Ultra Vires Volume 23, Issue 3 - November 2021 by Ultra Vires

ULTRAVIRES.CA

November 25, 2021

VOL. 23 ISS. 3

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO FACULTY OF LAW

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE ADVICE AHEAD OF THE UPCOMING EXAM PERIOD PAGE 23

RIGHTS REVIEW PAGE 27

ILLUSTRATION BY JENNIFER SUN

THERE'S NO SHORTCUTS FOR MENTAL HEALTH PAGE 30

2 | November 25, 2021

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UV INDEX NEWS 84 Queen’s Park Crescent Toronto, ON M5S 2C5 Ultra Vires is the independent student newspaper of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. We provide a forum for diverse viewpoints on topics of interest to our readers. We aim to foster dialogue on academic and social issues between students, the faculty, and the broader legal community in Toronto, Ontario, and Canada. Our content does not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board. We print six issues per year. Ultra Vires is printed by Master Web Inc. EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Sabrina Macklai & Annecy Pang BUSINESS MANAGER Griff in Murphy NEWS EDITOR Tom Russell ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS Nicolas Williams & Aliya Hemani FEATURES EDITORS Natasha Burman & Rebecca Rosenberg ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITORS Jeffrey Liu & Hye-seon Jung OPINIONS EDITOR Mithushan Kirubananthan ASSOCIATE OPINIONS EDITORS Vivienne Stern & Stephen Mapplebeck DIVERSIONS EDITOR Harry Myles

Julius Alexander Isaac Moot Hits Close to Home

JD Application Numbers Soar Despite Pandemic

Towards a Climate-Positive Campus

SLS Hal-law-week Rundown

Why I Did Not Participate in the 2L Recruit

Movement Lawyering: Which Side Are You On?

Dual Licensing in Ontario and New York

FEATURES Advice Ahead of the Upcoming Exam Period

Essential Listening: PBSC’s Indigenous Human Rights Podcast

Graduate Students to Join JD Clubs

Sparkling Wine: More Than Just Champagne!

Smart Cities and Public Digital Rights in the Era of COVID-19

Toronto’s Best Brews for Escaping the Winter Blues

Concerns with Living and Working Conditions at Chestnut Student Residence

Winter Cocktails for Any Occasion

Ryan’s Movie Corner

R v Morris: A Step in the Right Direction?

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL On the Annual Recruit Special

RIGHTS REVIEW

Toronto 2022 2L Summer Recruitment Numbers

A Letter from the Editorial Board

In their Own Words: 2022 Toronto Recruit Comments

Factors Associated with Success in the 2022 Toronto Recruit

The Neglected Field of Remedies for Human Rights Violations

Vancouver 2022 2L Summer Recruitment Numbers

Hunger, Torture Threaten Tigrayans

Calgary 2022 2L Summer Recruitment Numbers

LSO Procedures? More like Poorly Followed Guidelines

Why I Restarted Counselling Before the 2L Recruit

Reflections on the Virtual Recruit

Class of 2023 Demographic Survey Results

Ottawa 2022 Intellectual Property Summer Recruit Numbers

Reflections on the Ottawa IP Recruit

So You Want to Work for the Ontario Government?

Totally Real Exam Questions

Mitigating the Toxicity of an OCI-Focused Culture

Ultra Vires Presents: 'Tis the Damn Season

Continuing the Job Hunt After the Toronto 2L Recruit

Intra Vires

OPINIONS Hard Times for Soft Copies

Headnotes Bulletin, I Miss You

Reading Week in Review

There's No Shortcuts for Mental Health

DIVERSIONS

ASSOCIATE DIVERSIONS EDITOR Fievel Lim RECRUIT EDITOR Angela Feng RECRUIT REPORTER Hussein E. E. Fawzy PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jennifer Sun PHOTOGRAPHERS Jacqueline Huang, Shae Rothery, &

Why did you choose McMillan? I started my career at McMillan as an articling student. I was attracted by the Firm’s commitment to excellence, client service and its people. Inclusion and diversity are essential elements of the Firm’s culture and core values, and McMillan is a place where you can bring your full self to work, as I do every day.

Thomas Alexander COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Jasveen Singh

John Clifford

LAYOUT EDITOR Alexandra Fox

This is our last issue of 2021! We w ill be tak ing a short break and returning w ith a new issue at the end of Januar y. In the meantime, if you have any comments or are look ing for ways to get involved w ith U V, you can always reach us at editor@ultrav ires.ca.

ADVERTISING If you are interested in advertising, please email us at business@ultravires.ca ERRORS If you notice any errors, please email us at editor@ultravires.ca. SUBMISSIONS please email us at editor@ultravires.ca.

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for —U V’s annual recruit special is here! Containing 2L hir ing numbers, sur vey results, ref lections, feedback, alternatives to the recruit, and more, this issue is jam-packed w ith ever ything you could want to know about secur ing employment as a law student. With exam season k ick ing into full gear, this issue also includes adv ice from professors, commentar y on archaic exam practices, and totally real practice questions. We also have two, completely unrelated pages on your alcoholic beverage of choice. You're welcome.

Partner, M&A | Head, Business Law Group Co-Chair, Inclusion & Diversity Committee

SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATORS Kaitlyn Nelson & Elaine Cheng

If you would like to submit a tip, letter, or an article,

EDITORS' NOTE

2017 - 2021 Take the lead in your career.

Ultra Vires reserves the right to edit submissions.

Good luck w ith f inals and see you in the New Year! Sabrina Macklai & Annecy Pang Co-Editors-in-Chief, Ultra Vires

NEWS

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November 25, 2021 | 3

Julius Alexander Isaac Moot Hits Close to Home Moot problem based on the CJC’s decision not to sanction Justice Spiro TOM RUSSELL (2L) The Julius Alexander Isaac Moot topic was announced on November 12. This year’s topic will cover the extant judicial review of the Canadian Judicial Council’s (CJC) decision not to sanction Justice David Spiro after his intervention in the Faculty of Law’s hiring of Dr. Valentina Azarova as director of the International Human Rights Program

due to her scholarship “examining the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.” Since 2008, the Black Law Students’ Association of Canada has held annual competitive moots designed to focus on issues of diversity and equity in different areas of law. Mooters will not only be preparing an argument based in doctrine (e.g., jurisprudence

and statutes), but will also be tackling an argument based in theory. For their theoretical arguments, competitors are asked to engage with critical race scholarship, and will be scrutinized based on their insights about race and law within the context of furthering their side’s position. At the end of the materials given out to competitors, Lincoln Alexan-

der School of Law Professor Joshua SealyHarrington notes that while the structure of this moot may cause participants some discomfort, it is necessary to engage with critical theoretical thought and creativity to develop deeper insights into racial hierarchy and advance Canada’s racial discourse in law.

