The Two Michaels, The Donald, and the Tech Tycoon’s Daughter: Litigating in the Minefield of USA v. Meng. 

Appearing for the Crown poses special challenges to advocates. In difficult, high-profile litigation, the challenges can be daunting. Drawing on his experiences in Meng and other litigation, the speaker will discuss how such challenges can be identified in a timely way and effectively managed.

Episode 1: McCarthy Ethics Lecture With Robert Frater

Where is 'the Environment'? Locating Nature in International Law

What do lawyers mean when we say ‘the environment’? Answering this somewhat simple question can unmake disciplinary foundations because it destabilizes formative assumptions in western law about the separation between subjects and objects of governance, between the social and the natural, and between the human and non-human. International lawyers understand 'the environment' and law's ability to govern it primarily through a western lens but so far such an understanding has perpetuated environmental crises instead of solving them. An openness to diverse cultural understandings of the relationship between law and nature provides a pathway for addressing environmental crises.

Episode 3: Usha Nataraja - Where is 'the environment'? Locating Nature in International Law

Mike Molas takes the same conscientious and impassioned approach to legal career counseling as he did to legal advocacy. He completed his undergraduate degree in Criminology (summa cum laude) from York University and his Juris Doctor (cum laude) from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. After articling with a leading criminal defence firm in Ottawa, he was called to the Ontario Bar in 2015. He returned to uOttawa Law as the Faculty’s Professional Development Counsellor before transitioning to his current role as Law Career Counselor with Queen’s Law. Mike has served as On-Site Supervisor for the Faculty’s Pro Bono Students Canada Chapter. He also has served as Vice-Chair of NALP’s National Recruitment Survey Working Group and was elected the NALP Canadian Section Regional Leader for 2020-2021. A self-professed nerd, Mike is a huge Lord of the Rings and Ninja Turtles fan.  Join us as we speak with Mike to discuss career planning, and the strategies one can use to carve their own legal career.

Episode 4: Interview with a Law Career Counselor - Mike Molas

Does Artificial Intelligence Have the Right to Freedom of Speech?

Join Professor Cass R. Sunstein of Harvard Law School for the 2024 Marcus-Matalon Lecture on U.S. Law. Professor Sunstein is a leading American legal scholar, who has also served as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and as a member of both President Barack Obama’s Review Board on Intelligence and Communications Technologies and the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board. In this special talk, Sunstein will explore the complexities of the relationship between freedom of expression and AI–generated content.

Episode 18: Cass Sunstein - Does Artificial Intelligence Have the Right to Freedom of Speech

Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation

Join authors/lawyers Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) and Andrew Stobo Sniderman for a discussion about their book, Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation, moderated by Prof. Lindsay Borrows. This book follows multiple generations of two families, one white and one Indigenous, and weaves their lives into the larger story of Canada. Valley of the Birdtail is about how two communities became separate and unequal—and what it means for the rest of us.

Episode 19: Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) and Andrew Stobo Sniderman - Valley of the Birdtail

Incapacity Planning and End-of-Life Decision-Making: A Primer

Life expectancy has been increasing for Canadians for some time.  It is presently estimated that women in Canada will have an average life expectancy of about 84 years and men of about 80 years, with some regional variation.  As a result, demographics have shifted given that much of the population is now expected to live to very advanced ages. 
 
Canadians are rightly concerned about planning for their futures – what will happen to their finances?  How can they continue to live independently?  What if they experience cognitive or physical decline?  While planning for potential mental incapacity is important for all Canadians to do, whether young or old, statistics tell us that dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment increase substantially after age 85. 
 
This seminar will address how Ontario law deals with Powers of Attorney (POAs) and “substitute decision-makers” and will get into who gets to make decisions for a person when that person lacks the requisite mental capacity to make his or her own personal care or property decisions.  We will also discuss some matters affecting POAs and “substitute decision-makers” which are commonly litigated.  Sign up to learn more about incapacity planning and end-of-life decision-making with this informative presentation.

Episode 20: Leanne Kaufman, Alexandra Manthorpe, David Freedman - End of Life Planning

In this week’s episode, Afsheen chats with Justice Donald McLeod, Law’95, who is also an adjunct professor at Queen’s Law where he teaches both Trial Advocacy and Critical Race Theory.  As a law student, Justice Mcleod was Class VP and Queen’s Chapter President of the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada.  After being called to the bar in 1998, Justice Donald Mcleod began practicing criminal law.  A few years later, he founded The McLeod Group, focusing on criminal law trials and appeals, as well as administrative law.  And In 2013, Mcleod was appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice.  We hope you enjoy this episode.

