Speakers
Jamie Baxter
Jamie is an Associate Professor in the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.
Sarah Berger Richardson
Sarah Berger Richardson is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Law Faculty (Civil Law Section) where she teaches food law, administrative law, and civil liability. She is the current President of the CAFLP and a member of the Law Society of Ontario.
Kerrie Blaise
Kerrie Blaise is an environmental lawyer, passionately dedicated to advancing environmental rights and justice. She is the founder of the non-profit, Legal Advocates for Nature's Defence, an organization dedicated to nature's protection and the honouring of Indigenous sovereignty in law. She maintains an active practice in Northern Ontario representing First Nations and grassroots groups on matters of urgent climate and environmental protection.
Laura Bowman
Laura Bowman is a senior staff lawyer at Ecojustice Canada. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law (JD) and was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 2007. She has an LLM from Osgoode where her thesis focused on administrative law doctrine. She has practiced in environmental law in Canada in three provinces and one territory with a focus on judicial review, appearing at various levels of court in Ontario and Federally as well as before provincial and federal environmental tribunals. She has worked on a wide range of environmental issues including contaminated sites, endangered species, sewage, transportation infrastructure, environmental assessment, mining, electricity projects, and oil and gas. Her current areas of focus are on land use planning (greenbelt protection) and pesticides.
Mariette Brennan
Mariette Brennan is an Associate Professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Lakehead University and a member of the Bar of Ontario. She received her PhD from Osgoode Hall, York University in 2013. She teaches and researches in the area of constitutional law and public health law.
Noah Brennan
Noah is a 3rd year law student at Western University. Though he hopes to continue exploring corporate law during his upcoming articling term at Torys LLP, he has a burgeoning interest in food law and policy. Specifically, he is interested in the use of domestic and international law to help individuals realize and enjoy their right to food.
Abra Brynne
Abra has worked closely with farmers and on food systems for thirty years. She is currently completing her PhD through the IDPhD Program at Dalhousie University.
Don Buckingham
Don’s 35+ years in the legal profession have included stints as private lawyer, professor, administrative judge, government lawyer, CEO of an agri-food think tank and national and international consultant. His life work in education, food, agriculture, sustainability and international development matters was recognized with his induction into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2021.
Jon Cada
Community Economic Development Officer for Mississauga First Nation. The community has active interests in aquaculture, cultivation of natural food sources and addressing food security concerns across Lake Huron's Northern Shores.
Clarisse Delaville
Clarisse Delaville is a PhD Candidate at McGill Faculty of Law. Her thesis focuses on gender inequalities in agricultural production in OECD countries. Her research interests are food governance, international trade law, international environmental law, and agriculture. The Fonds de Recherche du Québec funds her current research.
Jessica Dufresne
Avocate membre du Barreau du Québec, Jessica Dufresne est 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). Elle est actuellement doctorante et chargée de cours à l’Université d’Ottawa, où elle enseigne la recherche et la rédaction juridique ainsi que les droits fondamentaux. Ses études doctorales portent plus spécifiquement sur le rôle des municipalités dans la réalisation du droit à l’alimentation au Canada, un droit pour lequel elle milite depuis plusieurs années et qui est au cœur de ses implications citoyennes et communautaires.
Myriam Durocher
Myriam Durocher is a SSHRC funded postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Anthropology, in the Health, Care and the Body programme group. Her research interests revolve around critically addressing the power relationships that are negotiated in Quebec/Canada’s food culture so as to initiate constructive change towards fairer (more just, sustainable, inclusive, less normative) food cultures and food systems. She has examined the social and environmental injustices that permeate and are reproduced in “healthy” food discourses and practices and the ways bodies are cared for in Western biomedicalized food cultures, as well as the norms and processes of exclusion that take form at the intersection of food and health in what she describes as “biomedicalized food cultures”.
Daniel Dylan
Professor Dylan is an Associate Professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. He researches and teaches in the areas of Animal Law, Intellectual Property and Indigenous Knowledge governance, and environmental law. He is admitted to the Bars of Ontario and Nunavut.
Patrícia Galvão Ferreira
Patrícia Galvão Ferreira is an Associate Professor at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University and a member of the Marine and Environmental Law Institute.
Alessandra Guida
Dr. Alessandra Guida is a Lecturer in Climate, Justice & Human Rights and World Trade Law at Queen’s University Belfast–School of Law. She is also a UK Trade and Sustainable Development Member Representative. She published a book and numerous articles in the areas of trade law, environmental law, and human rights.