JD Application Numbers Soar Despite Pandemic Faculty Council discusses new partnerships, graduate programs, and JD admissions MEAZA DAMTE (2L) On October 27, the Facult y Council met for the second time this academic year. The Facult y Council is the law school’s governing body, chaired by Dean Jutta Brunnée. It counts facult y, staf f, and student representatives among its membership, and makes policy decisions at U of T Law. Proposal to Launch Dual LLB/LLM with Universidad Torcuato Di Tella A ssistant Dean Emily Orchard and A ssociate Dean Malcolm Thorburn proposed launching a dual L L B/L L M program w ith the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in A rgentina. This w ill be the second dual degree available to students in U of T Law’s graduate program, the f irst being a partnership w ith the National Universit y of Singapore. Universidad Torcuato Di Tella is the f irst law school in Latin A mer ica to follow the North A mer ican model of legal education. It was descr ibed by A ssociate Dean Thorburn as one of the most “ intellectually dynamic law schools in South A mer ica.” The proposed partnership would see top Universidad Torcuato Di Tella L L B candidates apply through the reg ular graduate admissions committee and complete all Universit y of Toronto L L M requirements. The target for the 2022-2023 academic year is to admit two students. Dur ing question per iod, A ssistant Dean Sara Fahert y conf irmed that an L L B is f ive years in leng th and not a second entr y pro-

gram. That is, students in the dual degree program w ill have not completed an undergraduate program. Professor A r iel Katz expressed concerns about hav ing insuf f icient information about the universit y and requested additional time to rev iew the proposal, g iven that it was only made available that same day. However, the vote proceeded as planned and the motion was carr ied w ith none opposed and one abstention ( Prof. A . Katz). Proposal to Close GPLLM: Law of Leadership Concentration Since 2017, the Facult y’s graduate program has approved four new concentrations. Prev iously, the Business Law concentration was the only available option. Due to low enrolment numbers, A ssistant Dean Orchard proposed closing the Law of Leadership concentration, launched in 2018. The motion was carr ied w ith none opposed and no abstentions. SLS Updates Students’ Law Societ y (SLS) President Willem Cr ispen-Frei (3L) updated the Council on upcoming social events run by the SLS, which included the now past Hallaw-week and a rescheduled semi-formal event. Additionally, Cr ispen-Frei thanked Student Programs Coordinator A nn Vuletin for her work on SE AT and E AT forms. GLSA Updates Newly elected Graduate Law Students’ A s-

sociation (GLSA) President Sara Maadanisani updated the Council on executive committee elections. A s of October 27, one position remained unf illed w ith an election forthcoming. Maadanisani raised three concerns on behalf of graduate students. First, important communication from the Facult y, including information about scholarships and summer positions, was not being received in a timely manner. Second, the lack of a specif ic career counselor for graduate students has placed many in troubling positions. Last ly, Maadanisani expressed that graduate students w ish to see Goodmans L L P Café open for business. JD Admission Report Professor Benjamin A lar ie presented the J D Admissions Report for the f irst-year class as of September 1, 2021. There are 215 reg istered students. The total number of applications rose 28 percent, mak ing the 2814 applications received the highest number in modern histor y. However, the of fer rate remained consistent at 12.8 percent. The 1L class is particularly strong, w ith both the median LSAT score (168) and median GPA (3.88) r ising slight ly as compared to prev ious years. This year’s 1L class has a record high number of Indigenous students (12), indicating that the Facult y is mak ing meaning ful progress in Indigenous recruitment ef forts. There were six Black f irst year students admitted through the Black Student Application Process ( BSA P). Additionally, 42 per-

cent of the class identify as a person of colour or v isible minor it y, slight ly higher than the prev ious year’s 37 percent. 3L Student L ife and Academic Representative Jamie Corbett (3L) expressed concern that the number of mature students over 30 was ver y small (9). Professor Jim Phillips agreed that the lower number was not ideal and expressed the v iew that high tuition fees deter people over 30 from apply ing so as to avoid tak ing on signif icant levels of debt in relation to their age. Professor Mohammad Fadel expressed concern regarding the year over year decline in the percentage of male students in the class (33 percent). Professor A larie noted that 57 percent of the applicant pool was female, with the remaining applicants stating they were male or declining to identify. While the of fer and registration rates are somewhat more balanced than the applicant pool, this appears to be a broader trend consistent across law schools. The ef fectiveness of BSA P was broached anonymously v ia Zoom’s Q& A function. The prev ious application cycle attracted 7 Black identify ing students, before BSA P was launched. Professor A lar ie noted that COV I D -19 has made outreach dif f icult but that this is the beg inning of a process that is “a long-term investment about our openness as a communit y for Black-identify ing law students.” The next Facult y Council ( November 24) is the budget meeting.

Towards a Climate-Positive Campus President Meric Gertler announced university’s plans to divest from fossil fuels TOM RUSSELL (2L) On October 27, University of Toronto President Meric Gertler announced three new measures to be taken by the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation ( UTA M ) to divest from fossil fuels and work towards achieving a net zero carbon emission campus. The UTA M is responsible for managing U of T’s pension, endowment, and other f inancial assets. The measures are set out as follows.

Firstly, the UTAM will divest from all direct investments in fossil fuel companies in the U of T endowment fund within the next 12 months. The UTAM plans to divest from all indirect investments in fossil fuel companies—investments in pooled and commingled vehicles managed by third parties—before the end of the decade. Secondly, the U TA M has joined as a member of the United Nations-convened

Net-Zero Asset Owner A lliance. This alliance obliges members to achieve certain targets ever y f ive years, w ith the goal of reaching net zero investment. Under this reg ime, the U TA M plans to reach net zero carbon emissions associated w ith the endowment portfolio by 2050. Finally, the U TA M plans to invest ten percent of the endowment portfolio into sustainable and low-carbon investments

by 2025. The announcement of these changes to U of T’s endowment portfolio are part of a much larger project to achieve net negative emissions on St. George campus by 2050. This initiative incorporates low-carbon standards for new developments on the campus, an overhaul of energy infrastructure, and the development of the geoexchange system under King’s College Circle.

NEWS

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SLS Hal-law-week Rundown Just treats with this year’s Halloween festivities VIVIENNE STERN (1L) Bet ween October 27 and 28 , t he St udent s’ L aw Societ y (SL S) put on “ Ha ll a w - w e e k ”, w h i c h i n c l u d e d s e v e n H a l loween-t hemed event s a nd contest s for l a w s t u d e n t s a t t h e Un i v e r s i t y o f To ronto. T hese event s were i ntended to s t i r u p H a l l o w e e n s p i r i t a n d c h e e r, a n d it seems t hey d id just t hat. O n O c t o b e r 2 7, a s o c i a l l y - d i s t a n c e d v iew i ng of T he Night ma re B efore Chr ist mas was held in t he Moot Cour t R o o m a n d i n t h e Fa l c o n e r S o l a r i u m . A “ F i n d t h e P u m p k i n” v i r t u a l c o n t e s t wa s a l so held where st udent s looked for t he h idden pumpk in emoji on t he SL S website. On October 28 , st udent s ca me t o s c h o o l d r e s s e d i n c o s t u m e a s t h e y a tt e n d e d t h e “ Tr i c k o r Tr e a t M i x e r ” where t hey picked up good ie bags on t he Back L aw n a nd t he law n i n front of Fa l c o n e r H a l l . T h a t e v e n i n g , t h e S L S hosted t he h igh ly-attended and wel lreceived “Ha l loween Par t y” at L ove Ch i ld S oc ia l on Bat hu r st St reet . St udent s showed up i n f u l l cost umes, a nd a photog rapher was present to capt ure t he whole n ight. T he SL S a lso held a v ir t ua l “P ump k i n C a r v i n g C o n t e s t ”, a “10 -Wo r d H o r r o r S t o r y C o n t e s t ”, a n d a “ C o s t u m e C o n t e s t ”. C o n t e s t w i n n e r s w e r e a nnounced on November 8 , w it h Jacq u e l i n e O v s e n e k (1L ) , V i v i a n C h e n g ( 3 L ) , a n d J o s h u a C r a w f o r d (1L ) t a k i n g f i r s t p l a c e , r e s p e c t i v e l y. To a l l t h o s e who par t icipated, we hope it was a blast, and a round of applause to t he w inners.