Special Series: What's Next With Afsheen Chowdhury - Justice Mcleod

In this week’s episode, Afsheen chats with Aisha Hussain, a Law’19 grad about her law school experience being a Muslim student at the faculty.

As a law student, Aisha founded the (QMLSA), the Queen's Muslim Law Students Association, that strived to build a community of Muslim law students and legal professionals. 

For the past 5 years Aisha has been working at the City of Toronto. She holds the position of a Litigation Lawyer.

Listen as Afsheen provides Aisha an update on the club and how it has continued after she graduated. 

We hope you enjoy this episode.

Special Series: What's Next With Afsheen Chowdhury - Aisha Hussain Law’19

Climate Change as Unjust Enrichment

The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our generation. Significant disruptions to our ecological systems inevitably disrupt our social and economic systems as well. Where regulatory measures and international treaties have fallen short in tackling climate change, climate litigation has seeks to fill the gaps through the court system. Typically relying on tort law—which requires proof of harm, causation, and wrongdoing—this approach has often put plaintiffs at a disadvantage in climate-related cases. Learn more about how unjust enrichment law could offer a more effective legal pathway for climate litigation.

Speakers
Maytal Gilboa
Associate Professor, Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law

Episode 30: Maytal Gilboa - Climate Change as Unjust Enrichment

Small and Medium Sized Enterprises – the Engines of the Economy but the overlooked Dispute Resolution Stakeholders.

The talk/lecture will explore the contracting and dispute resolution behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and assess whether the current available legal frameworks are fit for purpose to encourage SMEs to take part in global trade. Their participation in global trade is a key driver to states’ GDP. SMEs are an important tool to poverty reduction. Hence it is of interest to states to ensure that SMEs are able to trade cross-border without facing an uncalculatable dispute resolution risk.

Episode 32: Petra Butler - Dispute resolution behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises

In this encore presentation, we discuss student tenant’s rights and house party laws with the Executive Director, Queen's Law Clinics and Director, Queen's Legal Aid, Blair Crew.

Episode 34: Blair Crew - Queen's Legal Aid Revisited

On Monday January 20, 2025, we recorded the Law'80 Visiting Lecture with Sanaa Ahmed. Sanaa's talk was on Canada’s money laundering problem: Is TD the exception or the rule?

Description: Waves of self-recrimination have plagued Canada since U.S. regulators slapped TD Bank with the largest fine in U.S. banking history. TD’s C-suite is under fire for conspiring to launder, as are Canadian regulators for their failure to detect this laundering. But are these calls for self-flagellation justified? Is TD the exception or the rule?

Episode 35: Law'80 Sanaa Ahmed - Canada's money laundering problem

On Thursday January 16, 2025, we recorded the McCarthy Tétrault LLP Lecture in Ethics & Professionalism with Deanne Sowter. Deanne's talk was on Intimate Partner Violence and the Fabrication Myth: Implications for Lawyers’ Ethics in Family Law.

Description: Deanne Sowter will explore family lawyers’ professional obligations concerning the fabrication myth—the notion that claims of intimate partner violence are fabricated to gain an advantage in family court. Referencing the recent British Columbia Court of Appeal decision in KMN v. SZM, Sowter argues that lawyers can no longer rely on the fabrication myth as a defensive strategy. However, she contends that professional obligations still permit space for stereotypical reasoning, which should be addressed through legal and regulatory reforms to enhance access to justice for survivors. 

Episode 36: Deanne Sowter - Intimate Partner Violence and the Fabrication Myth: Implications for Lawyers’ Ethics in Family Law

Title: Part time for All: A Care Manifesto

Date: Monday, January 27, 2025

Description: Jennifer Nedelsky (Professor of Law, Osgoode Hall) introduces the main argument of the book: Everyone should routinely engage in unpaid care, averaging 22 hours a week, to learn essential skills from the experience. To make this possible, paid work should be limited to 30 hours a week. Nedelsky discusses the many benefits of this change and briefly explain why it is feasible. 

Episode 37: Jennifer Nedelsky - Part time for All: A Care Manifesto

Title: Wither free trade?  US-Canada Relations in a Post-Tariff Context 

Description: Get an in-depth look at the impacts of tariffs on the Canadian economy and our ties to our closest neighbour: how they affect us, how Canada might respond, and the changing face of US-Canada relations.  

