2019 Panelists

Bita Amani

Bita Amani, B.A. (York University, with Distinction), LL.B. (Osgoode), S.J.D. (UofT), is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Queen's University in Kingston, Canada and Co-Director of Feminist Legal Studies Queen’s. She’s also adjunct faculty at Osgoode Hall Law School, in Toronto. She teaches courses in intellectual property law, information privacy, and feminist legal studies (workshop). She is currently working on a number of issues related to food law and governance. Her publications include two books: State Agency and the Patenting of Life in International Law: Merchants and Missionaries in a Global Society, (Aldershott: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2009) and Trademarks and Unfair Competition - Cases and Commentary on Canadian and International Law Second Edition (Toronto: Carswell, 2014, with Carys Craig), and new book chapter in the 2019 Food Law and Policy (McLeod-Kilmurray, Lee, and Chalifour, eds). Dr. Amani has served as consultant to the provincial government on gene patenting as a member of the Subcommittee to the Ontario Advisory Committee on Predictive Genetic Technology, on the e-Laws project for the Ministry of the Attorney General (Ontario) Office of the Legislative Counsel (OLC), and briefly also served as a legislative drafter.

Peter Andrée

Peter Andrée is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University. His research focuses on the politics of food and the environment. He practices, and teaches, community-based participatory research methods. Prof. Andrée is co-editor of Civil Society and Social Movements in Food System Governance (Routledge 2018) and co-editor of Globalization and Food Sovereignty: Global and Local Change in the New Politics of Food (University of Toronto Press, 2014). Under the Nourishing Communities’ Food: Locally Embedded and Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) partnership project, Prof. Andrée and Prof. Patricia Ballamingie lead a study of Food Policy in Canada.

Jaime baxter

Jamie Baxter is an Assistant Professor at Dalhousie’s University's Schulich School of Law, where he works on legal and policy issues in land, agriculture and food systems governance, primarily at the local level. He has been active in cultivating the field of food law and policy in Canada and much of his current work focuses on how communities, organizations, farms and firms engage with law and confront legal barriers to building more sustainable food systems.

Stan Benda

Dr. Benda was senior counsel with Justice Canada. He represented AAFC in technology transfer and international science. He acted for AAFC before the UN FAO on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. He is an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law. He was a limited term faculty assistant professor at Ryerson University, Ted Rogers School of Management. Dr. Benda was also appointed for 5 years as a part-time vice chair of the Ontario Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Appeal Tribunal. His Ph.D. (Osgoode) pertains to risk assessment, regulation and the labeling of GMOs.A

Sarah Berger Richardson

Sarah Berger Richardson is a Schulich Fellow at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law. Her research focuses on the relationship between science and ethics in food law and policy, particularly the social and cultural values underlying food safety regulations. She is completing a doctorate at the Faculty of Law at McGill University and holds a masters of law (LL.M) at Tel Aviv University, where she was a research fellow at the Manna Center in Food Safety and Security. Previously, she was a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel and the Canada Agricultural Review Tribunal. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.

Laurie Beyranevand

Laurie J. Beyranevand is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, a Professor of Law, and the Director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School. Professor Beyranevand has published a number of scholarly articles and book chapters that focus on the connections between human health and the food system. Her work has been cited in petitions to major federal agencies, books, blogs, and articles, and she has been quoted in the Washington Post, Politico, Mother Jones, the Christian Science Monitor, Climate Wire, and E & E Greenwire among others.

Emily Broad Leib

Emily M. Broad Leib is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Deputy Director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. As founder of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, Broad Leib launched the first law school clinic in the US devoted to providing clients with legal and policy solutions to address the health, economic, and environmental challenges facing our food system. She has published scholarly articles in the Wisconsin Law Review, the Harvard Law & Policy Review, the Food & Drug Law Journal, and the Journal of Food Law & Policy, among others.

Abra Brynne

Abra Brynne is the Executive Director of the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council. From 2006 to 2012 she worked closely with the meat sector in British Columbia as it adapted to policy change that drove many small-scale abattoirs out of business. She continues to engage with the place-based meat sector across Canada, seeking creative solutions to industry structures and policy that disadvantage small-scale livestock producers and meat processors. She has been an active member of the U.S.-based Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network since 2006.

Don Buckingham

Richard Butler

Richard Butler, B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc., LL.B., is a Partner at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP. Richard provides advice and support to clients on all aspects of environmental law including regulatory compliance and approvals, contaminated land investigations and remediation and spills response, wastewater discharges and waste management. Richard is leading the firm’s cannabis practice, including regulation at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. Richard’s experience also includes Environmental Risk Assessments for food producers, farming properties and greenhouses. Richard’s degrees in Earth Sciences and experience with mining projects in Ontario, B.C., and North of 600 complement his work in assisting clients to secure mining rights and approvals, develop mining infrastructure, and manage mine waste and waste water issues.

Marsha Simone Cadogan

Dr. Marsha Simone Cadogan is an international intellectual property rights lawyer with expertise in trademarks, geographical indications (food and non-food based), design rights and copyright law and policy. Other aspects of her work include emerging technologies (artificial intelligence, blockchains and 3D printing automation) interface with intellectual property law, preferential free trade agreements and the direction of IP laws and, international law theories and sustainable development. She has a PhD in intellectual property rights and is called to the Bar of Ontario. She is also the Canadian representative on AIPPI's (International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights) Standing Committee on Geographical Indications.

