Sexuality and the Law

In a commentary in the Globe and Mail, Prof. Brenda Cossman reviews the effectiveness of Canada's sexual assault laws, and argues that "Seriously transforming the way in which criminal law deals with sexual assault requires a fundamental transformation of our underlying sexual culture" ("The law alone can’t change rape culture," October 8, 2013).

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

SJD student and Trudeau Scholar Kyle Kirkup has written a commentary in the Globe and Mail analyzing a recent case in which an HIV-positive woman was sent to prison for having unprotected sex ("When should unprotected sex trigger the heavy hand of criminal law?", October 3, 2013).

Read the full commentary on the Globe and Mail website.

Prof. Anver Emon (centre, blue shirt) leads participants in Summer Institute on Islamic Studies on one of their visits.

By Vito Cupoli

Most visitors to Toronto are not taken on a surprise trip to the city’s only Islamic mosque for gays and lesbians.

Prof. Brenda Cossman, director of the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto, was featured in this U of T news story by writer Brianna Goldberg about media attention on Russia’s anti-gay laws, the growing violence against gays in that country, and the impact on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, as the countdown to the games begins.

In her interview, Cossman says the West should ask the LGBT communities in Russia how best to protest—and that it will take a lot more than a boycott of Russian vodka.

SJD student and Trudeau Scholar Kyle Kirkup is working on a report to help Ontario police forces better understand and improve their working relationship with LGBTQ communities. He was interviewed on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning to talk about his research into this guide, to be released this fall. Kirkup says, despite 10 years since the legalizaton of same-sex marriage, there's a long way to go in improving awareness of LGBTQ issues in society.

The new issue of the University of Toronto Law Journal (63:3) features a focus section on "R V Mabior and R V DC: Sex, HIV, and Non-disclosure, Take Two." Co-edited by Prof. Martha Shaffer, with Isabel Grant and Alison Symington, the section offers three perspectives on the recent Supreme Court of Canada judgments in R v Mabior and R v DC, which attempted to clarify when a person living with HIV will be subject to criminal liability for failing to disclose this condition prior to engaging in sexual intercourse.

In a guest editorial in the magazine Xtra!, Prof. Brenda Cossman comments on Canada's child pornography law, an issue recently brought to the fore by the controversy around comments by Tom Flanagan ("Canada's child pornography law has rightly been criticized for years," March 5, 2013).

Read the commentary on the Xtra! website or below.

By Lucianna Ciccocioppo / Illustration by Justin Renteria

Leading constitutional and human rights players gathered at the Faculty of Law on January 29, 2013, for a stimulating discussion to mark the momentous Supreme Court of Canada decision that struck down the country’s restrictive abortion law a quarter century ago.