Professor Mayo Moran (SJD 1999), Irving and Rosalie Abella Chair in Justice and Equality (supplied photo by Stuart Payne)
For work redressing historic wrongs including for Residential School survivors and for the restitution of belongings taken during the Holocaust and in colonial settings, Mayo Moran has been named to the President's Impact Academy at the University of Toronto.
She also receives U of T's 2025 Carolyn Tuohy Impact on Public Policy Award, recognizing excellence in teaching, research, and the impact of scholarship on public policy.
Laureates of the President’s Impact Awards (PIA) are designated by the university as members of the President’s Impact Academy, which meets to discuss matters relevant to research impact, offers advice to the Vice President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives and advocates for sustained excellence in research and innovation impact within and outside of the university.
PIA nominees are also considered for the Carolyn Tuohy Impact on Public Policy Award, presented annually under the banner of U of T's Awards of Excellence (AWEX).
Professor Moran is the inaugural Irving and Rosalie Abella Chair in Justice and Equality at U of T's Faculty of Law. She was the first woman to serve as Dean of that faculty and went on to be Provost of Trinity College in the University of Toronto.
Professor Moran focuses on the role of law in redressing historic injustice, especially in cases such as residential schools, the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis, and the restitution of cultural belongings, which are among the topics covered in her forthcoming book, The Problem of the Past and How to Fix It (OUP).
She has made concrete contributions to reparative justice for Indigenous peoples through her work as Chair of the Residential Schools Oversight Committee, which guided the adjudication process that awarded survivors compensation for abuse they suffered in Canada’s residential schools. During Professor Moran’s fourteen years as Chair, $3.2 billion in compensation was awarded to 38,276 Indian Residential School survivors.
Professor Moran also co-founded the Restitution Dialogues which addresses the ‘restitution revolution’ and focuses on the return of belongings wrongfully taken, especially during the Holocaust and in colonial settings. She served as an expert member of the working group designed to improve Germany’s Holocaust restitution process.
Professor Moran also chaired projects on accessibility and public participation for the Government of Ontario. Her awards include the Jus Prize, the YWCA’s Woman of Distinction Award and the Law Society Medal.