Amy Hétu
Amy has been a lawyer since 2015 and has been interested in Health and Food Law since the beginning. She holds, a Licence-in-law from the University of Ottawa, a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Université du Québec à Montréal and Master’s degree in law from the University of Sherbrooke where her thesis focused on consumer empowerment and risk management of food borne illnesses. Since the start of her practice, Amy worked in private law firms who promote access to justice, concentrating her practice mainly in civil litigation, labour law and consumer rights. Recently, Amy made the jump to the public sector filing the role as a Senior Policy analyst for the Office of Legislative and Regulatory Modernization at Health Canada, where she works on projects relating to natural health products, medical devices, biocides amongst others.
Jenna Khoury-Hanna
Jenna Khoury-Hanna is an associate lawyer at Kinch Eddie Litigation Professional Corporation, a full service litigation firm located in Campbellford, Ontario. Her civil litigation practice consists primarily of planning and land use issues. She completed her J.D. at Dalhousie University and an LL.M at Pace University, where she was also the Food and Agriculture Graduate Law Fellow and assisted with the Food and Beverage Law Clinic.
Sonia Knowlton
Sonia is a current LLM student at Yale Law School with a background in mathematics. She is a Resident Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project.She is studying in the areas of Indigenous rights & law, mathematics & law, critical race theory, and analytical jurisprudence. Her hope is to build a bridge between mathematical theory, equity, and the law through AI. In her spare time she competes in powerlifting.
Michel Koostachin
Mike Koostachin is community mentor and wellness expert with over 20 years’ experience working with First Nations. His work and practice is mindful of First Nations Natural Laws and trauma from the residential schools with intergenerational impacts. Mike is also the founder of the Treaty 9-based grassroots organization, the Friends of the Attawapiskat River.
Nadia Lambek
Nadia Lambek is an Assistant Professor at Western University, Faculty of Law, and a human rights lawyer, researcher and advocate focused on food system transitions and the rights of working people. Nadia is a founding member of the CAFLP, and is currently Co-Chair of the Association. She supports the Youth Working Group of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism to the UN Committee on World Food Security. She is an editor of Rethinking Food Systems: Structural Challenges, New Strategies and the Law (Springer 2014).
Angela Lee
Angela Lee is an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University. She has previously co-developed and co-taught Food Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, and is a co-editor of Food Law and Policy in Canada.
Charles Levkoe
Charles Levkoe is the Canada Research Chair in Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems, a Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada, Director of the Sustainable Food Systems Lab, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Lakehead University.
Catherine Littlefield
Catherine is a master’s student at the Institute of Political Economy, Carleton University. Her community-based thesis research with the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun explores food systems governance, specifically food distribution and well-being. Catherine continues this work with the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun Development Corporation as a food systems researcher.
Kathy Loon
Kathy Loon, from Slate Falls First Nation, started working for the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC) on June 2013 as the Traditional Healing, Medicine, Food and Supports Program Coordinator. Her role changed in 2015 to Traditional Programs Manager, and most recently, as of 2021, she is the Executive Lead for Indigenous Collaboration & Relations. She has almost 30 years’ experience working for First Nations and Indigenous organizations/businesses in the areas of economic, business and corporate development.
Kathy has been dedicated to developing and implementing a rich traditional program at SLMHC, which has included the Wiichi’iwewin (patient/client supports), Odabiidamagewin (governance and leadership), Andaaw’iwewin (traditional and ceremonial practices), Mashkiki (traditional medicines) and Miichim (traditional foods). She acts not only as a liaison but is also an advocate of preserving Anishinaabe practices in a health care system serving the diverse population in the Sioux Lookout region. Kathy’s key accomplishments include lifting off and supporting all of the elements of the traditional program at SLMHC, managing the Cultural Safe Care program, sitting on various hospital committees/working groups, and representing SLMHC at regional and national events & committees.
Her passion for equitable access to quality health care is complemented by her experience in lobbying and negotiations, project management, finance and economic growth, corporate restructuring and strategic planning- all of which guide her day-to-day work with the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Heath Centre senior team. Kathy is a grandmother and is fluent in Ojibway. She studied Political Science at Lakehead University. She a traditional/cultural Knowledge Keeper, a hunter and loves to fish and spends a lot of her time on the land.
Keira Loukes
Kim McGibbon
Kim was born in Peterborough, Ontario and moved to the traditional lands of Fort William First Nation in 1998. She is grateful to be a mother to an amazingly adventurous daughter. Kim became a Registered Dietitian after completing a nutrition degree at the University of Guelph and was later able to do a Master’s at the University of Toronto. Most of her career has been spent working in the field of public health but she was honoured to have spent 6 years working at Roots Community Food Centre where she began to learn and work in the area of food sovereignty.