Leslie Campbell

Every day Leslie wakes up excited by all of the ways that food connects people, whether across the world or around the corner. Before joining FoodShare, Leslie spent most of his career working in rural community development, agriculture, and education in Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America. Leslie loves asking questions, and believes deeply in the impact research and policy can have when used effectively. He has seen these impacts working with teff crops in Ethiopia, coffee systems in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and sustainable farming training in Thailand and Indonesia.

Melissa Card-Abela

Melissa M. Card is the Associate Director and instructor for the Institute for Food Laws & Regulations. The Institute for Food Laws & Regulations provides a distance education program in international food law via the Internet. In addition, Melissa is an adjunct professor at Michigan State University College of Law. Additionally, Melissa is an Of Counsel Associate at Plunkett Cooney, a law firm based in Michigan. She assists food manufacturers on regulatory food and beverage law issues by ensuring companies comply with various federal regulations.

Laurence A. Clavet

Bachelière en communication ainsi qu’en droit, Laurence sera candidate à l’École du Barreau du Québec en 2020 et complètera son stage professionnel chez Lavery. Parallèlement à ses études en droit, Laurence s’est impliquée à titre de stagiaire à la Clinique juridique du Mile End et travaillé à titre d’étudiante en droit du travail, de l’emploi et en litige auprès de Me Pierre E. Moreau. Laurence est passionnée par l’innovation en matière d’agroalimentaire et se questionne quant à l’impact de l’encadrement juridique de cette industrie sur notre santé et notre environnement par l’entremise de son blogue, Bouffisme.

Pierre Cloutier de Repentigny

Pierre is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law and Centre of Environmental Law and Global Sustainability at the University of Ottawa. He is a 2017 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar and a SSHRC Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholar. Pierre earned his LL.L. and LL.B. from the University of Ottawa and his LL.M. from the University of British Columbia. His current research focuses on reimagining our relationship with marine life through law. He is specifically interested in the human/fish relationships, fisheries law, critical theory and international law. Pierre has taught the Environmental Law Clinic course and research seminar on the International Law Commission at the Common Law Section, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa.

David Connell

Dr. David Connell is an Associate Professor in Ecosystem Science and Management at the University of Northern British Columbia. His research focuses on agricultural planning and farmland protection, local food systems, and the quest for community. Since 2012, David’s primary research focus has been agricultural land use planning to protect farmland. This is a national research program at all levels of government (local, regional, metropolitan, provincial, federal), with David’s unique contribution being to policy analysis: measuring the strength of policy focus in legislative frameworks. David also study the conservation of the Ancient Cedars of BC’s inland rainforest in the Robson Valley.

Mary Coulas

Mary Coulas is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University. Mary studies food policy and food governance in Canada and abroad. Her thesis tracks the development of A Food Policy for Canada through assessment of multi-stakeholder participation and engagement, historical and current policy documents, and the development of multilevel and multi-stakeholder food governance platforms. As A Food Policy for Canada further evolves policy instruments, means of implementation, and monitoring of policy success will also be assessed. Mary’s research is part of the research knowledge sharing partnership ‘Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged’ (FLEdGE).

Deborah Curran

Deborah Curran is an Associate Professor at the University of Victoria in the Faculty of Law and School of Environmental Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences), and the Executive Director of the Environmental Law Centre where she works with students on environmental law projects for community organizations and First Nations across British Columbia. Deborah’s work is in the areas of land and water law, with a particular focus on environmental protection and collaborative management in water law, municipal sustainability, which include healthy foodscapes, and how Indigenous law is shaping colonial law. Deborah also teaches a national field course in Environmental Law and Sustainability from the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre with the support of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation.

Ayse Dalli

Ayse is a partner in the McCarthy Tétrault LLP Litigation Group in Montréal. Her practice focuses mainly on civil and commercial litigation, including professional liability, administrative law, construction law and product liability. She regularly pleads before the civil courts in Quebec as well as administrative and professional tribunals. Ayse is the co-chair of her firm’s Women’s Leadership Circle, an initiative she piloted to promote women
leaders within the firm. More recently, Ayse spearheaded McCarthy Tétrault’s partnership and involvement with the Martin Family Initiative, a mentoring program which encourages Indigenous youth to pursue post-secondary
professional studies, including law. Ayse is also interested in helping younger lawyers hone their litigation skills. To that end, for a number of years she has been the co-chair of the annual Guy-Guérin Mooting Competition on trial advocacy skills, which is sponsored by the Advocates’ Society and the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Ayse received her BCL and her LL.B. from McGill University in 2002. Prior to that, she received her BA (Honor in Political Science/Minor in Canadian Studies) from McGill University (1998). She was called to the Québec bar in 2004.

