University of Calgary

2011-2012 Projects

LEGAL RESEARCH PROJECTS

The 2011-2012 Research Projects Coordinator is Christina Lam.

Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary Project
In association with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary, an organization that focuses on working with women in conflict with (or at risk of becoming in conflict with) the law, the student assigned to this project will be tasked to liaise with the Elizabeth Fry Adult Court Legal Information Specialist research issues that are relevant to the Society's client-base and assist with the production of legal information materials. Examples of topics of legal research for this project include procedures regarding basic small claims, landlord and tenancy disputes, by-law matters, child maintenance and welfare, restraining orders, divorce proceedings, warrants, and bail hearings.

Alberta Real Estate Foundation Project
The Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) is offering a unique opportunity for PBSC volunteers to conduct future-focused legal research in the area of real estate law. The student(s) who partake in this initiative will be asked to partner with AREF and conduct strategic legal planning that takes into account the foreseeable impact of recent developments in real estate law on the obligations for variety of stakeholders (i.e. real estate brokers, banks, trustees, owners, and buyers). The volunteer students will tasked with envisioning scenarios that may arise in light of these developments and produce a brief that takes the potential legal implications into account. Areas of legal research may include, but are not limited to, recent/projected developments in the Condominium Property Act, sustainable real estate development and planning in Alberta, and the protection of senior citizens against real estate fraud. The second component of this project would also provide the students with the opportunity translate the implications of existing real estate legislation into comprehensible and visually appealing plain-language documents or webpages that are accessible to the general public.

Homeless Bill of Rights Project
A unique opportunity to partner with Homeless Awareness Calgary to create a "Homeless Bill of Rights," the first of its kind in Canada. This Homeless Bill of Rights will consist of a detailed legal policy paper that will: Create clear definitions of terms applied to the homeless and the challenge and barriers they face; require students to develop a knowledge of existing human rights law, policy and legislation in the Alberta and Canada; align the areas addressed and goals of a "Homeless Bill of Rights" with existing human rights law and policy; and critique and identify ways and means in which existing law, policy and legislation do not address or are not inclusive of vulnerable populations.

CCLA Rights Watch Blog
This is the third year of PBSC's partnership with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Rights Watch Blog. Each PBSC Chapter provides two students to work with a legal or academic mentor to monitor and research civil liberties issues as they are taking place in the community. The students selected for this project will be required to attend the Rights Watch Conference in Calgary from October 21-22 (registration cost paid by CCLA). The volunteers will update the Rights Watch Blog with written information and provide CCLA lawyers with regular updates on key developments on civil liberties issues in Calgary. The goal is to share information individuals and organizations interested in civil liberties issues and to benefit society at large by keeping the spotlight on civil liberties abuses.
The volunteer students assigned to this project will also help the PBSC program coordinators to organize a civil liberties event at the Faculty that is anticipated to take place at some point in the winter semester.

Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre
The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre is seeking two volunteer law assist with several ongoing research and education projects. Students assigned to this project would undertake research on contemporary civil liberties and human rights issues that are of concern to Albertans. The range of projects that students will provide research support with are diverse. Examples of areas of research, include, but are not limited to, proposals for reform of human rights legislation, reports on citizen complaints about police conduct, and assisting with the compilation of manual for lawyers who represent mentally disabled clients.
The volunteer students assigned to this project will also help the PBSC program coordinators to organize a civil liberties event at the Faculty that is anticipated to take place at some point in the winter semester.

Criminal Law Research Project  
The student(s) assigned to this project will be tasked with conducting legal research on behalf of an individual who has been convicted of murder.  The individual was not made fully cognizant of the basis of his conviction and no longer has access to legal counsel.  The role of the student would not to be to act as legal counsel and provide legal advice.  Rather, the student would provide legal information to this individual.  As an inmate, the individual seeking our assistance does not have access to adequate legal research resources which is a major obstacle in his quest to understand the reasons behind the decision that was reached.  The student(s) will be tasked with compiling a brief that explains, in language that would be understandable to someone with no legal training, the rationale behind the conviction.  The student will review the cases that form the basis of the courts decisions, explain why the courts deferred to those specific authorities, and explain how it pertains to the facts in question.

COURT, CLINICS, AND TRIBUNALS PROJECTS

Human Rights Project

Project Coordinators: Lokiel Jeong & Farinaz Razi
The Human Rights Project consists of two independent (and mutually exclusive) components: an advocacy component and a clerkship component.

Advocacy component: The Alberta Human Rights Act, R.S.A. 2000 provides that no individual in the province should be subject to discrimination on the basis of race, religious beliefs, colour, physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status or sexual orientation. Individuals who believe that they have faced discrimination on these grounds have recourse to make a complaint to the Human Rights Commission. The advocacy component of the Human Rights Project will allow students, under the close supervision of lawyers who have agreed to participate in this project, to assist clients who have carriage of their complaint at Human Rights Tribunal hearings.
Clerkship component: Students participating in the clerkship component of the Human Rights Project will be provided with the opportunity to observe hearings at various stages of the complaints process. Students who have signed on to the clerkship component of this project will also provide legal research for members of the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

Small Claims Duty Counsel Project
Project Coordinator: Nelson Osamudiamen
Under the close supervision of lawyers acting as duty counsel for small claims litigants, students signed on to this project will conduct intake interviews and provide information on the rules and procedures of Small Claims Court to unrepresented litigants at the Calgary Courts Centre. Students who participate in this project may occasionally appear on trial or motion when appropriate. Students who wish to participate in this initiative must be free of class commitments during at least one of the following four periods: Tuesdays 8:30-12:30, Tuesdays 12:30-4:30, Fridays 8:30-12:30, and/or Fridays 12:30-4:30.