Kim loves working with people and building relationships is why she gets up in the morning, an extravert by nature, she knows that food is a great equalizer and a wonderful way to connect with others. Whether it is working in the dirt to grow food, or in a kitchen to prepare and sit down to eat a meal together, she loves how the power of food can be a catalyst for change. Kim also enjoys traveling, hot yoga, walking in the woods, a cup of tea and the warm sunshine on her face.
Heather McLeod-Kilmurray
Full Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability (CELGS) at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. Her research deals with food law, toxic torts, environmental justice, and climate change. She is a Board member of CAFLP, and member of the Ottawa Food Policy Council.
Josiane Rioux Collins
Professeure en droit des aliments et en droit des affaires à l'Université du Québec à Montréal et avocate.
Tasha Stansbury
Tasha Stansbury (she/her) is a PhD student and part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. She holds an Honours B.A. from the University of Toronto, a J.D. from the University of Windsor, and an LL.M. from the University of Ottawa. She is involved in a wide range of research and advocacy; her interests include migration, food justice, human rights, environmental law, gender and sexuality, and their various intersections. Tasha also works a course instructor at Carleton University’s Faculty of Law and Legal Studies, and as a lawyer in a small family law practice.
Darinka Tomic
Darinka Tomic obtained her PhD from Western Law (Canada) in 2022. Her doctoral thesis concerns reputation, rather than intellectual property designation, as an underlying aggregating link amongst moral rights, prohibited marks, and geographical indications. Her master's thesis also defended at Western Law in 2017, concerns the right to food and intellectual property in the United Nations, including international human rights and international trade. Darinka is the author of the chapter "Challenging Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property and the Right to Food" in the Nouveaux paradigmes dans la protection des inventions, données et signes – New Paradigms in the Protection of Inventiveness, Data and Signs (Éditions Yvon Blais 2019). Her research further interests the right to food and intellectual property in space law. Before coming to Western Law, Darinka served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for fifteen years.
Riana Topan
Riana Topan is a senior campaign manager with Humane Society International/Canada, which together with its affiliates is one of the largest animal protection groups in the world. She works to protect farmed animals by advocating for higher-welfare policies, practices and regulations. She also manages HSI/Canada’s innovative Forward Food program, which helps institutions and businesses across Canada serve more plant-based food options that are better for animals, the environment and human health. Riana holds a degree in international development from Queen’s University and she has worked in the non-profit sector since 2012.
Jeannette Tramhel
LL.M., LL.B., M. Env. Des., B.Sc. Ag., Member of the Bar in Ontario and New York, Legal Consultant, Board Chair of Groundswell International, an international non-profit that promotes agroecology in the global south.
Jacob Van Boekel
Jacob is a third year law student at the University of Western Ontario and completed his undergraduate degree at Queen’s University. During his time at Western, Jacob has been a founding member of Western’s food law and policy student association and volunteered to conduct legal research for temporary foreign workers in the London-Middlesex region. Jacob grew up north of Woodstock, Ontario on a broiler farm and milked a neighbour’s jersey herd for five years. After graduation, Jacob plans to continue working in Woodstock at a full-service firm, especially focusing on advising farmers and agribusinesses.
Courtney Vaughan
Courtney Vaughan (PhD Candidate) is a Metis researcher with a background in experiential and land-based education; Indigenous histories, law, art, and politics; Stewardship and conservation; and Metis histories and contemporaries realities. She is an Environment and Climate Change Lead Specialist for the Metis Nation of Ontario.
Renata Watkin
Renata Watkin is a PhD 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).
Celia White
Celia is a JD/MES student at Osgoode Hall Law School and a student researcher at the Canadian Association for Policy Alternatives. She loves food – eating it, harvesting it, preserving it, and connecting to it through community. When she’s not thinking about food, she plays the banjo on her front porch.
Johanna Wilkes
Johanna Wilkes (she/her) is a PhD Candidate at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (BSIA) and Research Assistant at the Sustainable Food Systems Lab at Lakehead University. Interested in questions of governance and food systems, Johanna’s work focuses on how policy environments address issues surrounding food systems transformation.
Laura Wilmot
Laura Wilmot is a PhD student in law at Université Laval's under the supervision of Geneviève Parent (with Sophie Thériault as co-director at the University of Ottawa). She holds a master's in environmental law, sustainable development, and food security, and has been working for First Nations in environmental law.