Giselle Davidian

Giselle Davidian, B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Env.Sc., B.C.L., LL.B., is an Associate lawyer at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP, where she practices in the areas of environmental law, environmental litigation, and natural resource law. Giselle advises clients on compliance with provincial and federal environmental legislation for environmental assessments and brownfield redevelopment. She helps clients recognize potential risks and liabilities associated with real estate transactions and development projects. Giselle advocates for clients with environmental civil litigation, regulatory prosecutions and administrative appeals. Giselle uses her technical background and experience as a former environmental scientist at a consulting engineering firm. She is a contributing member of the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law based out of Montreal, Canada. Giselle is called to the Bar in Ontario.

Terra Duchene

Terra is a 2019 Windsor Law JD Candidate and 2019–20 articling student at Siskinds LLP. She received her BA at the University of Western Ontario before working in Ireland and managing a restaurant. At Windsor Law she held positions including Editor-in-Chief for the Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, Senior Editor of the Canadian Bar Review, co-organizer of two food law panels, president of the Environmental Law Society and Cycling Association of Windsor Law, and board member of the Campus Community Garden. Her interest in food law is praxis oriented and she enjoys foraging and fermenting.

Jessica Dufresne

Jessica Dufresne est candidate au doctorat en droit et chargée de cours à la Faculté de droit de l'Université d'Ottawa. Avocate membre du Barreau du Québec, elle est également titulaire d'une licence en droit de l'Université Paris-1 Panthéon Sorbonne, d'un baccalauréat en droit de l'Université Laval et d'une maîtrise en droit international de l'Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) au cours de laquelle elle a rédigé un mémoire portant sur la protection du droit à l'alimentation en Inde. Ses études doctorales portent actuellement sur le rôle des municipalités dans la réalisation du droit à l’alimentation au Canada.

John Enman-Beech

John Enman-Beech is an SJD Candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, and Ontario Graduate Scholar. Their research applies critical and feminist legal theory to contract law, consumer law, and employment law. In particular, they explore new ways of thinking about people-business relationships, seeking non-contractual frames for justice. They have published in the Supreme Court Law Review, the Dalhousie Law Journal, the Canadian Business Law Journal, the Journal of Law and Equality, and the Journal of Commonwealth Law, and have been cited before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Laëtitia Eyssartel

Laëtitia has a background in science, engineering and sustainability management. She joined FoodShare in September 2017 as the Director of Operations and oversees our facility, food distribution services, kitchen operations, volunteers and IT. When not in the office, you may find Laëtitia outside in a park playing with her son, riding her bike in the City or trying out a new recipe in the kitchen.

Michael Fakhri

Michael Fakhri is a faculty member of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center where he co-leads the Food Resiliency Project at Oregon Law.

Fay Faraday

Fay Faraday is a nationally recognized social justice lawyer, strategic adviser, andpolicy consultant based in Toronto. Representing unions, community organizations, coalitions and social movements, she has argued many leading labour, human rights, and constitutional law cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and Ontario Court of Appeal. Fay has worked with, supporting organizing with, and advocated for the rights of transnational migrant workers since 1990. As a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellow, Fay has written three landmark reports on migrant worker rights. Fay is also an Associate Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and previously held the Packer Visiting Chair in Social Justice at York University.

Angela Fernandez

Angela is Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, cross-appointed to the Department of History. She was a leader for four years of a Working Group at the University of Toronto’s Jackman Humanities Institute “Animals in the Law and Humanities” and contributor to the 2018-19 “Animal Law Lab” at the Faculty of Law. Professor Fernandez is the author of a book-length study on Pierson v. Post, the famous first possession case often used to begin the study of American (and sometimes Canadian) property law: Pierson v. Post, the Hunt for the Fox: Law and Professionalization in American Legal Culture (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018). She is an Associate Editor (Book Reviews) for Law and History Review and a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the American Society for Legal History. She is also on the Board of Directors for Animal Justice Canada and is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

Debbie Field

Debbie Field is the Coordinator of the Coalition for Healthy School Food. The Coalition is a group of more than 76 not for profit organizations and networks that advocate for the development of a national, universal, cost shared healthy school food program.  Debbie is also a Practitioner in Residence at the Centre for Studies in Food Security, Ryerson University. Debbie was the executive director of FoodShare Toronto for 25 years where she helped develop many successful school food and food literacy initiatives including the Salad Bar Lunch Program, the Good Food Café and Field to Table Schools. Debbie has been recognized across Canada for her role in helping to expand the impact of the community food movement trough hands on active nutrition education, increased advocacy and entrepreneurial activity. She has an honour's B.A. in Sociology from Trent University, a Masters in Adult Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from York University.

Lorraine Fleck

Lorraine Fleck is a lawyer and trademark agent. She is the principal of Fleck Innovation Law, a Toronto firm that has been recognized by Canadian Lawyer magazine as one of the top 10 intellectual property boutiques in Canada. Lorraine is a recommended expert in the 2016 through 2019 editions of World Trademark Review’s WTR 1000, and also in the 2017 through 2019 editions of Best Lawyers® in Canada. Lorraine earned her Hons. B.Sc. and M.Sc.F. from the University of Toronto, and her law degree from Queen’s University. She is a past chair of the OBA’s Information Technology and Intellectual Property Section Executive, and has served on numerous International Trademark Association committees since 2006. Lorraine is a frequent invited speaker and writer on her areas of practice.