STUDENTS AT LOVE CHILD SOCIAL. CREDIT: THOMAS ALEXANDER

STUDENTS IN MATCHING COSTUMES. CREDIT: THOMAS ALEXANDER

THE LAW SCHOOL VENDING MACHINES, BEWARE! CREDIT: JACQUELINE HUANG

OUR CO-EIC, SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI), WITH UV’S SPOOKY HALLOWEEN ISSUE. CREDIT: JACQUELINE HUANG

Graduate Students to Join JD Clubs SLS proposal would allow graduate students to participate in JD student clubs SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI) AND NICOLAS WILLIAMS (1L) T he St udent s’ L aw Societ y (SL S) is mov i ng for wa rd w it h a n ag reement w it h t he Facu lt y of L aw to a l low g raduate st udent s to at tend SL S -f unded event s hosted by U of T L aw J D st udent clubs. T here a re approx i mately 130 g raduate st udent s i n t he L L M ( M aster of L aws) prog ra m a nd t he non- execut ive st rea m of t he GPL L M (Globa l P rofessiona l M aster of L aws) prog ra m, who wou ld l i kely w ish to pa r t icipate i n t h is i n it iat ive. SJ D ( Doctor of Jud icia l Science) st udent s may a lso pa r t icipate as at tendees, a lt hough t he SL S has been told it is un l i kely. T he proposed ag reement ca me toget her i n t he SL S St udent a nd Fi na nce Com m ittee (SFC )’s meet i ng on September 29 when A ssist a nt Dea n, Graduate P rog ra ms Em i ly Orcha rd reached out request i ng t hat t h is opt ion be made ava i lable to g raduate st udent s. SL S P resident Wi l lem Cr ispi n-Frei (3L) sha red t hat t he SL S ex-

pect s t h is ag reement to come i nto ef fect t h is yea r. Cr ispi n-Frei sa id t hat, a fter i nter na l d iscussions w it h i n t he SL S E xecut ive a nd SFC as wel l as rev iew i ng i nput from past a nd cur rent club execut ives, “t he overwhel m i ng sent i ment … is t hat t h is pro posa l … ma kes sense as a n easy way to en ha nce t he oppor t un it ies for bu i ld i ng com mun it y w it h i n t he law school.” He added t hat, wh i le responses from t he J D st udent com mun it y were l i m ited, t he feedback received was posit ive, a nd t hat t he ag reement wou ld not i mpose a sig n i fica nt burden on clubs. T he proposa l on ly requ i res clubs to post t hei r event s consis tent ly on t he Facu lt y’s Event s Ca lenda r on eL ega l a nd record at tenda nce by g raduate st udent s. Clubs a re a l ready requ i red to t rack t he number of J D st udent s i n attenda nce i n order to be el ig ible for SL S f und i ng.

The funding framework for this agreement w ill integrate the current method used by the SLS to allocate funds to clubs. Under the current method, J D students do not pay a direct fee to student clubs. Instead, clubs are expected to track the number of students that attend their events, and can then apply to the SLS for funds on a rolling basis, based on attendance. According to the SLS Club Funding Policy (Fall 2021), funding has been approved in the past to cover the costs of pizza, snacks, and prizes at events. SLS funding does not cover costs for speakers, staf f, and/or professional members of the Faculty. I n t hei r 2021-2022 budget, t he SL S has a l located $50 0 0 for club f und i ng per ter m. Pa r t of t h is money is der ived from J D st udent fees — each J D st udent pays a SL S member sh ip fee ($20) as pa r t of t hei r t u it ion. T here a re approx i mately 670 J D a nd combi ned prog ra m st udent s at t he

law school. Under t he proposed fra mework , t he Facu lt y of L aw w i l l t ra nsfer a n i n it ia l $10 0 0 to t he SL S. T he SL S w i l l t hen a llocate t h is f und i ng to clubs t hat apply based on t he nu mber of g raduate st udent s t hat at tend event s. Cr ispi n-Frei st ated t hat a ny f ur t her f und i ng ca n be adjusted based on how h igh g raduate at tenda nce is. T h is f lex ible approach w i l l ensure t hat J D st udent s a re not f und i ng g raduate st udent at tenda nce, nor a re g raduate st udent s subsid i zi ng at tenda nce by J D st udent s. A ssist a nt Dea n Orcha rd pro posed t hat her of f ice is prepa red to cont r ibute a top -up of up to a n add it iona l $10 0 0 i f t here is sig n i f ica nt upt a ke from g raduate st udent s. T hi s ar t i cl e w ill be updat ed online at ultra vires.ca a s we wait on comm e nt s f rom th e GL S A and A ss i st ant D ean O rchard .

NEWS

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Smart Cities and Public Digital Rights in the Era of COVID-19 Privacy and Cybersecurity Law Group discusses how the pandemic has impacted the smart city agenda DONGWOO KIM (1L) AND ISABELLE SAVOIE (2L) On November 10, the Faculty of Law’s student-run Privacy and Cybersecurity Law Group (PCLG) hosted a lunchtime panel conversation on public digital rights and smart cities during the era of COVID-19. Amanda Cutinha (articling student at Miller Thomson LLP and Research Fellow at the Citizen Lab), Ellie Marshall (associate focusing on health-care, privacy, and cybersecurity at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP), and Dr. Brenda McPhail (Director of the Privacy, Technology, and Surveillance program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association) generously shared their expertise and insights. The panel was moderated by Professor Anthony Niblett (Canada Research Chair in Law, Economics, &

Innovation at the Faculty of Law). The panelists agreed that COVID-19 has transformed our approach to data-driven technology at a high level. They also agreed that, as a consequence of a broader and faster rate of digitalization and growing collaboration between governments and Big Tech, there is a need for digital contact tracing. While the panelists acknowledged great developments in both sectors, they expressed concern about “function creep”, the use of data for a purpose that goes beyond the original specified purpose. The group also exchanged their thoughts on the public expectation of privacy and the adequacy—or lack thereof— of existing policy levers for addressing this press-

ing issue. The panelists addressed immediate policy issues such as the need for greater transparency in data and privacy governance, the development of fit-for-purpose privacy legislation, and meaningful enforcement of new technology rules. The conversation highlighted the growing relevance of privacy and cybersecurity in the legal profession with the expansion of the digital world as a new, inescapable public sphere as envisioned by Meta (previously Facebook)’s vision, and with smart city initiatives advanced by local and national governments around the world. The panelists also highlighted the significance of smart cities, particularly in making gover-

nance more efficient via new technologies. However, they expressed concerns about smart cities’ unsavory effects on marginalized populations and the emerging privacy concerns that remain largely unaddressed. They emphasized the importance of ensuring that smart cities are governed democratically, transparently, and in a human-rights centred manner. The PCLG intends to host more events in the future to engage law students who may be interested in the rapidly-evolving space of privacy and cybersecurity. Editor’s Note: Isabella Savoie is Co-President of the PCLG. Dongwoo Kim is the 1L representative for the PCLG.

