LEAF is best known for its interventions at the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), and appellate courts throughout the country, in cases regarding “substantive” gender equality rights in Canada. However LEAF’s specialized, legal expertise produces high quality research that has influenced policy reform across health, social and justice systems. In this way, since its founding in 1985, LEAF has stopped discrimination not only through interventions in the courts but also through the production of many key papers and submissions. Each contains research and analysis on a topic, or topics, pertinent to equality rights.
LEAF’s expertise and case history is used by legislators, policy makers, and organizations as a catalyst for change and as a resource in the development and reform of laws and policies. Our litigators and researchers are frequently called upon to offer expertise in policy areas such as social benefits, criminal justice, reproductive rights, and violence against women – nationally and internationally.
