Project Purpose

The LCO received a grant from the Ontario Women’s Directorate to develop law school curriculum modules on violence against women. The objective was to develop modules that are flexible enough that law schools that wish to use them are able to include them in existing courses, offer them as an intensive course or combine them into a full course. The modules go beyond the most obvious courses, with a view to ensuring that law students receive some training in this area, regardless of the area of law in which they will practice. The preparation of the modules builds on similar curricula developed for the National Judicial Institute and prepared in the past for law schools, as well as work done elsewhere.

The LCO retained Pamela Cross, an expert on violence against women who has also assisted in the development of curricula for the NJI and Legal Aid, as the Project Director.

The initiative had the benefit of an Advisory Committee composed of members with a range of expertise in violence against women, including faculty members from all the Ontario law schools.

  • Pamela Cross, Project Coordinator

Law Commission of Ontario

  • Patricia Hughes, Executive Director

Faculty of Law Representatives

  • Martha Bailey, Queen’s University
  • Nicholas Bala, Queen’s University
  • Louise Belanger-Hardy, University of Ottawa
  • Julie MacFarlane, University of Windsor
  • Janet Mosher, Osgoode Hall
  • Jennifer Nedelsky, University of Toronto
  • Melanie Randall, University of Western Ontario
  • Elizabeth Sheehy, University of Ottawa

Community Represenatives

  • Leighann Burns, OAITH
  • Lisa Cirillo, Downtown Legal Services Student Legal Clinic
  • Mary Lou Fassel, Barbra Schlifer Clinic
  • David Humphries, Criminal Lawyer
  • Nneka MacGregor, Women at the Centre
  • Tracey Marshall, Durham College/University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Law Society of Upper Canada

  • Diana Miles

National Judicial Institute

  • Kate Kehoe
  • George Thomson

Judiciary

  • Patti Cross, Office of the Chief Justice, Ontario Court of Justice
  • Justice Marc Rosenberg, Ontario Court of Appeal

Ministry of the Attorney General

  • Anne Marie Predko, Director, Family Policy and Programs Branch, Court Services Division
  • Jill Witkin, Deputy Crown Attorney, Old City Hall Specialized Courts

Project Documents

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