Priority Areas
National Association of Women and the Law
Since our founding at a conference held at the University of Windsor law school in 1974, the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) has worked on its own and in collaboration with others to advance feminist law reform in Canada. We’re proud to have had a major role in achieving significant milestones for Canadian women’s equality, and for our feminist legal analysis and advocacy to have impacted countless laws and policies across the country — most notably in relation to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Sections 15 and 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Today, we continue to write briefs and discussions papers and appear before Parliamentary and Senate committees, and meet with decision makers to influence the law making process on current and emerging feminist law reform priorities. Working with feminist lawyers, students, service providers, academics, activists and allies, we are (re)building a feminist law reform network and increasing the capacities of women to engage in the law making process.
Our History
Our Staff
Tiffany Butler
Deirdre O’Beirne-Røsæg
Suzanne Zaccour
Merry Sun
Rose Ghaedi
Staff Bios
Tiffany Butler (she/her) is the Executive Director of NAWL. In this role, Tiffany leads and manages all aspects of NAWL’s operations. Prior to joining NAWL, Tiffany led the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Young Lawyers International Program (YLIP) supporting young lawyers from across Canada to gain international professional experience in climate justice, gender equality, human rights and law reform work. Prior to this, Tiffany managed a broad range of access to justice programs, including the University of Calgary’s Pro Bono Students Canada chapter and Calgary Legal Guidance’s Domestic Violence Legal Intervention Program providing survivor-centred legal services to women fleeing intimate partner and family violence. She began her legal career practicing law in specialized community and legal aid clinics providing trauma-informed legal representation to marginalized and vulnerable populations, primarily in the areas of violence against women and youth criminal defence.
Prior to her law career, Tiffany co-founded a snowboarding and skateboarding events production company dedicated to the inclusion and progression of women and girls in those sports. Tiffany has also contributed to the community through her volunteer work with Calgary’s gender-inclusive 100% Skate Club, as a volunteer board member with the Alberta River Surfing Association and currently as a volunteer board member with Les Amis de la Forêt-la-Blanche Ecological Reserve.
Tiffany obtained her law degree from the University of Calgary (2011) and a degree in Public Affairs and Policy Management specializing in Human Rights from Carleton University (2009). She was called to the Alberta Bar in 2012 and the Ontario Bar in 2018. Fluent in English and French, Tiffany has lived and studied across Canada, in Europe, and in Southeast Asia. Tiffany is an avid board sports enthusiast and recently picked up gardening which she enjoys doing with the help of her dog, Katka.
Deirdre O’Beirne-Røsæg is a marketing communications specialist with over 8 years of experience and now joins the NAWL team as Head of Communications.
She started her career with a top global premium drinks company, dedicating five years to building brands and advancing strategic communication plans, while working in Montréal, Brussels, Dublin and Copenhagen. After successfully developing significant marketing expertise, she was keen to combine this knowledge with her activism on climate and social justice.
And so, for the past three years she has worked for the Green Party of Ireland and Canada in a variety of positions, including as a Communications Strategist and Legislative Assistant on Parliament Hill. Her most recent position was as Deputy Director of Communications for the Green Party of Canada.
Deirdre is really looking forward to continuing her career with NAWL, particularly during this exciting time as the organization prepares for its 50th anniversary!
Our National Steering Committee
Kerri A. Froc is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick. She is also writing a book tentatively titled, “The Gendered Constitution.” It concerns gender equality in Canadian constitutional law.
Dr. Froc received her Ph.D. from Queen’s University (2016), her Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa (2009); her Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (1996); and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Regina (1993). Her research interests include sex equality, theories of constitutional interpretation, access to justice, reproductive rights, rights of political representation, and complex rights violations experienced by working women, poor women and racialized and Indigenous women.
Before completing her Ph.D., Dr. Froc spent 18 years as a lawyer, including 10 years working as a staff lawyer for the Canadian Bar Association (CBA). While at the CBA, she worked on issues concerning diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and successfully lobbied for governmental benefits to be paid for the self-employed during parental leave. She is a Board member of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, as well as a member of the Saskatchewan (1997) and New Brunswick (2020) bars.
Lise Gotell is the Landrex Distinguished Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Alberta where she has taught for the past 25 years. She completed her PhD in Political Science at York University in 1993, after which she held a Social Sciences and Humanities Postdoctoral Award at the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies. Lise is an internationally recognized expert on sexual consent law. She is currently engaged in research projects examining the rise of the rough sex defence and developing strategies to address the sexual assault justice gap for Alberta survivors. Lise has also held a number of academic leadership positions, including Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, and Vice-Dean and Acting Dean of Arts.
Strongly committed to feminist activism and to the project of feminist law reform, the focus of her academic research and advocacy has been to help shape policy and awareness around violence against women. Her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as in law reform initiatives here and in other countries. Lise served on the Board of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund and acted as National Chair between 2016-18, during which time she also contributed to numerous cases committees. Currently, she serves on the Advisory Committee of Courage to Act, helping to develop national strategies to combat campus sexual violence. In 2021, the University of Alberta recognized her public engagement through a Community Scholar Award.