Concerns with Living and Working Conditions at Chestnut Student Residence Student outlines inadequate heating, mental health support, and emergency medical response equipment ANNECY PANG (3L) A student living in Chestnut Student Residence (Chestnut) shared their concerns with the living and working conditions with Ultra Vires, alleging that the residence has inadequate heating, mental health support, and emergency medical response equipment on-site. Chestnut houses over 1000 students from U of T, of which approximately 75 percent are firstyear undergraduate students. Each floor has a residence don, typically an upper-year student, who is employed by the Residence Life Office to provide support and programming to students. Dons are compensated through room and board, and work overnight on-call three to four times a month. The dons are supervised by Residence Life Coordinators (RLCs), who also live in the building and work full-time to support the residence’s students. The student, who wished to remain anonymous, disclosed that residents between floors 12–20 did not receive heating units until October 21, around the time a resident called 311 to report inadequate temperature control on these floors. The residents later discovered the heating units were primarily marketed for greenhouse use. In a comment to UV, a U of T spokesperson stated that “[Chestnut] is in a three-year plan to replace all the in-room heating and cooling units within the residence” and that delays were due to supply chain disruptions. Instead, they have worked closely with a mechanical engineer

to provide a temporary heating solution, “[deploying] heavier duty, commercial-grade equipment that allows us to provide more heating capacity than would otherwise be possible.” University residences are generally excluded from the Ontario Residential Tenancies Act under section 5(g) or section 7(1)(5). The maintenance standards do not apply, including the regulation that the room temperature must be at least 20 degrees Celsius. Dons and students are unable to seek a remedy before the Landlord and Tenant Board. Shae Rothery (2L), who worked in Residence Services at the University of Calgary, commented that the University should be working with students to find them alternate housing when it gets cold. “We had access to temperature guns and would offer to re-house students temporarily in a vacant unit if the temperature dipped below 19 degrees in the student’s unit.” The student also noted the lack of mental health support available to dons, especially given the heavy topics and difficult situations they would encounter during their work. In response, a U of T spokesperson noted that “when there are incidents in residence of a sensitive nature, we proactively make arrangements for counselling. Counsellors are always provided upon request or direct referrals are made via Health and Wellness.” The student emphasized the insufficiency of these services including long wait times and a limited number of visits.

Rothery noted that the University of Calgary recently implemented changes so students and staff living in residence could access mental health support pathways separate from the main campus. “We wanted to prioritize student mental health, especially in light of the pandemic. In addition to the Community Ambassadors (“CAs”; equivalent to dons in Ontario), we specifically hired a student for each residence as a Wellness CA and provided them with additional training from Student Wellness Services. We also implemented mandatory sexual violence response training for all RLCs and optional training for student staff, and continued to require all staff to be trained in suicidal ideation response. Residence Services is currently hiring a Residence Wellness Coordinator, a professional staff member with a background in social work or a related field, who will provide wellness support to the residence community.” Dons at Chestnut were only permitted guests starting November 5, and these guests must be from other U of T residences. In contrast, RLCs have been permitted guests (and pets) since their move-in in late August. The discrepancy is due to the residence occupancy agreement that dons –who are also students–must sign. RLCs are not held to the terms of the same occupancy agreement because they are full-time staff. This is in spite of RLCs being on contract for six months in comparison to the dons’ eight. On November 19, dons were notified that as of

December 1, they would be allowed guests external to U of T. All guests must be fully vaccinated. The student also indicated their concerns with the available emergency medical response equipment on-site, sharing that there are no automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the building and dons are not permitted to carry naloxone kits or epi-pens while performing onduty rounds in the evenings. Naloxone kits that were added to the on-duty equipment were removed and dons were verbally reprimanded. A U of T spokesperson shared that the administration of naloxone is not an expectation of residence staff; instead, they are trained to call campus safety or 911. Similarly, epi-pens are not standard issue in first-aid kits and “it is not part of the [don] responsibilities to administer this medication.” “When I worked at Residence Services, all of our on-call staff had access to Narcan,” shared Rothery. “There were concerns about student staff carrying needles to inject naloxone, but we thought it would be too much of a liability to not have access, so we pushed the University to let us have the nasal spray instead.” Bill 141, the Ontario Defibrillator Registration and Public Access Act mandates AEDs be installed in premises accessible to the public. It received Royal Assent in June 2020; however, the Act is not yet in force because the Ministry of Health is still developing the necessary regulations.

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

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On the Annual Recruit Special Another year, another recruit SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI) AND ANNECY PANG (3L) Since t he incept ion of U ltra V ires in 1999, we’ve repor ted on resu lts of t he annua l Toronto recr uit for 2L summer st udents. Sim i lar to prev ious years, U of T L aw ran k s f irst for t he percent of t he 2L class h ired t hrough t he recr uit. O ver 50 percent of t he Class of 2023 secured a summer posit ion in Toronto. Of course, t hese numbers are not fu l ly representat ive. Not a l l st udents par t icipate in t he recr uit. At least 37 U of T L aw st udents (around 15 percent of t he 2L class) w i l l be head ing to New York t h is summer, as we repor ted in last mont h’s issue. Some st udents w i l l be ret ur n ing to t heir 1L employers. A nd for ot hers, t he re-

cr uit was never somet h ing t hey w ished to par ta ke in. We recog n ize t hat t he recr uit is often framed as t he be-a l l, end-a l l. L aw st udents face immense pressure to f ind success t hrough t he recr uit, w it h a Bay St reet job considered to be t he ha l lmark of a successfu l lega l career. We’re par t of t he problem. Wit h ever y year we publ ish a recr uit specia l, we reinforce t he idea t hat t he recr uit is core to t he law st udent ex per ience. It’s not. Each year shows t hat we have st udents who d id not land a job in t he recr uit and d id just f ine. T hey found work in academ ia, gover nment, lega l cl in ics, in-house depar t-

ments, bout ique f ir ms, and yes, even back on Bay St reet. We made a conscious ef for t t h is year to sol icit content from st udents who d id not f ind employ ment t hrough t he for ma l recr uit, del iberately or ot her w ise. I n t h is specia l feat ure, you w i l l f ind ref lect ions from upper years who found jobs outside t he recr uit, why a st udent opted out ent irely, and an ar t icle on a lter nat ive career pat hs includ ing movement law yer ing. T h is is in add it ion to our annua l recr uit content: t he long-awa ited Toronto recr uit numbers, anony m ized feedback on t he recr uit from our st udents, demog raph ic data, and more.

T h is recr uit specia l wou ld not be possible w it hout t he suppor t of our ent ire U V Volume 23 team. Specia l t han k s to A ngela Feng (2L) and Hussein E . E . Fawzy (2L) for spearhead ing t he recr uit sur veys and data cr unch ing, and to Jenn ifer Sun (2L) for her gorgeous g raph ics and cover ar t. T han k you a lso to t he employers t hat responded to our requests and showed t heir suppor t for law st udent jour na l ism. Fina l ly, t han k you to a l l t he st udents who par t icipated in our data col lect ion—t han k you for your honest y and rel iv ing what we k now is a t iring and st ressfu l process. No matter t he outcome, we’re so proud of you.

