Fellowship Experiences 2014

Deborah Boswell

Donner Fellow
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Thanks to the Donner Fellowship, I was able to spend my summer working at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). I worked on both the forensic and civil sides of mental health law and gained exposure to the Ontario Review Board and the Consent and Capacity Board. I helped develop educational materials for clinicians, provided support in preparing for hearings, conducted research on exciting legal issues, and appeared before the Ontario Review Board.

My summer experience at CAMH was extremely rewarding and I am thankful to the Donner Fellowship for giving me this opportunity. I was able to learn more about an interesting and complex area of law that is not taught in first year. As well, I received great exposure to the world of litigation and was even able to watch one of my supervisors argue before the Ontario Court of Appeal. It was a wonderful summer and I would definitely recommend the Fellowship. 

Debbie Boswell at CAMH

Chloe Boubalos

Donner Fellow
Law Society of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

The Donner Fellowship allowed me to experience Canada's beautiful arctic by supporting my work at the Law Society of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), the organization that handles the implementation of the territory's land claims agreement.  Through my internship in Iqaluit, I was exposed to many challenges and differences regarding the administration of justice in remote northern communities.

At the Law Society, I worked on an Access to Justice initiative. The project connects legal and non-legal stakeholders in the creation of a Nunavut-wide support network designed to assist Nunavummiut confronted with the legal system, in addition to providing information documents on important legal topics to front-line workers and community leaders across the territory. At NTI, I drafted memoranda and undertook legal research on different topics ranging from copyright infringements to comparative examinations of contracting provisions in Canadian land claim agreements. Without the Fellowship, I would not have been able to take advantage of this unique and transformative opportunity that has certainly shaped my legal career.

Chloe Boubalos in Auyuittuq National Park, just past the arctic circle

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Dylan Cox

Donner Fellow
Law Help Ontario

Thanks to the Donner Fellowship, I have spent the summer working for Law Help Ontario (LHO) and Pro Bono Law Ontario (PBLO).  PBLO is a charity whose mandate is to improve access to justice in Ontario.  LHO helps run several projects that have been created by PBLO.  Through one of these projects, LHO has established two court-based self-help centres in Toronto.  Each centre is staffed by volunteer lawyers who assist low-income self-represented civil litigants at the Superior Court of Justice and Small Claims Court.

I worked at LHO’s two Toronto self-help centres.  Over the last few months, I have conducted client interviews and drafted legal documents while working alongside lawyers with extensive private practices.  I have accompanied and assisted some of these lawyers at trials, motions and Judgment Debtor Court.  The lawyers I work with enjoy discussing practice management, litigation strategy and procedures followed at the Superior Court of Justice and Small Claims Court.  Overall, my experience working for LHO and PBLO has been personally and professionally rewarding.  On a daily basis, I assist low-income individuals who wouldn’t be able to access justice without the services that are provided by LHO and PBLO.  I now feel more strongly than ever about the importance of pro bono legal work.

Dylan Cox at Law Help Ontario's office

Donner Fellow
Community Legal Assistance Society

Thanks to the Donner Fellowship, I was able to spend my 1L summer at the Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS) in Vancouver. With two main parts to my work – advocacy and research – I was immersed in learning about mental health law.

As an advocate, I represented clients in hearings before the Mental Health Review Board. To prepare for the weekly hearings, I interviewed clients, reviewed records, crafted and presented arguments, and conducted cross-examinations before the three-person panel. Based on my advocacy work, I had a concrete sense of how the governing legislation impacts my clients. This motivated my research, for which I prepared a report on the constitutionality of the criteria for involuntary detention in the British Columbia Mental Health Act.

The opportunity to do oral advocacy and in-depth legal research has been challenging and fulfilling. I am grateful to the staff at CLAS for welcoming me into a wonderful social justice legal community and to the Donner Fellowship program for making this experience possible.

Leanna Katz at CLAS in Vancouver

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Daniel Kim

Donner Fellow
Transparency International - Canada

Thanks to the Donner Fellowship, I was able to spend my 1L summer working with Transparency International Canada (TI-Canada). TI-Canada is a Canadian Registered Charity that launched in November 1996 and is affiliated with more than 90 other National Chapters, formed and forming, around the world. The Mission of TI-Canada is to be an informed voice that promotes anti-corruption practices and transparency in Canada’s government, businesses and society at large.

As an intern for TI-Canada I was able to work with the Chair of the Education Committee and the Chair of the Legal Committee. My work with the Education Committee involved cataloguing and evaluating TI-Canada’s education initiatives. Moreover, my work with the Legal Committee involved legal research on whistleblower protection in Canada. Through this fellowship, I was able to sharpen my legal research and writing skills while working with individuals from diverse backgrounds. I am grateful to TI-Canada as well as the Donner Fellowship Program for providing me with this wonderful learning opportunity. 

 Daniel Kim at the Faculty of Law

Katherine Long

Donner Fellow
Women's Legal Education and Action Fund

Thanks to the Donner Fellowship, I spent my summer working with the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) on equality and anti-discrimination issues. LEAF is a non-profit organization that advocates for women’s substantive equality rights enshrined in sections 15 and 28 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As a Donner Fellow, I performed legal research on the discrimination faced by Aboriginal peoples and contributed to LEAF’s ongoing litigation and advocacy efforts.

This Fellowship gave me practical legal research and writing skills. In addition, I had the unique opportunity to meet with lawyers from other organizations, participate in conference calls, and attend Court. My time at LEAF deepened my understanding of systemic and institutional inequalities in Canada and cultivated my passion for social justice advocacy. I would highly recommend the Donner Fellowship to anyone interested in non-profit and human rights work.