Andrea Freeman

Andrea Freeman is an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law. She teaches Constitutional Law, Race and Law, Federal Courts, Food Law and Policy, and Comparative Constitutional Law and Social Justice. She has held visiting positions at the UC Berkeley School of Law, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and as Vermont Law School’s Distinguished Scholar of Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems. She serves as a member of the Litigation Committee of the Hawaii chapter of the ACLU, the Chair of the 2019-20 AALS Section on Agriculture and Food Law, the Treasurer of the AALS Section on Constitutional Law, the co-chair of the Law and Society Collaborative Research Network for Critical Race and the Law, and a Founding Member of the Academy of Food Law and Policy. Her research focuses on critical race theory, food, and consumer debt. Her work on 'food oppression' has been featured on NPR, the Washington Post, Salon, Huffington Post, and Pacific Standard. Her book, Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice is forthcoming from Stanford University Press in Fall 2019.

Lejjy Gafour

Lejjy is the co-founder of Future Fields, a cellular agriculture startup based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada working on a serum free media product to support scalable chicken production through cellular agriculture. Future Fields is also one of the founding members of Cellular Agriculture Canada. His role at Future Fields focuses on the business and operational side of things with product design.

Patricia Galvao Ferreira

Assistant Professor in Transnational Law, with expertise in transnational environmental law and policy.

Stephanie Gellanty

Stephanie is a second-year student at Western Law. After completing a Bachelor of Journalism at Ryerson University, she started her own business as a wellness coach, where she helped clients reach their health and fitness goals for many years. Through this role, she developed an interest in the complex laws that affect every meal we eat, and the systemic issues facing Canadian - and global - food systems. Coordinating community-based urban agriculture projects in Toronto further shaped her interest in sustainable growing practices and food as a social justice issue.

Alix Génier

Alix est présentement étudiante pour le Barreau du Québec. C’est sa passion pour les systèmes alimentaires mondialisés et localisés qui l’a menée vers le droit. Alix aspire à travailler dans le domaine des politiques publiques agricoles et agroalimentaires dans le but de rendre nos systèmes alimentaires plus justes et accessibles pour tous et toutes. Alix s’implique auprès de différents organismes militant pour la justice et la souveraineté alimentaire et a été coordonnatrice de la Clinique juridique de droit agricole et agroalimentaire de McGill.

Robert Graham

Robert Graham is an associate at Miller Thomson. He practises in business law and private client services. His practice focuses on corporate and commercial transactions, business succession planning, and personal estate planning. Robert works with local charitable and not-for-profit organizations on a pro bono basis with the aim of giving back to Guelph and the surrounding communities.

Martha Harrison

Martha Harrison is a partner in McCarthy Tétrault’s International Trade and Investment Law, and Retail and Consumer Markets Groups in Toronto. A strategic, experienced and approachable business advisor, Martha practices international trade, regulatory and public procurement law, as well as international arbitration. An experienced member of the trade bar, clients look to Martha for her industry expertise and deep comprehension of international trade law’s intricate business implications. Martha advises clients across a broad spectrum of industries, with an emphasis on food, beverage & agri-business, as well as other retail & consumer markets. In addition, Martha's regulatory practice is focused on providing strategic and pragmatic advice regarding product regulation in Canada, including standards, packaging and labelling, importing and exporting issues, and transportation matters.

Rebecca Hasdell

Rebecca Hasdell is a Research Associate with the Food Policy Lab at Dalhousie University and Adjunct Faculty in the Northern Medical Program at the University of Northern British Columbia. Her research examines public policy approaches to promote healthier food environments in smaller cities and rural regions. Over the past 15 years, Rebecca has worked in program planning and strategic policy for government, research and not-for-profit positions in several Canadian cities. Rebecca is particularly interested in approaches that involve residents in policy conversations, with specific experience in the areas of food access, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and local economic development.

Amy Hétu

Amy Hétu is a practising lawyer concentrating her practice in civil law, consumer law and access to justice. She is currently finishing up her master's degree in law at the University of Sherbrooke. Her thesis focuses on risk management regarding health and safety for consumers in the Canadian food recall system.

Glenford Jameson

Glenford is a lawyer at G. S. Jameson & Company, where his practice is focused on corporate-commercial and administrative-regulatory law in the business context, where he advises organizations on structure, corporate governance, and regulatory compliance. Glenford leverages his significant legal experience in the food sector for entities ranging from start-ups to multinationals that encounter a high degree of regulation, or that seek to challenge regulatory regimes under which food is produced and sold in Canada. He is also adjunct faculty at Michigan State College of Law, where he teaches Canadian Food Law and Regulation.

Lin Jawhar

Lin Jawhar graduated from the Lebanese American University as a registered dietitian in Lebanon. She holds a masters in diabetes from the University of Chester in the UK. She is currently a PhD student at the Western University of Ontario where her research focuses on the relationship between health promotion, law and diet, in particular marketing to kids in Canada. She has over 5 years of experience in food industry (manufacturing, sanitation, retail food and foodservice) and Clinical Nutrition (hospital, community and clinics). Also, she has participated in a number of food inspections and guidelines development with the Ministry of Economy in Lebanon.

