Sexuality and the Law

New report highlights how Mexico remains unsafe, particularly for people affected by HIV

(Toronto, June 20, 2016) — Canada should remove Mexico from its refugee ‘safe’ list because of the country’s serious human rights abuses, the University of Toronto’s International Human Rights Program (IHRP) said in a new report released today. Failure to do so could place Canada in violation of its international legal obligations.

By Terry Lavender

Two Faculty of Law SJD students are among 15 national recipients of the prestigious Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation doctoral scholarship for 2016. A total of three U of T doctoral students received the scholarships.

Law students Christopher Campbell-Duruflé researches international law and climate change, and Ido Katri documents the rise of trans rights for gender self-determination.

Cross-posted from U of T News.

By Michael Kennedy

In an historic victory for equal rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favour of legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states: the constitutionally awarded right to marry will no longer be reserved for heterosexual couples in America.

On CBC Radio's The Current, host Anna Maria Tremonti interviewed Prof. Brenda Cossman about the questions raised by the Cindy Gladue murder trial around the issue of sex workers and the laws of consent ("Brenda Cossman: Sex workers given lower bar when it comes to consent," April 2, 2015).

Listen to the interview on the CBC website.

In a commentary in The Globe and Mail, Prof. Brenda Cossman praises the Ontario government's new "It’s Never Okay" plan to combat sexual violence ("Wynne’s plan to combat sexual violence is bold and hopeful," March 9, 2014).

Read the full commentary on The Globe and Mail website, or below.

Wynne’s plan to combat sexual violence is bold and hopeful

By Brenda Cossman

SJD student and Trudeau Scholar Kyle Kirkup has written a commentary in The Globe and Mail welcoming the Government of Ontario's new policy designed to better protect the rights of trans people in the province’s correctional facilities ("Ontario’s welcome move on rights shows reality of trans people in prisons," January 26, 2015).

SJD student and Trudeau Scholar Kyle Kirkup has been interviewed in a McGill Law Journal podcast about the case of Manitoba Justice Lori Douglas. In the episode, he discusses her case, the Canadian Judicial Council inquiry, and the practice of revenge porn.

Watch the episode on the podcast site.

Our faculty comment regularly in the media on current issues. The five faculty op-eds that were most viewed on our website over the past year addressed some of the most immediate and controversial topics of 2014, ranging from citizenship to prostitution, terrorism, high-frequency trading and elections.

In a commentary in the Winnipeg Free Press, SJD student and Trudeau Scholar Kyle Kirkup argues that there are better alternatives to the federal government's new prostitution laws ("Stop criminalizing sex work," December 8, 2014).

Read the commentary on the Winnipeg Free Press website, or below.

Stop criminalizing sex work

By Kyle Kirkup

December 8, 2014

Evan Rankin, 2L, was an International Human Rights Program (IHRP) intern at the UN Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand) during the summer of 2014. This report was first published in the IHRP's Rights Review magazine.