Women's Legal Education and Action Fund
File:Women's Legal Education and Action Fund logo.png | |
Abbreviation | LEAF |
---|---|
Formation | 1985 |
Type | Women's rights |
Legal status | active |
Purpose | advocate and public voice, educator and network |
Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Region served | Canada |
Official language | English, French |
Website | leaf.ca |
Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, referred to by the acronym LEAF, is "the only national organization in Canada that exists to ensure the equality rights of women and girls under the law.".[1] Established on April 19, 1985, LEAF was formed in response to the enactment of Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to ensure that there was fair and unbiased interpretation of women's Charter rights by the courts. LEAF performs legal research and intervenes in appellate and Supreme Court of Canada cases on women's issues . LEAF has been an intervener in many significant decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, particularly cases involving section 15 Charter challenges. In addition to its legal work, LEAF also organizes speaking engagements and projects that allow lawyers interested in women's rights to educate one another, to educate the public, and to create collective responses to legal issues related to women's equality. LEAF was created by Doris Anderson and other women.[2]
Purpose
- To ensure that the equality rights of women, girls, trans, and non-binary people in Canada, as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are upheld in courts, human rights commissions and government agencies; and to take actions to reveal how factors such as race, class, Aboriginal status, sexual orientation, ability, and religion compound discrimination against women.
Controversies
Some of the cases the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund have intervened in proved to be controversial. These include the acquittal of Bassam Al Rawi, and the case of Nicole Patricia Ryan, also known as Nicole Doucet Ryan, who was arrested after attempting to hire an undercover Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer as a hit man to kill her husband. The defense claimed she was under duress due to an abusive relationship in which the RCMP had ignored her requests for help. Neither the RCMP nor the husband was called to testify against her accusations, however both refuted her claims.[3][4]
LEAF's interventions may impact legal rules both directly and indirectly. Peter Manfredi concludes that the area where legal change made the most significant practical achievement was in the area of abortion rights. LEAF's defence of the elimination that only hospitals may perform abortions had far-reaching implications for women, with a significant increase in the number of legal abortions performed after 1988.[5] Manfredi footnotes that since LEAF's confusing interventions in the obscenity debate, LEAF experienced two consecutive losses and ponders that it may be too early to tell whether these losses signal a change in the relationship between LEAF and the Supreme Court.[5] LEAF has often suffered other significant losses at the Supreme Court, but it has proved resilient in attracting funding and intervening status at the Supreme Court of Canada.[5]
Mary Eberts controversially represented Beth Symes, another LEAF founder, in Symes v. Canada, [1993] 4 S.C.R. 695 [6] in which LEAF, while not on the docket, made its presence known through the works cited by the high court.[6] While LEAF never formally represented Symes, its de facto intervention was not successful; Symes's attempt to claim her child care deductions as business expenses was disallowed.
Notable interventions
- R. v. Ryan[7]
- Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Canada (Minister of Justice), [2000] 2 S.C.R. 1120
- British Columbia (PSERC) v. BCGSEU [1999] 3 S.C.R. 3
- M. v. H., [1999] 2 S.C.R. 3
- Eldridge v. British Columbia (Attorney General), [1997] 3 S.C.R. 624
- Weatherall v. Canada (Attorney General), [1993] 2 S.C.R. 872
- R. v. Butler, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 452
- Canadian Council of Churches v. Canada (Minister of Employment and Immigration), [1992] 1 S.C.R. 236
- Norberg v. Wynrib, [1992] 2 S.C.R. 224
- R. v. Sullivan, [1991] 1 S.C.R. 489
- Brooks v. Canada Safeway Ltd., [1989] 1 S.C.R. 1219
- Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, [1989] 1 S.C.R. 143
- R. v. J.A., 2011 SCC 28
References
- ^ "Women's Legal Education and Action Fund". Women's Legal Education and Action Fund. Archived from the original on April 13, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
- ^ "» History". Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-09-30.
- ^ "RCMP deny ignoring abuse allegations in hit-man case | CBC News".
- ^ "Ex-husband in hit-man case says courts were wrong | CBC News".
- ^ a b c Manfredi, Christopher P. "Feminist Activism in the Supreme Court: Legal Mobilization and the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund". Ottawa Law Review: 378. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-09-30.
- ^ a b "Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Search". January 2001.
- ^ "Supreme Court of Canada - SCC Case Information - Search". January 2001.
External links
- LEAF website
- From NAACP to LEAF: American Legal Exports to Canada (article by Ian Brodie)
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