Bill Jeffrey

Bill Jeffrey has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Alberta. Bill is an advocate for public health law reform, conflict of interest safeguards, and effective regulation of the food system. He is the editor of the non-profit Centre for Health Science and Law’s consumer magazine Food for Life Report (FLR) and executive director of its non-profit publisher, the Centre for Health Science and Law. FLR’s and CHSL’s mission is to help make Canadians more savvy eaters and government and industry more accountable. Bill was a member of Minister of Health's Trans Fat Task Force and Sodium Working Group. He has led or co-led many advocacy efforts for stronger nutrition standards and greater public investment in school food programs since 2000 and is presently a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food Steering Committee. In 2018, Bill was awarded the Sesquicentennial Medal from the Speaker of the Senate of Canada on the nomination of the former Mayor of Toronto for "improving the living conditions of all Canadians in a significant manner." Since 2018, he has provided technical assistance on behalf of CHSL to UNICEF and southern African countries on food and nutrition law and policy.

Jenna Khoury-Hanna

Jenna Khoury-Hanna is a recent graduate from Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to law school, she completed a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Politics at Acadia University. She is passionate about food security issues, as well as municipal and planning law.

Dan Kiselbach

Dan Kiselbach is a partern at Miller Thomson. He brings approximately 30 years of experience to his role as legal counsel on cross-border trade, customs, and tax matters. He has the background, perspective, and skills necessary to assume conduct of significant, time-sensitive and complex matters. His clients include domestic and global corporations (especially US-based multinationals importing into Canada). He has represented businesses in many sectors including: aerospace, aluminum and steel, automotive, agriculture / agri-food, apparel, banking and financial, communications, defence, direct sales, e-commerce, fisheries, forestry, manufacturing, oil and gas, technology, third party logistics, transportation, and mining.

Camille Labchuk

Camille Labchuk is an animal rights lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice—Canada’s only animal law advocacy organization. Under her leadership, Animal Justice fights legal cases in courtrooms across the country, works to promote and pass tough new animal protection legislation, and ensures laws already on the books are being enforced. Camille has intervened in precedent-setting lawsuits; testified before legislative committees; filed false advertising complaints against food companies making misleading humane claims; and helped expose hidden suffering behind the closed doors of farms through undercover investigations. Camille is a frequent television guest, and regularly writes for national publications.

Nadia Lambek

Nadia Lambek is a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) candidate at the University of Toronto, and a human rights lawyer, researcher and advocate focused on food system transitions and the rights of working people. She is currently adjunct faculty at Vermont Law School teaching courses on global food security governance. She regularly collaborates with civil society organizations on issues of food system governance, including working with the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism to the UN Committee on World Food Security on a 2018 report monitoring realization of the right to food. Nadia’s publications include edited collection, Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law (Springer, 2014) (with Priscilla Claeys).

Sophie Lamond

Sophie Lamond is a PhD Candidate at the Melbourne School of Government, Melbourne Law School. She researches food politics with a focus on how institutions develop and implement comprehensive food policies that create healthier, more sustainable and equitable food environments. She has a particular interest in how community projects and civil society activism foreground institutional policy responses. Sophie is the director of Fair Food Challenge, an NGO which empowers young people to transform campus food environments and take an active role in policy development. Sophie holds a Master of Environment (sustainable food systems) from the University of Melbourne and teaches in a number of food politics courses.

Hayley Lapalme

Hayley Lapalme is the Program Designer and Facilitator at Nourish. She has spent a decade working with public institutions around the creation of more just, resilient food systems. She leads the Nourish leadership program, started My Sustainable Canada’s mentorship program on public procurement, and has convened farmers, processors, and public buyers across Canada and in Barbados. She holds a Master of Adult Education and Community Development from the University of Toronto.

Joanie Lapalme

Joanie Lapalme is a partner at the Montreal office of Fasken and a professor of intellectual property law at Sherbrooke University. She specializes in intellectual property law and in regulatory matters (drugs, food and agri-food), representing the firm’s clients in patent, industrial design, trademark and copyright matters before the Superior Court of Québec, the Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. She also advises clients in these areas, as well as in drugs, food and agri-food matters.

Kiri Latuskie

Ms. Latuskie graduated from Western Law in 2019. Prior to law school, Kiri completed a BSc in Medical and Environmental Science and an MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences. During her MSc, Kiri participated in Toxicology Rounds at the Hospital for Sick Children and various journal clubs focusing on the safety of, inter alia, drugs, holistic remedies, and food and beverages in pregnancy. As a recent law graduate, Kiri has taken on an inter-disciplinary approach with regards to food safety. Her most recent research consists of an independent study and presentation focused on the Romaine Lettuce and E. coli outbreaks occurring in both 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. In addition to her research on food safety, Kiri has also undertaken coursework in Global Policy and Food safety through a dietetics lens. Kiri currently resides in Toronto with her husband.

Angela Lee

Angela Lee is a PhD Candidate at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, where she also co-developed and has co-taught an upper-year course on Food Law. Angela's doctoral dissertation critically considers the intersections between new and emerging scientific and technological innovations, the environment, various forms of justice, and the law, specifically in the context of the Canadian agri-food sector. Her work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Canadian Food Studies, the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, the Ottawa Law Review, the Dalhousie Law Journal, and the Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, and she has presented her work at many national and international conferences. Along with Professors Heather McLeod-Kilmurray and Nathalie Chalifour, she co-edited Food Law and Policy in Canada (Carswell, 2019).