Toronto Summer 2022 2L Recruit Numbers

Upward trend in student hiring, U of T and Osgoode continue to lead the pack, and Lincoln Alexander secures five percent of total positions

HUSSEIN E.E. FAWZY (2L), ANGELA FENG (2L), SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI) , AND ANNECY PANG (3L) Demand for st udents cont inues to r ise despite t he ongoing pandem ic. T he 2022 annua l Toronto Recr uit saw a f ive percent increase in t he tota l number of st udents h ired. T h is upt ick in h ir ing is consistent w it h t he upward t rend seen in recent years. T he number of st udents h ired rose by 3 percent from 2018 (433 tota l st udents) to 2019 (4 4 4 tota l st udents) and by 8 percent from 2019 to 2020 (478 tota l st udents). T h is year was a lso t he 2L recr uit debut of L incoln A lexander School of L aw ( Ryerson). L incoln A lexander st udents made up f ive percent of t he tota l st udents h ired and 18 percent of t he 2L L incoln A lexander class secured posit ions dur ing t h is recr uit cycle. On par w it h t he increase in h ir ing, severa l fu l l ser v ice Bay St reet f ir ms recr uited a notably larger summer class t h is year compared to 2021. Wit h 42 st udents in its 2022 summer class, Bla kes h ired an add iFirm

t iona l 10 st udents. Cassels fol lowed w it h an eight st udent increase (24 vs 16 st udents). BLG and McCar t hys h ired seven more st udents each (30 vs 23 st udents and 32 vs 25 st udents, respect ively) wh i le Good mans h ired f ive more (15 vs 10 st udents). T he st rong relat ionsh ip bet ween U of T L aw and Bla kes cont inues from prev ious years w it h Bla kes h ir ing a whopping 16 of our 2L s st udents! Osler comes in second w it h 10 U of T h ires. T h is year, U V added t wo new data points: t he number of OCI and in-f ir m inter v iews employers conducted. I n an effor t towards more t ransparency and infor med decision-ma k ing, we hope t h is add it iona l infor mat ion w i l l prov ide st udents w it h a clearer pict ure on how t he recr uit process work s. W h i le t h is data can be used to prov ide mean ing fu l insights, it can a lso be m isconst r ued in ways t hat can elevate an x i-

Number of Students Total Summer Number of Students who Attended In-Firm Students who Attended OCIs Interviews Hired

t ion, a st udent’s chance of conver t ing t heir appl icat ion to an OCI is a lso dependent on t he number of st udents a f ir m decides to inter v iew at t heir part icu lar school. For example, OCIs r un for t wo days at U of T and Osgoode Ha l l, as opposed to ot her schools. T he var iance in t he number of OCIs conducted at each school may impact t he chances of st udents proceed ing into t he in-f ir m stage as wel l.

et y. We have out l ined some of t he l im itat ions of t h is data and var iables not accounted for in t he table, to avoid m islead ing conclusions: 1. It is common for employers to of fer more OCIs and in-f ir ms relat ive to f ina l of fers because employers are aware t hat st udents inter v iew w it h many pro spect ive employers. 2. Fir ms a lso tend to inter v iew more cand idates t han posit ions ava i lable in ant icipat ion t hat some st udents w i l l decl ine t heir of fers. 3. T he number of st udents inter v iewed var ies by law school. T he table includes t he total number of OCI and inf ir m inter v iews conducted for t he ent ire recr uit process. W h i le t he total number of OCIs a f ir m conducts may g ive t he impression of h igh compet i-

Returning Summer Students

U of T

Osgoode

Queen's Western

4. Some of t he OCI and in-f ir m numbers in t he table are approx imat ions. We a lso note t hat, in ca lcu lat ing t he percent of 2L s h ired per school, we took t he approx imate class sizes of Ontar io law schools from OL SA S. We ack nowledge t here may be var iat ions of t h is data pro v ided by L SAC , wh ich we used for out- ofOntar io schools.

Lincoln Alexander (Ryerson)

Ottawa

Windsor

McGill Dalhousie

Other

JD/ MBA

Aird & Berlis LLP

180

Baker McKenzie

116

UNB - 1; NCA - 1

Beard Winter LLP

Did not disclose

Bennett Jones LLP Bereskin & Parr LLP Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

50-70

15-25

289

NCA - 2; UNB -2

NCA - 2

Did not respond by date of publication

Bogoroch & Associates LLP

Did not disclose

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

255

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Deeth Williams Wall LLP

Did not disclose

Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP Dale & Lessmann LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Cavalluzzo LLP Crawford Chondon & Partners LLP (CCPartners)

Did not respond by date of publication

Brauti Thorning LLP Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

Did not disclose Did not participate in OCI

UNB - 1; UBC - 1; NCA - 1

Derstine Penman

Did not respond by date of publication

Department of Justice

Did not respond by date of publication

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

289

Did not disclose

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

255

ultravires.ca

Crawford Chondon & Partners LLP (CCPartners) Crawley MacKewn Brush LLP Dale & Lessmann LLP Firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Aird &Williams Berlis LLP Deeth Wall LLP Baker McKenzie Derstine Penman Beard Winter LLP Department of Justice Bennett Jones LLPLLP Dickinson Wright

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL -

Epstein Cole LLP Bogoroch & Associates LLP Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Filion Wakely Thorup Angeletti LLP Financial Services Regulatory Authority Brauti Thorning LLP of Ontario (FSRA) Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP Fogler, Rubinoff Cavalluzzo LLP LLP Gardiner Roberts LLP Crawford Chondon & Partners LLP

Did not 180 participate in OCI 116

50 9 17

NCA - 2; UNB -2

Ottawa

Windsor

Filion Wakely Angeletti LLP Koskie MinskyThorup LLP Financial Services KPMG Law LLP Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) Lax O'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP Fogler, Rubinoff LLP Lenczner Slaght LLP Gardiner Roberts LLP Littler LLP Gilbert’s LLP MAG, Crown Law Office - Criminal Glaholt Bowles LLP MAG, Family Responsibility Office Goldblatt Partners LLP MAG, Ministry of Labour Mathews, Dinsdale & Clark LLP Goodmans LLP McCague Borlack LLP

McLeish OrlandoLLP LLP Green & Spiegel

1 JD

6 -

2312 1 Did not respond by date of publication Did not respond by date of publication 26 2 1 1

26 3

1115

21 30 4

3 2 -

91 40 - 50

24 6

120

Did not disclose Did not disclose

255 160

- U of T -

2Osgoode -

2 JD/ MBA

5 JD

Lincoln Alexander Queen's Western (Ryerson)

JD/ MBA

4 -

2 6 2

1 -

2 -

Did not respond by date of publication Did not respond by date of publication 5 1 2 4 2 not respond - date of - publication 1 Did by Did not respond by date of publication 2 -

4 1

3 -

2 -

UNB - 1; - -1 NCA --

2 5 -

1 2 -

2 3 -

3 2 -

1 3 -

1 2 -

- UNB NCA - 2; --2

3 2

2 1

2 -

1 -

2 -

NCA - 2 -

1 -

-1

22 13

2 4

2 2

200 Did not disclose 70

15 17

4 1

3 5

3 2

2 -

UNB - 1; UBC1 - 1; UNCA of C -- 11;