Martha is a Professor of constitutional law at the University of Ottawa where she has taught in the French Common Law program since 1988. She publishes and lectures extensively on social and economic rights, equality and the Canadian Charter. She is regularly involved in lobbying, continuing judicial and legal education, and litigation in these areas, including as counsel for the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues, LEAF, and other interveners in Charter test cases at the trial, appellate and Supreme Court levels.
She was a long-time editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law/Revue femmes et droit, a past member of LEAF’s National Legal Committee and Board of Directors, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Health Coalition, a member of the board of the Social Rights Advocacy Centre and a member of the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario. From 1999-2004, she sat on the Equality Rights Panel of the Court Challenges Program of Canada; from 2007-2011, she held the University of Ottawa’s Shirley E. Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession; and, from 2004-2015, she was the academic lead for two $1,000,000 SSHRC-funded Community-University Research Alliance projects aimed at improving socio-economic rights accountability. In 1996, she received CRIAW’s Marion Porter Prize; in 2007, she was awarded the Law Society of Ontario Medal; in 2015, she was the recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s Touchstone Award in recognition of her efforts to advance equality, and; in 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Most recently Martha was granted the David Walter Mundell Medal for Legal Writing, by the Attorney General of Ontario (2018), and the Canadian Health Coalition’s Guardian of Public Health Care Award (Academic) (2019).
Martha has been on the NAWL National Steering Committee since 2007 and has acted as its’ co-chair 2012-2020. Martha was the Chair of the 2020-2021 National Steering Committee.
Alisa is fluent in a few languages, and provides legal services in English, French, and Spanish. She is a published bi-jural lawyer with extensive experience in complex legal and policy issues relating to Indigenous-Crown relations and reconciliation in national and international forums. After completing a clerkship with the Specific Claims Tribunal, Alisa was called to the Ontario Bar in 2011 and is also a member of the Saskatchewan Bar.
Alisa was senior legal counsel to the Specific Claims Tribunal in Ottawa since it first began. She worked on over 70 specific claims and advised the Tribunal’s Members—sitting Superior Court Judges—on the design and use of regulatory and other processes undertaken to resolve the claims. In this capacity, she acquired a unique expertise in the layered legal intersection between fiduciary law, constitutional law and Aboriginal law. Alisa was co-counsel on Canada v. Kitselas, 2014 at the Federal Court of Appeal where the Tribunal’s standard of review on judicial review was established and its powers confirmed. Alisa contributed to materials developed for judicial education, the Tribunal’s mandated five-year review of its enabling legislation and the Tribunal’s trial decision in Williams Lake Indian Band v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, 2014, which was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in Williams Lake Indian Band v. Canada, 2018, wherein the Tribunal’s expertise and specialized nature were confirmed.
Alisa has been involved in and acted for many First Nations in a variety of complex, specific claims including pre- and post-confederate illegal reserve land takings, various breaches of fiduciary obligations, mismanagement of Indian monies and assets, Crown failures to uphold Treaty promises and to create reserves.
Alisa is lead counsel on a proposed class action pertaining to the forced sterilization of Indigenous women in Saskatchewan. For her advocacy in this matter, she was recognized in “Chatelaine’s Women of the Year 2018”.
Alisa has appeared before levels of courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, administrative Tribunals and international committees and commissions, including the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. In 2019, Alisa was nominated for the “International Bar Association Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Legal Practitioner to Human Rights” by her peers at the International Justice Resource Center, in San Francisco, California.
Alisa is currently pursuing a masters in law at the University of Ottawa. Alisa is a devoted citizen of the Mi’kmaq Nation (Elsipogtog First Nation) and married to a citizen of the Nehiyewak Nation (Patuanak First Nation and Moosomin First Nation). They share two little girls.
Cheryl is the Executive Director of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1987 and completed her M.S.W. at University of Toronto in 1991. She practised at the legal clinic Justice for Children and Youth from 1991 to 2008 where she appeared at all levels of court and various administrative tribunals on behalf of young people. There she also led the clinic’s Charter litigation including the challenge to the corporal punishment defence in the Criminal Code [Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (2004)], the striking down of the reverse onus sections of the Youth Criminal Justice Act for adult sentencing [R. v. D.B. (2008)], and an intervention involving the right of a capable adolescent to consent to her own medical treatment [A.C. v. Manitoba Child and Family Services (2009)].
As Executive Director of the Asper Centre, she has represented the Centre at the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Conway, R v. Barton, R. v. Kokopenace and the jury vetting appeals [R v Emms, R v Davey, R v Yumnu (2012)], as well as in the Polygamy Reference case at the B.C. Supreme Court and Tanudjaja v Canada (Attorney General) at the Ontario Court of Appeal. She is the past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association, Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights Section and has served on the CBA National Constitutional and Human Rights Law and Child and Youth Law Sections executive. From 2018 to 2020 she served on the Child and Family Services Review Board and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and continues to serve on the Steering Committee of the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL). In 2019, Cheryl was awarded the Law Society Medal by the Law Society of Ontario for her contributions to the legal profession.