Family Law Project
Project Coordinator: Stacey Haskins
PBSC partners on this project with Family Justices Services in Alberta. The Family Law Project (FLP) consists of two phases: a training phase and an intake assistance phase.
During the training phase students will have the opportunity to gain familiarity and comfort with the family justice system by completing a rotation of six sessions. These sessions will provide students an opportunity to observe Alternative Dispute Resolution and Judicial Dispute Resolution hearings, docket court, divorce proceedings in the Court of Queen's Bench, ex-parte and child welfare orders, duty counsel and court workers assisting self-represented litigants, and intake interviews conducted by court workers.
During the intake assistance phase the FLP, student volunteers will assist unrepresented litigants under the supervision of a Family Court Counsellor assigned to Intake Services. PBSC student support will include providing general legal information about the family justice system and assisting unrepresented litigants with forms and court applications. The goals of this component of the FLP is to relieve the congestion in the Family Court system, to provide litigants with attentive legal service, and to provide students with an opportunity to experience the family justice system first-hand.

HIV/AIDS Project: Legal Research and Clinic Development
Project Coordinator: Jessica Wong
Under the close supervision of lawyers, students will assist in the development of a legal clinic that will be run out of the AIDS Calgary Awareness Association. Students will research legal issues that are especially pertinent to individuals with HIV/AIDS and sex trade workers. Once the clinic is operational, students may be provided with the opportunity to assist the AIDS Calgary Awareness Association and its clients through the production of legal information brochures and by being available to provide legal information under the supervision of lawyers to the AIDS Calgary Awareness Association's clients.

 

DIRECTED LEGAL RESEARCH PROJECTS

The 2011-2012 Directed Legal Research Coordinator is Omair Khan.

Career Services Public Interest Law Project
This project forms part of an ongoing partnership between PBSC and the Faculty of Law's Career Services Office. The goal of this project is to increase the accessibility of legal career opportunities in the public interest sector. The students assigned to the project are expected to liaise with Career Services and Dean Ian Holloway to expand the number of public interest career profiles to be hosted on the Public Interest Careers section of the Career Services website. Students will be expected to assist in the compilation of profiles for various government positions; positions with groups aligned with natural resources, energy and environmental law; and other public interest careers in major markets outside Calgary including the Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa markets.
Students will also conduct further research on public interest organizations and internships throughout major centres in Canada and internationally which will also be added to the Public Interest section of the Law Career Services web site.

Corporate Bylaw Project
The Ability Society of Alberta is seeking to update its corporate bylaws. The PBSC student volunteer(s) assigned to this project will be given the opportunity to assist the organization by conducting a review of its existing bylaws and drafting an updated version that takes into account the organization's growth in size and complexity as well as the most current edition of the Societies Act.

Document Review Project
Students assigned to this project would assist CUPS Health and Education Centres with the review and audit of pertinent departmental documents (various consent and liability forms) and processes (legal issues surrounding acceptance into various programs that the Centres offer). Volunteers would also be provided with the opportunity with to produce and/or rewrite several inter-agency agreements.


PUBLIC LEGAL EDUCATION PROJECTS

Aboriginal Youth Project
Project Coordinator: Billie Fortier
Students assigned to this project will deliver a series of presentations to high school students at Siksika First Nation. Anticipated lessons may include the Charter and its application to the reserve, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and a lesson on the Indian Act. Students assigned to this project will attend a cultural education training session in order to deliver effective presentations and in accordance with Aboriginal customs.
The project also consists of the organization of a field trip for the students of Siksika Nation High School to the Faculty of Law, the Aboriginal Centre at the University of Calgary, and the Calgary Courts Centre.

Elementary Mock Trial Project
Project Coordinators: Waqas Iqbal and Melissa Pearson
Anticipated law student volunteer positions available: 5-6
Students assigned to this project will prepare for the delivery of a five-day lesson plan targeted at grade 5 and 6 students that has been provided by the Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN). PBSC's national firm partner, McCarthy Tétrault is heavily involved in the delivery of this project.
Rather than focusing on the criminal justice system, the lessons will focus on the law's role as a codifier of social values and as an important tool for settling conflicts. The lessons will focus on the protection of personal privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom from prejudice.
The project will culminate in a field-trip to McCarthy Tétrault's Calgary Offices, the Calgary Court Centre and a non-competitive mock-trial.
Along with facilitating the delivery of the lessons, students may be tasked with reviewing, updating and adapting these materials for an Albertan context. Volunteers will also be asked to assist with the organization of the field trip and to liaise with the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench to determine whether having their direct participation in the mock-trial component of the project is possible.

Immigration Law Educational Seminars Project
Project Coordinators: Jelena Markovic and Gloria Moore
This project consist with helping the Centre for Newcomers with the delivery of are aimed at benefiting immigrants and newcomers to Canada as well as youth who were formally members of gangs or predisposed to become involved in gangs. Students will liaise with the Centre for Newcomers staff in order to update and expand upon the presentations prepared over the last two years by PBSC Calgary volunteers. Volunteers assigned to this project can anticipate that they will have the opportunity to assist with the delivery of presentations on a number of topics, including, but not limited to, the preparation for sponsorship, family reunification, spousal issues and settlement; the Child Welfare Act and the legal responsibilities of Canadian parents towards their children.
PBSC volunteers may also have the opportunity to develop presentations targeted at at-risk youth who were formally in gangs, or predisposed to become involved in gangs focussing on the implications of criminal actions with respect to navigation through the legal system, finding legal representation, age differences and sentencing, and the implications of immigration status.