A Feminist Take on First Year Criminal Law” was drafted for NAWL by Elizabeth Sheehy, in the summer of 2010.

Professor Sheehy teaches at the University of Ottawa faculty of law. Her work concentrates on legal responses to violence against women and she has been involved in many legal and activist endeavours. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in July 2005 by the Law Society of Upper Canada for her feminist activism in furtherance of women’s equality in law.

On June 16, 2009, Saskatoon-Wanuskawin Conservative Party MP Maurice Vellacott introduced Bill C-422 to the House of Commons. This Bill is the latest incarnation of a series of Bills, Motions and other legal and political maneouvrings that have attempted to eliminate the concepts of custody and access from the federal Divorce Act in favour of a presumption in favour of equal parenting.

Brief to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Our concern over the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act begins with the way it was introduced. By bundling it into the 2009 Budget package, Parliament was unable to evaluate the merits or dangers of the legislation independent of the Budget. Given that the law aims to radically reform existing legislation on pay equity for the federal public service in a manner that is not endorsed by labour unions or women’s groups, this maneuver is particularly alarming.