Jean-Pierre Lévesque

Jean-Pierre Lévesque est membre du Barreau du Québec depuis 2006 et associé chez Cain Lamarre s.e.n.c.r.l. Sa pratique est orientée vers le droit des affaires, agricole et de l’agroalimentaire. Il est membre du conseil d’administration et du comité opérationnel du Canadian Association for Food Law and Policy en plus de donner régulièrement des conférences et formations spécialisées dans le domaine de l’agroalimentaire et de la transformation alimentaire. Il conseille plusieurs entreprises œuvrant dans ce secteur, principalement en matière de conformité réglementaire.

Jack Lloyd

Jack Lloyd is a cannabis lawyer with a focus on criminal and regulatory issues relating to the cannabis plant, cannabis derivative products, and the cannabis industry in Canada.

Wayne Logan

Wayne Logan is a partner at Miller Thomson. An experienced Intellectual Property specialist, he leads the firm’s focused area of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and Smart Contract. He is also co-leader working in the areas of Entertainment and Media law. When you have a question about the blockchain, entertainment and media industries, you can trust Wayne has the answer, or can get it and he will be happy to share it with you. Wayne knows how to support and work with the genius that drives entrepreneurs, software developers, musicians, authors, athletes and celebrities to excel. Wayne’s passion and creativity is what fuels his drive to continuously advance his clients’ careers and business plans.

Meghan Lynch

Meghan Lynch, PhD, is a CIHR fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Her emerging research program has focused on exploring new methodologies/data sources and analyzing policies and programs focused on improving the food environment. She holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship and an Ottawa Public Health Fellowship for her postdoctoral work.

Rebeca Macias-Gimenez

Catherine Mah

Catherine L. Mah MD FRCPC PhD is Canada Research Chair in Promoting Healthy Populations and Associate Professor, School of Health Administration, Dalhousie University. She is also appointed at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Dr. Mah directs the Food Policy Lab, a multidisciplinary program of research on the environmental and policy determinants of diet, with a focus on health-promoting innovations in the food system. Her research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.

Justin Marceau

Justin F. Marceau is Professor of Law at the University of Denver. He serves as the reporter for the pattern criminal jury instruction committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and as an inaugural member of the animal welfare committee (PAW) formed by a proclamation of the Governor of Colorado to advise the First Gentleman on strategies for improving the protection of animals in Colorado. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Justice for Animals Award and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar’s Gideon Award.

Lauren Martin

Lauren Martin is currently a Government and Industry Relations specialist with the Canadian Seed Trade Association. In this role, she identifies the issues of the membership and collaborates with government staff, elected politicians and stakeholders to remedy them. Before her passion for food and agriculture brought her back to the sector, Lauren practiced municipal, real estate and corporate/commercial law at a mid-sized firm in Ontario. She received an Honors Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Business from the University of Waterloo and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. Raised on a farm in Southern Ontario, Lauren’s passion for food and agriculture is life-long. She has worked on a range of local, national and international food and agricultural issues; most notably interning with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Prior to joining CSTA, Lauren was in a similar advocacy role with the Canada Organic Trade Association.

Shane Martínez

Shane Martínez (BA, LLB, LEC) is a lawyer originally from New Brunswick. Now based in Toronto, Ontario, one of Shane’s primary areas of practice is human rights law, with a specific focus on the rights of migrant farmworkers from Mexico and the Caribbean. He litigated the first successful human rights case in Ontario on behalf of a migrant farmworker (Monrose v. Double Diamond Acres Limited, 2013 HRTO 1273), and frequently lectures on access to justice and the need for fundamental changes to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program.

Jim McIsaac

Jim McIsaac is the Executive Director of the TBuck Suzuki Foundation. He also sits on the executive of the Canadian Independent Fish Harvesters Federation and coordinates the BC Commercial Fishing Caucus, a leadership group with 14 organizations in the BC fishing industry. Jim is involved in fisheries management and integrated marine planning in BC and beyond, including the Pacific North Coast Integrated Management Area, the Marine Planning Partnership of the North Pacific, West Coast Aquatic, Norther Shelf MPA network, Gwaii Haanas, Scott Island NWA, Hecate Sponge Reef MPA, and various IFMP processes. Over the last decade he has participated in various research initiatives, including: the Canadian Fisheries Research Network, the Ocean Modelling Forum on Herring, the Local Catch Core Values initiative, the Fisheries Value to Community study, and various ecosystem based management (EBM) initiatives.

Heather McLeod-Kilmurray

Heather McLeod-Kilmurray is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa and Co-Director of its Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS). Her research and teaching focus on Food Law, Toxic Torts and Environmental Justice. She is co-author of The Canadian Law of Toxic Torts with Lynda Collins, co-editor of the forthcoming Canadian Food Law and Policy with Nathalie Chalifour and Angela Lee. She was a co-organizer of the second annual Food Law and Policy Conference at the University of Ottawa, and she co-teaches the Food Law course with Angela Lee at the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the Ottawa Food Policy Council and a member of the Management Advisory Board of Wilfrid Laurier University's Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. She is a former part-time member of the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal.