15 1

2 -

3 1

2 -

-1

-1 2 2

1 1

1 -

-1 --

2--

3 --

-1 --

---

Did not respond by date of publication Did not not respond respond by by date date of of publication publication Did

Did not 140 participate in OCI 154 131

45 120 65

30 10 50 36

31 8 8

Did not disclose 12 35 27

21 2 4 5

3 --

-1 1-1 3 1 2 not respond - date of - publication 3 Did by

Participated butrespond did not hire students from the recruit Did not by date of publication 24 21 12 2 1 2 2

40 160 204

11 40 - 50 49

2 6 12

20 40 17 17 13

3 7 3 2 4 3

23 70

4 15 5

4 -

31 3

15 32

1 3

1 9

101 100 35 114 Did not participate in OCI Did not disclose 82 200

Did not disclose

72 25

Did not disclose Did not participate 10 in230 OCI 68

12 1 16

131 18

Did not disclose 36 4

16 8 1

1 not respond 2 date of - publication Did by 1 1 2 1 5 1 2 Did not respond by date of publication Declined to participate in the survey 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 21 -

1 1

1 -1

1 1 1-

1 2 -

3 1

1 2 -

2 2 1

2 1

3 2

2 5

1 4

2 2

1 -

NCA - 1 -

1 2 -

11 -

-1

- not respond 1 date of - publication 1 Did by 4 2

3 1

1 -

1 4

4 -22 2 2 3 Did not respond by date of publication Did not respond by date of publication 1 Did not respond by date of publication 2 1 2 10 6 4 1 2 21 -1 -1--

1 2 --

204 17

49 8

12 3

Polley Crown Faith LLP MAG, Law Office - Criminal

100

Did not disclose 40

3 7

PublicFamily Prosecution Service ofOffice Canada MAG, Responsibility

114

Did not disclose

6 2

Did not disclose

Did not disclose 23

1 4

Did not disclose

Did by - not respond 3 date of - publication 1

6 -

Did not respond by date of publication 39 -1 --1

Rae Christen Jeffries LLP MAG, Ministry of Labour 82

Rowand McCagueLLP Borlack LLP 305 65 4

Did not disclose 72

Did not disclose

32 1

25 4

3 1 12

1 --

2 1 --

3 1 --

-1

1 -1

5 1 2 2 1 Declined to participate in the survey

1 -

-1

2 -

-1

Did by 1 not respond 1 date of - publication -

Did not respond by date of publication 1 1 4 3 1 Did by 2 not respond 1 date of - publication 4

41 18 297

Did not disclose 30 4 84

16 3 1 30

111

160 236 102 100

37 85 24 18

3 30 1 5

1 -

171 17 168

51 8 43

19 3 9 3

5 1 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 2 not respond - date of - publication Did by

6 5

-43 -

3---21 Did not 113 respond by date 111 of publication 52

Did not disclose

511 1

Did not disclose

Ridout & Maybee LLP

Did not disclose 48

-1

U of -C - 1; UNB - 1; American NCA - 1; University Manitoba WCL - 1 - 1

3 1 --

230

143

American University WCL - 1

2 1

Polley Faith LLP Employment Lawyers Whitten & Lublin Public Prosecution of Canada Wildeboer Dellelce Service LLP Rae Jeffries LLP 2021Christen Total

(Etobicoke) Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP Torys LLP Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP WeirFoulds LLP

3 1 -

5 30 6 5 2

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp Torkin Manes LLP Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Office Toronto West Crown Attorney's

27 85 33 18 11

Office of the Ontario Stikeman Elliott LLP Ombudsman Ogletree Deakins International LLP Thorsteinssons LLP

Shields O'Donnell MacKillop LLP McLeish Orlando LLP Siskinds LLP McMillan LLP Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Miller LLP Thomson LLP Norton Berlach Rose Fulbright Canada LLP Stieber LLP

3 2

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP McCarthy Tetrault LLP Shearman & Sterling LLP (Toronto)

Other UNB - 1; UBC - 1; NCA - 1

1 3

65 236 80 100 40

Ridout & Maybee Mathews, DinsdaleLLP & Clark LLP

Did not disclose

Garrison LLP Littler LLP

McGill Dalhousie

32 ---11 1 Did by 13 not respond 3 9 date of 3 publication 3 4 Participated butrespond did not hire students from the recruit Did not by date of publication 2 3 2

2 NCA - 2 November 25, 2021 |7

11 20

305

McMillan LLP Heer Law Miller Thomson LLP Hicks Morley HamiltonCanada StewartLLP Storie Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Office of the Ontario Ombudsman Hunter Liberatore Law LLP Ogletree Deakins International LLP Kim Spencer McPhee Barristers P.C. Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp Koskie Minsky LLP Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP KPMG Law LLP Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein Lax LLPO'Sullivan Lisus Gottlieb LLP Lenczner Slaght LLPWharton & Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,

8 5

Did not disclose

Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP McCarthy Tetrault LLP

Did not participate Did not disclose in OCI

Epstein Cole LLP Law LLP Hunter Liberatore Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP Kim Spencer McPhee Barristers P.C.

16 1 5

Did not disclose 30

Did not participate 40 in OCI

Dickinson Heer Law Wright LLP DLA Piper (Canada) LLP Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie Dolden Wallace Folick LLP LLP

Derstine Penman Green & Spiegel LLP Department of Justice

50 15-25

60 101

Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP Deeth Williams Wall LLP

Returning- Summer Students

289

Glaholt Bowles LLPBrush LLP Crawley MacKewn

Goodmans LLP Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

154 50-70

Gilbert’s LLP (CCPartners)

Dale & Lessmann LLP Goldblatt Partners LLP

Did not disclose 2 Number of Students Total Summer Number of 40Students who Attended 22 In-Firm 2 Students who Attended OCIs Interviews Hired Did not disclose 17

140

DLA Piper Bereskin &(Canada) Parr LLPLLP DoldenCassels Wallace LLP Blake, & Folick Graydon LLP

4 1 -

2 --

5 -

4 -

-1

1 2

1 -

NCA - 1

2 -

2 1 2

2-1

2 -4

-1 4

-1-

--1

- -1 Bond --

4 1 -

1 3 -

1 1 -

1 2 -

3 -

1 1

3 1 -

1 -

1 1 1

1 -

3 -

Montreal - 1; UBC - 1 NCA - 2 -

6 8 Did Did not not respond respond by by date date of of publication publication Did by - not respond - date of - publication 1

2 -

UNB - 1; NCA - - 1; Manitoba - 1

-1

2 1

62 -

27 -

41 -

46 -

19 -

17 -

23 -

Bond - 1

170

*Note: t wo f ir m s Did mentioned that 4 and 5 students were in combined-degree program s but did not specif y which school . not respond by date of publication

Rowand LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Samfiru Tumarkin LLP Shearman & Sterling LLP (Toronto)

Siskinds LLP

Summer Skadden,Total Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Students Hired

