Blog

Warrior Lawyer Profile: Kaitlyn Mitchell

Many animals spend their entire lives in windowless and dark rooms, subject to horrific abuse and perpetual fear from birth until slaughter. Farmed animals are virtually unprotected in Canadian law, and one of the only ways to help these animals is to document and expose animal abuse on farms. Unfortunately, Ontario and Alberta have recently enacted so-called “ag-gag” laws to deter and criminalize this practice and Manitoba is considering a similar bill. Kaitlyn Mitchell is an animal rights lawyer with Canada’s only animal law advocacy organization. Ag-gag laws are a main focus of her work.

Warrior Lawyer Profile: Moana Jackson

Māori are intimately connected to the geographical features of their birthplace.  The rivers, mountains, forests and oceans are a person’s ancestors. They are part of one’s whakapapa (genealogy) and so Māori have a responsibility to that place. Moana Jackson is of Ngati Kahungungu and Ngati Porou descent. Hikurangi is his mountain and Waiapu his river. Locating oneself before any karakea (talk) is vital, as it is a sign of respect to one’s ancestors, both human and non-human.

Warrior Lawyer Profile: Antonio Oposa Jr.

Award winner, lawyer, activist, teacher and author. These are all words others have used to describe Philippine attorney Antonio (Tony) Oposa Jr. “Certified beach bum” is how he prefers to describe himself. Oposa is one of Asia’s most influential and unconventional, yet humble, environmental “warrior lawyers.” His passion, dedication and creative use of law underlie several momentous cases in the Philippines.

Warrior Lawyer Profile: Nemonte Nenquimo

When you ask someone from a Western nation, “what does a leader look like?” they may point to politicians, CEOs or possibly even ground-breaking lawyers. Most would not think of Nemonte Nenquimo, but that must be because they have not heard of her. Nemonte, whose name means “many stars, face the sun”, was born and raised in the territory of her grandfathers: the Yasuni Region of the Amazon Rainforest. Nemonte is a leader of the Waorani Indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest in what is colonially referred to as Ecuador.

Warrior Lawyer Profile: Katie Redford

Few law students dream that in the mountain of work we submit for grades some part of it could have any—let alone a major—impact on the real world’s legal landscape. Katie Redford did more than dream. In her final year at the University of Virginia School of Law, she pushed to do an independent study on how an antiquated US law dating back to 1789—the Alien Tort Claims Act—could be used to hold American oil company Unocal accountable for purported human rights abuses in Myanmar.

NO FLY ZONE SPEAKER: Notre Affaire à Tous and Others v. France: How to Use "General Principles" Arguments in Future Climate Cases

Warrior Lawyer Profile: Sarah Deer

Indigenous peoples are the stewards and traditional owners of territories covering more than 50% of the world’s land area. However, these same peoples hold legal rights and property titles to just a small fraction of these lands; lands they have lived on (and in relationship to) for centuries and millennia. This reality makes the law one of the great hurdles for Indigenous peoples the world over and an effective instrument of past and continuing colonialism. This is part of the context which informs Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen Sarah Deer’s important work.

NO FLY ZONE SPEAKER: Re-Thinking Waste: Mapping Racial Geographies of Violence on the Colonial Landscape

THE TIME IS NOW: Canadian and Global Recognition of the Right to a Healthy Environment

Climate Accountability Litigation by Governments Against Fossil Fuel Companies: Exploring the Options

No Fly Zone Speaker: "Laws are for the Lawless" - Learning Indigenous Law On and From the Land

No Fly Zone Speaker: Accessing Justice for Animals