She teaches a Constitutional Advocacy clinic and Child and Youth Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.
Alison Southern is an associate at Augustine Bater Binks LLP in Ottawa, and practices exclusively in family law throughout the East Region. Before joining ABB, she practiced family law and civil litigation in both Brockville and Ottawa, and has appeared in both the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice. Alison has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in political science from Carleton University, and was a member of the inaugural class at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law in Thunder Bay, graduating with her JD in 2016 and was called to the bar in September of the same year.
Within the legal profession, Alison is involved in the Ontario Bar Association in multiple roles, including on the OBA council and positions on the family law, women lawyers’ forum, and solo and small firm practice executives. Previously, she was the Chair of the Young Lawyers Division – East. Outside of the practice of law, Alison is a Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves, specifically working the Canadian Cadet program – a no-cost program that aims to develop such attributes as good citizenship and leadership among youth ages 12-18.
Naomi is a bilingual executive currently working as the Academic Administrator of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section of the University of Ottawa. This role ensures the integrated direction, planning and coordination of all academic and administrative activities of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. She has spent the past eighteen years at the University of Ottawa, taking on roles with increasing responsibilities in the academic, finance, administrative, operation and research sector. She has more than ten years of management experience and a high sense of understanding in the areas of strategic and financial operation, research management and teaching within the post-secondary education sector. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Outstanding Staff Service Award of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section.
She currently holds a Master’s in Business administration (MBA) from the Telfer School of Management of the University of Ottawa and has been a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA) since 2011. In addition, she has taught on a part-time basis at La cite collégiale a variety of courses (accounting, management accounting, human resources, remuneration). In addition to her work, she has had the opportunity to volunteer for the Lowertown Community Resource Centre tax clinic.
Naomi Telfort is the Treasurer of the 2020-2021 National Steering Committee
Amanda came to NAWL as a summer student on secondment and joined the National Steering Committee in October 2021. Amanda is currently completing her final year of law school at Osgoode Hall Law School and will be articling at a union side labour and employment law firm in Ottawa, ON.
During her time at Osgoode, Amanda completed the Feminist Advocacy Clinical Program. Offered in partnership with the Barbara Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, the program was comprised of weekly clinic shifts and seminars to help students develop feminist advocacy skills by providing legal assistance to women experiencing intimate partner violence.
Amanda was the 2021 recipient of the Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP Prize for her essay on intimate partner violence within LBGT relationships and was the 2020 recipient of the Mabel Penery French Prize awarded to the student with the highest standing in the course Law, Gender and Equality at Osgoode Hall Law School. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Gender and Women’s Studies from Trent University, a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences from Queen’s University and a diploma in x-ray technology from the Eastern Ontario School of X-Ray Technology. Amanda is bilingual in French.
Our Feminist Law Reform Working Groups
To ensure that NAWL remains connected to our three key priority areas, we established three Feminist Law Reform (FLR) Working Groups:
- FLR & Reproductive Rights: Chair: Julia Tetrault-Provencher, Kerri Froc, Alison Southern,
- FLR & Climate Crisis: Chair: Sabaa Khan, Melanie Snow, Jewelles Smith, Lauren Marshall
- FLR & Violence Against Women: Chair: Lise Gotell, Amanda Therrien
Our 3 Key Priority Areas
Ending Violence Against Women
Violence against women and girls remains a critical issue in Canada and one that requires urgent and ongoing action. All analysis of the legislative framework required to prevent and respond to violence against women (VAW) must be framed to also recognize and redress women’s poverty and economic insecurity, which structures and shapes women’s experiences of violence, especially those of groups of women that are particularly vulnerable to VAW in its many forms.
Recognizing the historic and current context is essential to inform this analysis, particularly in relation to colonialism and the ongoing impacts of colonialism, including the impact on violence against Indigenous women. Indigenous peoples’ history and contributions must be clearly and overtly connected to our collective commitment to bring about justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
Reproductive Justice
The direct relationship between reproductive rights and women’s equality, and the precarity of women’s gains in this area, are among the reasons why reproductive rights continues to be a key focus of NAWL’s feminist advocacy.
While freedom of choice is a fundamental right in Canada, equal access to safe abortions for all women and anyone who can be pregnant, is still far from a reality in Canada. NAWL will continue to be laser-focused on assuring that reproductive rights in Canada remain at the forefront of our law reform agenda.
Women's Rights & the Climate Crisis
“Gender inequality coupled with the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time” – United Nations.
The climate crisis is a systemic crisis with intersecting economic, social, political, and geographical challenges all disproportionately affecting women, particularly Indigenous, marginalized, and racialized women. Effective climate action requires an intersectional and feminist approach. As the Canadian government moves towards responding to the climate crisis, NAWL will advocate for an intersectional feminist and gender analysis to be applied to new legislation, ensuring it recognizes and addresses the existing gender inequalities and unique threats posed by the climate crisis to women’s livelihoods, health, and safety.