Stieber Berlach LLP

Stikeman Elliott LLP

Returning Summer Students

297

160

102

JD/ MBA U of T 3

Whitten & Lublin Employment Lawyers

U of T 5 511

101

2Lincoln 4

Did not respond by date of publication -

208 25%

Osgoode -

Queens Western

38%

6 -

290

Queen's Western Lincoln Alexander (Ryerson)

5 77 %19employers responding

Total Summer Students 143 48

Did not respond by date of publication

53%

171 51 Total participating employers

JD/ MBA Osgoode -

% of students with positions secured from recruit 168

212

WeirFoulds LLP

Osgoode

Approximate class size

Toronto West Crown Attorney's Office (Etobicoke)

U of T

Thorsteinssons LLP Torkin Manes LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Shields O'Donnell MacKillop LLP

2021 Total

Did not respond by date of publication

Cavalluzzo LLP

Year of Recruit Wildeboer Dellelce LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Brauti Thorning LLP

Torys LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Bogoroch & Associates LLP

Alexander 1 (Ryerson)

190 33%

150 18%

1 -

Windsor

255

280 15%

Ottawa -

18%

McGill Dalhousie

McGill Dalhousie 182 10%

10%

75% 1

NCA - 2

Queen's 2 Western -

113

Windsor

Montreal - 1; UBC - 1

Did not respond by date of publication Lincoln -

Ottawa

Ottawa 1 41

Windsor 1 46

McGill Dalhousie 19

2022

503

101

2021

478

2019

444

102

2018

433

111

Alexander 1 (Ryerson)

2017

428

110

2016

375

2015

420

106

Editor's Note: We will update our online spreadsheet at ultravires.ca to ref lect any f urther infor mation provided f rom e mployers af ter the time of publication .

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

8 | November 25, 2021

ultravires.ca

In Their Own Words: 2022 Toronto Recruit Comments The Class of 2023 reflects and provides feedback on the 2L recruit ANGELA FENG (2L) AND SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI) Every year, Ultra Vires conducts an anonymous survey of the 2L class about the Toronto Recruit. We have summarized their responses to the longform questions below. Thank you to everyone who shared their responses. This year, of the 130 students who responded to our survey, 82 percent participated in the recruit. Students who did not participate indicated that they pursued/accepted a legal job in a different market, returned to a 1L employer, or were uninterested by the participating employers. Do you have any comments on the CDO's services during the recruitment process?

• •

•

“Very supportive and helpful, pretty punctual, the resource library had awesome documents.”

•

“Fabulous, everyone is very approachable. My application materials improved a lot because of their comments.”

“In the context of government, networking is not very important. I ended up getting two offers each from government employers I did not network with. It is good to get to know more about a certain office, but that is only if you feel comfortable doing it. I hated networking!”

•

“I hate that networking is so important, it favours people who have more time because they have less to worry about, and those who are already in the sphere of lawyerness.”

However, many expressed dissatisfaction with the focus on corporate careers:

•

“What a fucking waste of time!”

•

Many students advised next year’s applicants to begin the process early and be selective with how they network, as the process is extremely time consuming:

• •

“More consideration should be given to students who have not applied to large firms at all. For example, when speaking generally at the info session sometimes it was unclear if certain advice was only applicable to large or medium firms, but not to government or certain boutique firms.” “The CDO's programming was tailored specifically to Bay St employers, which I was not interested in.”

•

“Good luck balancing work and networking in the summer. August is hellish. The networking is basically a second job–one that has no guarantee of payoff either.”

•

“If you do network, use it as an opportunity to develop a convincing answer for "why this firm" instead of treating it as a transaction where you're simply giving up some of your time in exchange for a name you can drop.”

“They should update their government guide and ask students to volunteer their help!”

Although the majority of students supported the CDO, there were concerns:

•

“Coffee chats > firm tours.”

•

“Very helpful but hard to get an appointment, please hire more CDO staff to help them out!”

Do you have any comments on the virtual events? An overwhelming number of students expressed disdain:

• •

“Lacklustre, sometimes outright bad advice.”

•

“They scared me more than they helped sometimes.”

Do you have any comments on networking? Some thought networking was essential for signalling interest and distinguishing firms. Others noted that while their usefulness in securing a job may be limited, networking helped them be more prepared and confident for interviews:

•

“I networked significantly with my ultimate employer.”

derstand a firm’s culture virtually:

•

“I don't think it helped me get any extra OCIs. I do feel I was able to learn more about the firm and eloquently talk about the firm in interviews because of the networking I did.”

Others criticised networking, considering it a waste of time with no impact on their recruit success or a poor practice that unjustifiably favours those with more time:

Students generally had positive interactions with the Career Development Office (CDO):

•

“Do it! Leaving a great first impression with recruiters through networking is very helpful, and they're usually happy to chat with you.”

“They are terrible. No one wants to see the people they are competing with and have to make small talk with others. It pits you against each other and encourages competitive behaviour. Nothing of value is achieved at these events.”

•

“Do not do them. Nobody enjoys them because they tend to just be another portal for the employers to judge you.”

•

“Pointless. Felt like a chore. Did not give me much insight. Did not feel like they impacted the offers I received.” Others enjoyed the opportunity to better un-

•

“They're 100% better than in-person ones! I imagine if it were in person students need to look out for "open circles" to join, now there were just break out rooms and nobody would have to worry about standing in the corner alone or fighting for lawyer's attention. It's more fair for students not from the privileged social class.” “Genuinely decent opportunities to assess firm culture. I went to two interesting and engaging events that left me feeling better informed about the culture at these firms, the lawyers at a third event had the charisma of a damp rag–this was also very informative.”

When it came to the impact of virtual event attendance on offers extended, student experiences varied:

•

“After declining an initiation to a virtual event in the most gracious way I could from [a firm], I was not invited back for a second interview. While I can't definitively say that my rejection of the event invite was dispositive, I have heard of this happening in the past.”

•

“I felt pressure and received calls from recruiters telling me I was a top candidate and then asking if I had anything to tell them about where they ranked and when I refused to offer first choice language to them they did not extend an offer even though they indicated they would.” “I had a cold call from a partner at one of the firms I was interviewing at, fishing for first choice language. When I didn’t give it, said partner pushed me to disclose the names of the other firms I was meeting with and then proceeded to talk badly about those firms– and even gave me negative information that I knew to be inaccurate.” “One firm asked me to disclose which other firms I was interviewing with. The firm also

“One firm had their managing partner come into the Zoom and he directly asked me how much my interest was in the firm after an interview. I was honest in saying that I was interviewing with a few other firms, and the managing partner cut me off with a “gotcha” and left the call. “

Some students received questions that were too personal:

•

“A government OCI had a question about "facing adversity" that made me uncomfortable. It felt too deep and personal a question for an OCI. At the time it seemed my options were to either give a surface level response that did not really address the question or to answer honestly by discussing personal struggles I would have preferred not to disclose to a potential employer at that stage.”

•

“I'd included a brief addendum to my transcript discussing my experiences going through 1L after having lost a close family member. While I was genuinely touched by several firms which very kindly expressed condolences throughout the process, in a few OCIs it became the predominant topic of discussion, which left me feeling pretty uncomfortable”

“There were virtual events?”

