The third panel in the Gender Justice Now series explored opportunities and challenges for using law to advance gender justice in the current moment. The panel featured Fay Faraday, Raji Mangat, Megan Stephens, and Cee Strauss. You can see bios for our panelists below. A transcript of the webinar is available here.
For more information on opportunities moving forward, check out Fay Faraday’s report – Feminist Equality Rights Litigation: Evolution of the Canadian Legal Landscape.
Fay Faraday
Fay Faraday is a nationally recognized social justice lawyer, strategic adviser, policy consultant, and academic whose work focuses on constitutional law, human rights, and labour law. Fay has litigated many leading human rights and constitutional cases at the Supreme Court of Canada. She served on LEAF’s National Legal Committee and has represented LEAF in several s. 15 interventions. Fay is also an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Raji Mangat
Raji Mangat is the Executive Director of West Coast LEAF, a BC-based non-profit organization working to achieve gender justice through law reform, litigation and public legal education. Prior to taking on her current role, Raji was the Director of Litigation at West Coast LEAF. Her recent work has focused on access to justice, the impact of coercive control and detention on women, and family law. Raji is called to the bar in Ontario, New York and British Columbia.
Megan Stephens
Megan is the Executive Director & General Counsel at LEAF where she is responsible for overseeing LEAF’s legal activities and daily operations. In that capacity, she provides leadership and support to LEAF’s work on litigation, law reform, and public education, including acting as counsel for LEAF in its court interventions. Prior to joining LEAF, she spent more than a decade working in appellate litigation as Crown counsel, developing an expertise in constitutional issues, as well as appeals involving gender-based violence, such as sexual assault and human trafficking.
Cee Strauss (Moderator)
Cee is a Staff Lawyer at LEAF, where they contribute to the development and management of LEAF’s cases and law reform work. Previously, Cee articled with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, worked as an associate at a criminal defence firm in Toronto, and clerked for Justice Sheilah L. Martin at the Supreme Court of Canada. Cee received their B.C.L./L.L.B. and their M.A. in Communications from McGill University, and was called to the Ontario Bar in 2017.
LEAF acknowledges the support of Women and Gender Equality Canada for this panel series.