Queen’s Law and economics professor Cherie Metcalf will be joined by a panel of guests including trade lawyers, and arbitration experts.  

Speakers: 

- Nicolas Lamp - Associate Academic Director, International Law Programs; co-author, Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters
- Dena Givari, Law’17 - International attorney, International Trade Practice, White & Case
- Jessica B. Horwitz, Law'12 - Partner, International Trade & Investment, Bennett Jones
- Josh Karton - Associate Dean (Graduate Studies and Program Development); Managing Editor, Canadian Journal of Commercial Arbitration
- Anthony Goerzen - Professor, Smith School of Business
- Julia Webster, Law'13 - Partner, Baker & McKenzie LLP

Episode 38 - Queen's Law and Panel Guests - Wither Free Trade?

Title: Between Hak and UR Pride Centre: What the Normalization of the Notwithstanding Clause Might Mean for Democracy

Date: Monday, February 3, 2025

Description: Two cases from different provinces, Quebec and Saskatchewan, have reached opposite conclusions on the court’s jurisdiction to entertain judicial review once the notwithstanding clause has been invoked. In Hak v. Québec, the court’s jurisdiction is found to be ousted following invocation of the clause. In UR Pride Centre, the court determines that it may still pronounce on the rights infringement, though it cannot strike down the protected law.

With the use of the notwithstanding clause now effectively normalized and the question of the court’s jurisdiction uncertain, does democracy align more with one side or the other?

Speakers:

Peter L. Biro, Founder, Section 1; Senior Fellow, Massey College; Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto Law School (GPLLM Program) 
Discussant - Grégoire Webber, Professor of Law and Philosophy, Queen's Law
Discussant - Jacob Weinrib, Associate Professor, Queen's Law
Discussant - Debra M Haak, Assistant Professor, Queen's Law

Episode 39: Peter Biro - Between Hak and UR Pride Centre: What the Normalization of the Notwithstanding Clause Might Mean for Democracy

Title: A Worker-Centered Trade Policy and the False Assumptions of Worker Empowerment

Date: Monday, March 3, 2025

Description: The U.S. administration has adopted a “worker-centered” trade policy, claiming to empower workers in trade partner countries. U.S. politicians and bureaucrats cite the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Rapid Response Mechanism as evidence of the policy’s empowering effects on workers in trade sectors. This talk will outline findings from our empirical project, which interviewed workers in Mexico’s auto sector, and discuss its implications for the worker-centered approach to trade.

Speakers:

Desirée LeClercq, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law
Nicolas Lamp, Associate Professor; Associate Academic Director, International Law Programs

Episode 40: Desirée LeClercq - A Worker-Centered Trade Policy and the False Assumptions of Worker Empowerment

Title: The J.A. Corry Lecture with Samuel Issacharoff - An event to honour the life and work of Professor Alvin Cheung - Emergencies, Alien and Domestic

Date: Friday, March 7, 2025

Description: An old saying has it that war is bad for liberty but good for democracy. In exchange for support to face an external threat and the suspension of rights during wartime, citizens are often rewarded with greater political liberties post conflict. In contrast, responses to domestic “enemies” are more threatening to democracies, undermining legitimacy during a crisis and eroding rights in the aftermath. These themes are considered in light of emerging populist challenges to democracy. 

Speakers: 

Samuel Issacharoff, Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law
Cherie Metcalf, Associate Dean (Research), Professor, Queen's Law
Alyssa King, Assistant Professor, Queen's Law 

Episode 41: Samuel Issacharoff - Emergencies, Alien and Domestic

Title: Visiting Speaker Thomas Isaac - Emerging Issues in Aboriginal Law 

Date: Friday, March 17, 2025

Description: Explore Aboriginal title, Métis rights and the honour of the Crown in an in-depth look at Thomas Isaac's new sixth edition of Aboriginal Law. 

Speakers: 

Thomas Isaac, Partner, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP; Chair, Aboriginal Law Group

Cherie Metcalf, Associate Dean (Research), Professor, Queen's Law

Episode 42: Visiting Speaker Thomas Isaac - Emerging Issues in Aboriginal Law

Title: Marcus-Matalon Lecture on U.S. Law - The US Constitution as the Law of the Land: Maps, Militaries, and the Mississippi - Akhil Reed Amar

Date: Friday, March 21, 2025

Description: Explore U.S. constitutional geography, indivisibility and neighbouring borders in this preview of the book Born Equal: Remaking America's Constitution, 1840-1920, in this year’s Marcus-Matalon Lecture.  