Alexandra Mogyoros

Alexandra is a DPhil candidate in law at the University of Oxford and a member of The Law Society of Upper Canada. Alexandra has an interdisciplinary undergraduate degree with a focus in biology and philosophy from the University of Guelph, a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Ottawa, and read for the BCL at St. Hugh’s College, University of Oxford. From 2016-2017, she was a Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada. She is a recipient of the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities and Research Council Doctoral Fellowship and is a 2018 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholar.

Lara Nathans

Lara Nathans is McCarthy Tétrault’s Industry Strategy Leader and Leader of the firm’s National Retail and Consumer Markets Group. As a leading lawyer in retail and consumer markets transactions, Lara is a trusted advisor to consumer-facing food, beverage and agri-business companies looking to establish or grow in the Canadian market. A highly connected and influential lawyer in the field, Lara excels at negotiating mergers and acquisitions as well as corporate reorganizations and commercial matters. With her deep sectoral knowledge, Lara is a sought-after expert in the retail, consumer products and hospitality transactions field, speaking regularly on corporate and securities law matters and on business and legal issues affecting consumer-facing businesses. Her appearances include the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s Retail Law Conference, the World Department Store Forum, Food and Consumer Products of Canada and our firm’s Annual Consumer Products & Retail Summit.

Geneviève Parent

Stephen Penner

Stephen is a PhD Student within the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph. He has worked with communities across Turtle Island and his research approach is grounded in those communities that have greeted him. He holds a Master’s of Development Practice: Indigenous Development Degree (2017) from University of Winnipeg and is Technician Aboriginal Economic Developer (2018-Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers). His research focus is building an understanding of how Indigenous law informs Indigenous food sovereignty, his work facilitates community businesses and he teaches the foundational knowledge of Indigenous Politics and Governance.

Stephen Pike

A partner in Gowling WLG's Toronto office, Stephen A. Pike is a senior legal adviser to global and Canadian businesses, primarily in the retail and consumer products sectors.

Richard Rabkin

Richard Rabkin is the Managing Director for the Kashruth Council of Canada, commonly known by its kosher trademark “COR.” Richard obtained his law degree at the University of British Columbia and his Master’s in Business Administration from York University’s Schulich School of Business. Richard is responsible for managing the day to day affairs of Canada’s largest kosher agency which involves working with COR certified kosher companies including Pepsi, Heinz, Kraft and Kellogg’s. He is also COR’s legal counsel and responsible for enforcing the COR trademark.

Chris Ramsaroop

Chris Ramsaroop is a founding member of Justicia for Migrant Workers (J4MW), a grassroots collective of community, labour and migrant activists who organize with migrant workers for change. J4MW has organized a series of marches called the Pilgrimage to Freedom to break the invisibility that migrant workers face in Canada and to expose the inhumane conditions they face while in Canada. J4MW has also undertaken legal strategies through interventions at both the Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal.

Nirvia Ravena de Sousa

Nirvia Ravena de Sousa graduated in Social Sciences, and has a master degree in Development Planning and a Ph.D. in Political Science. She is currently a teacher/researcher at Center of Amazonian Studies/NAEA linked to the Postgraduate Program in Sustainable Development of the Humid Tropics - PPGDSTU, and is working with her Phd students to assess the environmental and social impacts of large industrial projects in Amazonian region such agrobusiness. Her most recent project analyzed the socio-environmental ramifications of palm oil and soybean supply chains in the Amazon , with a specific focus on the impact of multistakeholder avaliatory bodies such as RSPO and RTRS on corporate business practices in the region.

Matthieu Rheault

Matthieu Rheault is the sector lead for the Food, Beverage and Agribusiness within McCarthy Tétrault’s Retail and Consumer Markets Group, and a partner in the firm’s Business Law Group in Montréal. He practices in the areas of corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, joint ventures, partnerships and corporate reorganizations. Over the years, Matthieu has represented various clients, including food processors, manufacturers and distributors as well as private equity firms and financial institutions, and has been involved in numerous transactions in the Food, Beverage and Agribusiness sector. His work in this sector routinely involves mergers and acquisitions, equity investments, joint ventures and partnerships, as well as the negotiation of commercial agreements such as co-packing, manufacturing, supply, distribution and sale agreements in respect of food products. During the course of his career, Matthieu has acquired a significant understanding of the agri-food industry and the challenges that clients in this industry are facing, which brings added value to the clients he works with.

Josiane Rioux Collin

Josiane is a Quebec lawyer and a doctoral student at Sherbrooke University. She holds a Bachelor or Laws and a Master of Business Administration from Sherbrooke University as well as a Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa, where she studied the taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages from a food justice perspective. Currently, her thesis considers how the law can influence consumers' geographical, political, sociocultural, and economical environments in relation with food. Her research interests include food law, social justice, consumer law, health law, environmental law and insurance law, namely. Josiane is also a lecturer at Sherbrooke University Faculty of Law and a member of the Critical Legal Research Laboratory.