Katherine Long at LEAF

Donner Fellow
Hamilton Community Legal Clinic

I completed a Donner Fellowship at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, where I led a project to assess and address the legal needs of underserved youth. My Fellowship experience was excellent. I had the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that I gained in my first year of law school to real world legal work. I was also able to participate in various community events that enlightened me to the broad scope of legal practice. This picture shows me at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic’s information tent at the National Aboriginal Day celebrations in Gage Park on June 21, 2014. I helped hand out Clinic pamphlets to the attendees and participated in my first ever drum dance. The human figures that you see hanging from the tent were pieces of art created by students at a local high school to commemorate missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

Mark Vanderveken at Hamilton Community Legal Clinic’s information tent at the National Aboriginal Day celebrations in Gage Park on June 21, 2014

Donner Fellow
Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic

The Donner Fellowship has allowed me to work at the Metro Toronto Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (MTCSALC) helping low-income clients from marginalized and disadvantaged groups with their legal issues. The experience has been extremely rewarding and has further solidified my interest in litigation and public service. My summer experience consisted mainly of casework including drafting various legal documents, meeting with clients and representing them at hearings before administrative tribunals.

The fellowship has given me the chance to experience first-hand the realities of legal practice. The hands-on practical experience I gained at the clinic has helped me develop skills that will assist me during my articling year and beyond. In addition to Federal Court and tribunal cases, I also worked on constitutional test case litigation that will have deep implications for low-income immigrant families in Toronto and elsewhere.

I highly recommend the Donner Fellowship program to any student who wants a meaningful and fulfilling practical summer experience working in the public interest.

Billi Wun and his colleagues at MTCSALC

Shardae Fortier

The June Callwood Fellowship gave me the opportunity to work for Falconers LLP, an organization that advocates issues pertaining to Aboriginal constitutional and treaty rights and represents First Nation individuals and families advocating for First Nation self-government and human rights issues.  Falconers LLP is counsel for Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), and has a Northern Office in Thunder Bay where I was able to travel to meet people who work for NAN.  NAN aided by providing me with documents to use in for annotated bibliography and briefing memo on First Nations Education in Canada that I developed this summer.  This was an enormous task and will be used as a reference guide during the seven death inquest into First Nations youth that died with attending secondary school in Thunder Bay.  I am thankful for the practical experience that I was able to obtain during my fellowship by having carriage, under my supervising lawyer over human rights complaints against Band Chief and Council, sitting in on client meetings and compiling a compendium for a joint appeal.  The June Callwood Fellowship is an amazing opportunity and has been instrumental for the commencement of my career in Aboriginal justice. 

Shardae Fortier at Falconers LLP

Jennifer Aziz

Thanks to the SLS Fellowship, I was able to spend my summer working at the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA). CERA is a small organization with the unique mandate of promoting human rights and fighting discrimination in housing. My Fellowship experience was incredibly rewarding. In my role this summer, I handled intake and communicated with many clients facing stressful situations and discriminatory behaviour by landlords or other tenants in their buildings. The discrimination could have happened in applying for housing or at any point during their residence. I had the opportunity to speak to so many clients and learned advocacy skills that I know I will take with me. My work included advocating with landlords and explaining how discriminatory behaviour is not tolerated under the Ontario Human Rights Code. I also participated in drafting applications at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and performed research on various topics such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Beyond life in the office, I had the chance to attend a hearing at the Ontario Court of Appeal and various seminars for housing workers throughout the city. Without the SLS Fellowship, I would not have had the opportunity to work with CERA in this capacity and I am grateful to both the SLS Fellowship Program and CERA’s staff for welcoming me and giving me an amazing introduction to a career which combines social justice issues and the law. 

Jennifer Aziz at CERA

SLS Fellow
Community Legal Assistance Society

Imagine my surprise when I was assigned my first (supervised) client exactly one week after starting at the Community Legal Assistance Society (CLAS)! Thanks to the SLS Public Interest Advocacy Summer Fellowship, I had the opportunity to spend my 1L summer working in the Mental Health Law Program (MHLP) at CLAS in Vancouver. During my Fellowship, I represented clients who had been involuntarily detained under the BC Mental Health Act (MHA) as they challenged their certification before the Mental Health Review Board.

I interviewed clients, reviewed medical and other records, obtained collateral information, and interviewed witnesses. At the hearings themselves, I cross-examined the clients’ treating psychiatrists, examined-in-chief my own clients, and presented closing arguments on my clients’ behalf. I also provided summary legal information over the telephone to patients about their rights under the MHA. In the other component of my Fellowship, I conducted legal research into possible constitutional challenges relating to the MHA. My Fellowship was an excellent balance of oral advocacy and legal research, which will both be important skills for my future legal practice.

I would strongly encourage any U of T Law student to apply for a Fellowship to be able to seek out these kinds of amazing opportunities. My 1L summer with CLAS was everything I had hoped for and more, and I cannot thank CLAS, the SLS, and U of T Law enough for making this incredible experience possible.

Lysandra Bumstead at CLAS in Vancouver

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SLS Fellow
Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted

The SLS Fellowship allowed me to work with the Association In Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC), a non-profit organization in Toronto which works to exonerate those who have been wrongly convicted of serious crimes and to prevent future wrongful convictions through education and justice reform.

This summer, I undertook an intensive research project investigating wrongful convictions and other miscarriages of justice faced by Indigenous accuseds. After several months of primary and secondary research, I drafted a 30,000 word research paper titled “A Crisis of Conscience: Miscarriages of Justice Faced by Canada’s First Peoples”. Pending final revisions, we hope to publish a short version in a legal journal and the full version as an e-book, to serve as a resource for defence counsel representing Indigenous clients.

Malini Vijaykumar at AIDWYC