Speakers:

Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
Stephen Marcus, Principal at the Marcus Firm, PLLC
Mohamed Khimji, David Allgood Professor in Business Law; Professor Queen's Law

Episode 43: Marcus-Matalon Lecture on US Law with Akhil Reed Amar

Title: Transforming Justice - A Crime to Rhyme: Race, Rap, and the Criminal Legal System

Date: Friday, May 16, 2025. This podcast was recorded from a panel that was held virtually as part of the 14th Annual Critical Perspectives Conference “Transforming Justice,” hosted by University of Victoria.

Description: In May 2025, Professor Lisa M. Kelly, Ms. Afsheen Chowdhury (Law’24) and Mr. Lamar Skeete joined in a virtual conversation for the 14th Annual Critical Perspectives Conference, “Transforming Justice,” hosted by University of Victoria. Their panel – A Crime to Rhyme: Race, Rap, and the Criminal Legal System – discussed the controversial practice of using rap lyrics to secure criminal convictions. Each year, Prof. Kelly teaches Mr. Skeete’s case – R. v. Skeete (Ontario Court of Appeal, 2017) – in her Evidence course where students consider what happens when art is put on trial. In this conversation across prison walls, Kelly, Chowdhury, and Skeete discuss racial bias, systemic injustice, and the transformative power of education and community between prison and the academy. 

Speakers:

Lisa Kelly,  Associate Professor, Queen's Law

Afsheen Chowdhury, Law'24

Lamar Skeete

Episode 44: Transforming Justice - A Crime to Rhyme: Race, Rap, and the Criminal Legal System

The Supreme Court of Canada: The first 150 years
Since its establishment in 1875, the role of the Supreme Court of Canada has undergone a series of fundamental changes.  The lecture will describe these changes, leading up to the current role of the court in the Charter era.

Speakers
The Honourable Malcolm Rowe
Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

QLawPod - Episode 45 - 150th Anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada Celebration

Thirteen Economies, One Country: How the Highest Court Undermined a National Canadian Economy
Canada is one country, but economically it is a patchwork of 13 regional economies. Interprovincial trade barriers cost billions in lost productivity and innovation. As federal and provincial governments work to dismantle these internal walls, the question remains: why do they exist and why have they persisted?

The roots of Canada’s fragmented market lie not only in politics or provincial protectionism, but also in constitutional interpretation. Confederation’s framers envisioned a strong federal role in commerce, but the Supreme Court narrowed federal trade powers and expanded provincial authority over property and civil rights.

This lecture explores how judicial choices shaped Canada’s patchwork economy, why past decisions are difficult to overcome, and why today offers the best chance in generations to build a freer national market.

QLaw Pod - Episode 46 -  Virginia Torres: Thirteen Economies, One Country

Title:  Law'80 Careers in Business Law Panel -  Navigating a career in the banking and financial sector

Date: Monday, October 20, 2025

Description: Queen’s Faculty of Law and the Corporate Law Club are pleased to showcase the annual Law'80 Careers in Business Law Panel. This year’s Q&A will focus on navigating a career in the banking and financial sector. Hear from three lawyers on the opportunities and challenges in this area of law.

Speakers:

Sam DiGiuseppe, Law'22 - Associate, Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Alice Abbott, Law'88, MBA'96 - Formerly Global General Counsel, GPS Capital Markets
Erica Young, B.Comm’08 - Assistant Vice President and Senior Counsel, Canada Life

QLawPod- Episode 47 -  Navigating a career in the banking and financial sector

Title:  FLSQ - Safer Spaces, Stronger Selves: Gender Justice in Housing and Human Security 

Date: Monday, September 22, 2025

Description: The word “homelessness” seldom comes to mind when thinking of women fleeing violence. But rising housing insecurity and overlapping housing crises are creating gender-specific risks. This talk will share research underway through the interdisciplinary Quebec Homelessness Prevention Policy Collaborative, and its legal reform project that uses a human rights-based approach to law to drive social change.

Speakers:

Pearl Eliadis - Associate Professor (professional), Max Bell School of Public Policy; Full Member, Centre for Human Rights and legal pluralism, Faculty of Law, McGill University

QLawPod- Episode 48 - Safer Spaces, Stronger Selves: Gender Justice in Housing and Human Security

Title: FLSQ - From Silence to Systems Change: Collective Strategies to End Femicide and Gender-Based Violence

Date: Monday, September 29, 2025

Description: Every 48 hours in Canada, a woman, girl or gender-diverse person is killed in an act of femicide. This lecture examines gender-based violence (GBV) prevention locally in Ottawa, nationally across Canada and internationally within movements to end femicide. It will explore systemic barriers rooted in colonialism and exclusion, alongside new strategies for coordination, accountability and community-led change. Drawing on Ottawa’s three-year GBV Action Plan, the session highlights bold, community-driven approaches to ending femicide.

