crisis
- Authors: Meghan Robinson
  Pages: 30 - 45
  Abstract: As the world navigates the impending consequences of climate change, Canada remains one of the few countries to reject the right to a healthy environment for its citizens within the Canadian Constitution. Although Canada purports itself to be a free and democratic society, many argue that their freedoms are continually neglected by laws that continue to disregard the environment and, therefore, their right to a healthy existence. This article is an investigation into a particular word that is woven throughout Canada’s Constitution: “freedom.” It is an investigation into the conflicting understandings of the word and how these contrasting meanings have impacted Canada’s Constitution and its relationship to land. This article analyzes the history of freedom as seen through a liberal belief system and contrasts this understanding with Indigenous concepts of freedom, as told through Haisla and Nuu-chah-nulth stories. These narratives explore how the differing concepts of freedom have affected relationships with the land and the laws that govern the land. Finally, the discussion of these themes draws upon the possibility of using story within Canada’s laws to change the Constitution’s current relationship with the land in order to mitigate the potential effects of climate change. I argue that the liberal, colonialist world view is ever present in our current legal system and is in fact facilitated through the word “freedom.” Until we begin to re-story our Constitution through a diversity of understandings and world views, Canada will continue to ignore the looming ramifications of climate change.
  PubDate: 2022-06-09
  Issue No: Vol. 38 (2022)
Incomplete Justice: The Costs of Partial Indemnity
- Authors: Adil Abdulla
  Pages: 46 - 74
  Abstract: In the mid-twentieth century, Ontario abandoned a simple, full indemnity costs rule in favour of a discretionary, partial indemnity costs regime with hundreds of sub-rules. This article argues that this was a mistake. Partial indemnity has no doctrinal, principled, or practical benefits that cannot be incorporated into a full costs regime. Additionally, partial indemnity carries significant costs to access to justice. Instead, this article proposes a costs regime that incorporates the best features of both the old rule and the new regime. In brief, it proposes a full indemnity rule; capped at the losing party’s costs; with exceptions for divided success, impecuniosity, and public interest cases; and discretionary fines for engaging in misconduct or dilatory tactics. Collectively, these rules would advance access to justice more than the existing costs regime.
  PubDate: 2022-06-09
  Issue No: Vol. 38 (2022)
“A So-Called Tenants’ Union”: Defining the Organizational Power of
Tenants within and outside the Law
- Authors: Seema Shafei
  Pages: 75 - 101
  Abstract: How is a tenants’ union defined within the parameters of the law' How have tenants been defining themselves as a union outside of the law' This paper will examine the answers to these questions by laying out the historical context of the current rental regime in Ontario, analyzing the current case law on tenant associational activity, and highlighting the organizational tactics that tenants’ associations have used to build power where the law has failed to protect their interests. While advancing a legal case for robust tenant associational rights may force landlords to the bargaining table, the future of tenants’ associations in and outside of the law should draw on lessons learned from the labour movement in Canada with a “whole-worker organizing” approach in mind.
  PubDate: 2022-06-09
  Issue No: Vol. 38 (2022)