Marlee Kline Lecture in Social Justice: The Fierce Urgency of Now: Transforming Employment Equity for Us All

Adelle Blackett, F.R.S.C., Ad. E., is Professor of Law and the Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law at the Faculty of Law, McGill University and an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Renowned for building a decolonial approach to labour law, including in its interface with trade law and slavery and the law, her 2019 book entitled Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers' Transnational Challenge to International Labor Law (Cornell University Press) garnered the Canadian Council on International Law's (CCIL) 2020 Scholarly Book Award. Professor Blackett, who earned a doctorate in law from Columbia University, has been the principal architect of the International Labour Organization's Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), the lead expert on labour law reform in Haiti, the principal drafter of the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education, and the Chair of the Canadian federal Employment Equity Act Review Task Force whose recommendations to create a separate employment equity category for Black workers and 2SLGBTQI+ workers were accepted by the Canadian government. Professor Blackett is the recipient of honorary doctorates in law from Queen's, UCLouvain and SFU, and the international Labour Law Research Network's Bob Hepple Lifetime Achievement Award in Labour Law.