Speakers:

Astara van der Jagt - Director of Programs, Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women (OCTEVAW); Founder/CEO, EquiShift

QLawPod- Episode 49 - From Silence to Systems Change: Collective Strategies to End Femicide and Gender-Based Violence

Title: The Open Court Principle and the Use of NDAs in Air Passenger Complaints

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025

Description: This talk examines efforts by airlines and the federal government to limit passengers and the media from discussing legally binding decisions in air passenger complaints, including the reasons and evidence behind them.

Openness in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings is a right protected by the Charter. That right has come under pressure in recent years, not only through airlines’ use of non-disclosure agreements with passengers, but also through a 2023 amendment to the Canada Transportation Act. The amendment imposes confidentiality on evidence, reasons and decisions in air passenger complaints, preventing passengers from discussing how their cases were resolved. The provision is now the subject of a Charter challenge.

Speakers:

Dr. Gábor Lukács - President | Air Passenger Rights

QLawPod- Episode 50 - The Open Court Principle and the Use of NDAs in Air Passenger Complaints

Title: FLSQ - Garnet Families: Creating a research ecosystem centering defence and public safety families

Date: Monday, November 10, 2025

Description: In 2022, Dr. Cramm consolidated her research program under the interdisciplinary and international Families Matter Research Group (FMRG) (https://garnetfamilies.com/fmrg/). The concept of “Garnet families” has become a unifying framework for the group’s research, network and partnership activities.

Garnet families experience a unique combination of lifestyle factors — risks, identities, logistics and mobility — that interact dynamically throughout the life course. Most members of the FMRG team have personal connections to Garnet families, viewing their research as a form of service to that community. These connections deepen their commitment and provide insights that enrich the work.

Dr. Cramm serves as project director for the SSHRC-funded Garnet Families Partnership (2024–31), an international collaboration among Garnet families and those who study, serve and support them. Using a collective impact approach, the partnership aims to strengthen networks, expand knowledge and build capacity.

Speakers:

Dr. Heidi Cramm - Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Queen’s University

Qlaw Pod - Episode 51 - FLSQ - Garnet Families: Creating a research ecosystem centering defence and public safety families

Title: Unreasonably hypothetical: what’s wrong with s.12

Date: Monday, November 17, 2025

Description: Proportionality in punishment is deeply uncertain. Even when people agree on facts and values, they often reach different but reasonable conclusions about appropriate sentences. Against this backdrop, the Supreme Court of Canada’s reliance on “reasonable hypotheticals” to strike down mandatory minimums under Section 12 of the Charter is flawed. Abstract principles cannot produce a single correct sentencing outcome. The Court’s use of “reasonable hypotheticals” obscures the comparative reasoning behind sentencing in a common law system and replaces democratic accountability with judicial intuition.

Speakers:

Vincent Chiao - Professor and Associate Dean, Graduate Programs, University of Toronto, Faculty of Law

Qlaw Pod - Episode 52 - Unreasonably hypothetical: what’s wrong with s.12

Title: End-of-Life Online Fireside Chat 

Date: Monday, December 8, 2025

Description: On Monday, December 8, we held a free online Fireside Chat on End-of-Life Law. Dean Colleen Flood was joined by Alexandra Manthorpe (Partner, Cunningham Swan), Leanne Kaufman (President and CEO RBC Royal Trust) and Dr. David Freedman (Associate Professor, Queen’s Law) for an important panel discussion on End-of-Life Law & Planning. Covering important areas, such as Wills, Trust, and Estates, this panel is intended to de-mystify the legal implications around planning for End-of-Life.  

If you are interested in learning more about End-of-Life learn more about our session that we are running in early January. - https://law.queensu.ca/programs/end-of-life

Speakers:

Colleen M. Flood - Dean, Queen's Faculty of Law
Alexandra Manthorpe, Law'10 - Partner, Cunningham Swan
Leanne Kaufman, Law'96 - President and CEO RBC Royal Trust
Dr. David Freedman - Associate Professor, Queen’s Faculty of Law

Qlaw Pod -  Episode 53 -End-of-Life Law Fireside Chat

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