Melana Roberts

As Chair of the Board of Food Secure Canada, a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC), and Chair of the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, Melana has worked on variety of food policy initiatives with a diversity of stakeholders, including farmers, Indigenous communities and regional food networks. Grounded in food justice principles, her work strives to create a more just, equitable and sustainable food system through engagement on 2 simultaneous fronts: on the ground advocacy and community building and food policy development. Melana has led TFPCs Food Champion's initiative, mobilizing 400+ stakeholders to increase food assets in Toronto. Although grounded in Ontario, she has worked closely with local, regional and national stakeholders as the point person on SNPs and food policy issues for the Chair of the Board of Health; and has been involved in the development of Ontario and Canada's first food strategies. Melana is also deeply committed to supporting food justice principles, and has worked with a number of non-profits to better operationalize these principles in their work.

Cecilia Rocha

Cecilia, a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), is a Professor in the School of Nutrition and a researcher at the Centre for Studies in Food Security, Ryerson University, Canada. She participated in the development of the Toronto Food Strategy (2008-2010), and was a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (2005-2011). Rocha has conducted research on food security conditions among immigrant populations in Toronto, urban food insecurity in South Africa, the manifestation of food sovereignty in an indigenous settlement in Brazil, and on a food-system approach to improving the nutrition status of children in Northern Vietnam. She is the author of a number of scholarly papers and reports on food policy and programs in Brazil, including the innovative approach to food and nutrition security in the city of Belo Horizonte.

Priscilla Settee

Ayse Didem Sezgin

Ayse Didem Sezgin studied Law in Istanbul University Law School. She worked as a lawyer for two years in Law Firms in Istanbul, before receiving an LLM degree in Transnational Law from King’s College London, Dickson Poon School of Law. She has worked as a research assistant for the Transnational Law Institute of KCL between 2017-2018. She is currently a PhD student at King’s College London and her research focuses on food law and policies, transnational food governance and food sovereignty.

Jacob Shelley

Jacob Shelley joined Western Law in 2015. He holds a joint appointment with the Faculty of Law and the School of Health Studies in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Professor Shelley also holds a cross appointment to the Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health. He is a co-director of Westerns' HELP Lab (Health Ethics, Law & Policy). He obtained his LLB and LLM from the University of Alberta, and has an SJD from the University of Toronto.

Adrian Smith

Yadira Tejeda Saldana

Yadira Tejeda is a food safety scientist interested in working at the intersection of science and policy within the Alternative Proteins Sector. Her latest report “Advancing Canada-U.S. Regulatory Alignment: A Canadian Agri-Food Sector Perspective” has helped stakeholders, including Maple Leaf Foods and 3M, promote regulatory alignment between both countries. She completed her PhD at Western University focused on developing an E. coli O157 detection method, which was successfully approved by Health Canada. She holds a MSc in Food Safety from Wageningen University in The Netherlands and a BSc in Food Chemistry from La Salle University in Mexico.

Phillip M. Saunders, QC,

Phillip is the Director of the Marine and Environmental Law Institute (MELAW) at the Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University. His interests include international law of the sea, maritime boundary delimitation, and fisheries law.  He served as Field Representative, South Pacific, for the International Centre for Ocean Development, has delivered ocean development programmes in the Pacific, South East Asia, Caribbean and Indian Ocean, and advised states on law of the sea matters in various regions. Phillip acted as counsel for Nova Scotia in the NS - Newfoundland boundary arbitration, and represents The Bahamas in maritime boundary negotiations. He advises the Canadian Independent Fish Harvesters’ Federation on legislative policy and fisheries law, and is an author and co-general editor of Kindred’s International Law, Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada (2019).

Paul-Erik Veel

Paul-Erik is a partner at the litigation firm Lenczner Slaght. His practice includes class actions, competition law, intellectual property matters, complex commercial disputes, and public law. His clients include major technology companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, franchisers and public agencies. Paul-Erik is also an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a sessional lecturer in the graduate program in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining Lenczner Slaght in 2010, Paul-Erik graduated as the Gold Medalist from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and then clerked for Madam Justice Louise Charron at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Renata Watkin

Renata Watkin is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. She holds an LL.B. from the University of Ottawa (2010), a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Carleton University (2001) and has lectured on international trade law at Carleton University for several years. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Renata Watkin was a diplomat specializing in international trade. She has been drawn to the area of geographical indications as a function of her international trade experience and her studies as a wine specialist, having been granted the Wine and Spirit Advanced Certificate with distinction by the London-based Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET).

Lauren WustenbErg

Lauren Wustenberg is a second-year student at Vermont Law School and a current student clinician at the Food & Agriculture Law Clinic in the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at VLS. Prior to studying law, Lauren received her Master’s in Geography from McGill University, where she researched the adaptation of agricultural livelihoods to environmental change in the Peruvian Amazon. She holds a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University in environmental science and environmental policy. Growing up on a sheep farm in Minnesota spurred her lifelong dedication to studying and advocating for the farmers livelihoods. Lauren is interested in how federal law and policy influences farmers livelihoods and wellbeing both in the United States and abroad. Food is essential to wellbeing; the wellbeing of farmers is essential to our food supply. Regulation and trade directly connect State actors to the ultimate wellbeing of farmers around the globe.