Did any employers ask you inappropriate questions or make you feel uncomfortable? Out of 130 respondents, 18 students responded to this question. More students reported they did not receive uncomfortable questions from employers compared to last year (75 percent vs 71 percent). Generally, uncomfortable situations arose when employers aggressively gauged the student’s interest in the firm while seeking first choice language or probed students to disclose their other prospects:

•

scheduled me for a 30-minute Wednesday interview, which they did not show up to. After I emailed to inquire about rescheduling the interview to later in the afternoon, the firm told me via email that I was cut from their list of candidates.”

And a student’s commitment to BigLaw was questioned:

•

“Got told I wasn't "passionate about corporate". I'm sorry but how do you prove to someone you're interested in "capital markets"? What the hell even is a capital market?”

What did you not want your interviewers to know about you? Amongst many concerns regarding their prospects, a large portion of students worried they appeared too public-interest oriented for a full service firm:

•

“For Bay Street, that I was social justice oriented. For progressive firms, that I was applying/considering Bay Street.”

•

“Elements of my CV were gently exaggerated.”

•

“I had a clear top choice by the end of Day 1.”

•

“They were my only interview.”

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

ultravires.ca

The other categorized of concern included personal details such as material status, politics, and mental health:

• • • •

•

“That I care about diversity.” “That I have mental health issues.” “That I have children.” “That I have a long-term partner. I’m always worried that they’ll think I’ll need to go on maternity leave at some point, and consider me less because of it.” “That I don't give a crap about capital markets. I'm also not a huge fan of defending oil companies in a global climate crisis but to each their own.”

Are you satisfied with the outcome of the recruitment process?

Given the increase in the number of U of T students hired this year, many were happy with their results:

•

“I fell in love with a firm early in the process and had that love reciprocated. Genuinely excited to be starting my career with them next summer!” “Relieved to get a job at a good firm. Disappointed that I couldn't get my first choice–all the rejections at every stage of the process sting - but I realize I'm in a fortunate position so trying to stay grateful for what I got.” “I came out of [the recruit] with a clearer sense of direction, and I'm looking forward to getting started on the path I've chosen.”

Even students who received offers had reservations about the process:

•

“Satisfied because I received an offer but unsatisfied because I felt terrible about myself throughout the process for no reason, so many decisions are arbitrary and have nothing to do with a person as a candidate.”

they don't have to wait until Wednesday evening.”

•

We received a range of thoughts on the recruit’s length:

•

• •

•

“Wasted my summer and time doing this ridiculous process, constantly being asked about how it was going by other students made me feel like garbage and I honestly considered just quitting. I’d rather not have done it and maintained a shred of my selfesteem.”

•

“I didn't get an offer lol.”

“Call day and offer day should all be done through some electronic matching and ranking system the way that some schools run their Co-Op programs. The way the calls come in and the politics of scheduling, holding offers etc. causes unnecessary stress for students.” “If the employer decides to give out an offer,

“I wish in-firm interview times were randomly assigned. Some firms read way more into the time of your interview than others ("we're booked for 2:00? This candidate must not be that interested"), and it's extremely stupid.” “Take the emphasis off first choice! Put in a ranking system so firms feel they can extend offers without knowing for sure what a student is thinking.” “First choice language is the biggest BS that exists. At least firms should be transparent about whether they care about first choice language”

“The entire culture around the recruit is suffocating. It’s really irritating to hear people talk about what jobs they got and who they’re working for. I’m not just saying this because I fucked up the recruit. Rather, real Gs move in silence. The simple fact that the recruit process leads friends and classmates to needle each other or brag about where they’re interviewing is indicative of a serious flaw in the process - there should be a confidentiality component to the recruit to stop students from getting too big for their britches.”

Do you have any comments on the LSO Recruitment Procedures? A majority of students urged for a systemic overhaul to better serve the interests of students:

“The sentiments surrounding the recruit, perpetuated by the CDO and the Law School faculty and students, is that it's a necessary part of our law school experience, when it's just a niche job fair.”

What, if anything, would you change about the recruitment process? In addition to the general dislike towards how the recruit process is structured as a whole, students made recommendations for improving specific recruit practices:

“Would've been nice if the whole process went by faster than taking up basically the whole semester.”

Others call for a culture shift:

“I got an offer at a big firm, and I'm happy about it, but definitely feel like I may have caved to pressure in doing so.”

“If I knew my race was going to be such a barrier to employment then I wouldn’t have bothered going to law school. I can be unemployed for much cheaper. I now deeply regret my decision to attend UofT Law.”

“Shouldn't be just a week. It's literally an all or nothing. Sick? Doesn't matter. Family crisis? Who cares. There's no accommodation.”

•

“It’s quite apparent that the LSO should seriously consider changing the structure of the recruit to mirror some of the features of the New York recruit, particularly regarding infirms (e.g., no multiple in-firm interview days, no pre-offer social events, no dedicated offer day and time, a longer period for the firm to hold an offer and for the offeree to respond (and allowing for “second looks” by offerees), and a genuine expectation by firms that students can respond at any time during that longer offer hold period and not within minutes of receiving an offer. It’s time to give students some more control in the recruit.” “The justification for the current process is that it's meant to protect students, but in reality it does the opposite. Since firms aren't allowed to tell candidates they're giving them an offer in advance, but students can tell firms just about anything, all the power is in the firm's hands. They have access to information about whether a student will accept their offer, but the student's aren't able to receive similar guarantees from firms, forcing students to leave their fates in the hands of the firm they choose to first-choice.”

conversation that has nothing to do with your competencies.”

Students also emphasised the need for effective enforcement mechanism:

•

“No teeth. Horrible and traumatizing for impoverished and minority students.”

•

“Useless. Every student going through infirms is pressured by the firms to admit that they are your first choice. Every student knows that they are going to get an offer before call day. Firms skirt the lines of the rules. The real question is, even if they do violate., what is the recourse? Probably nothing I would imagine.”

“I went from stressed out to confident to happy to anxious to feeling immense dread in the span of a few hours. It makes little sense to me that students and firms are forced to compete with one another in this short amount of time, leading to the ridiculous pressure of “first choice” and making such a momentous decision in the span of 1-3 days.”

A majority of responses indicated a strong dislike of signalling and offered alternative systems:

Others expressed frustration and disappointment:

•

“Should be conducted in the Winter Semester.”

November 25, 2021 | 9

The priorities of others lay elsewhere:

•

“Let them send us food.”

What advice would you give to someone participating in the process next year? Many students offered words of encouragement, hoping to empower the next generation of applications:

•

“You can be very selective and apply to just a few employers that interest you. Large firms are not the only option in the recruit.”

•

“Confidence is key–be yourself and be proud of who you are! A firm kept telling me how much they wanted to help me make my decision because they "knew I had a lot of options." Little did they know that they were my only in-firm.”

•

”Don't worry about the number of the OCIs you have. Quality over quantity!”

•

“Go into it with the mindset of: I'm here to meet some great people and have some great conversations, let's see what happens. Just feel good, it puts you at ease, and it puts your interviewers at ease.”

•

“If you're interviewing with a firm, they're already interested in you. You hold some power. Ask the tough questions that you care about.”

You’ve been warned:

•

“It will consume your life at times from August-November.”

•

“The recruit is one giant fucked up game of chance. You have a greater chance of winning squid games.”

•

“Don’t do it. It will make you question why you even went to law school.”

Do you have closing thoughts? Some felt stronger than others about this whole process:

•

“Overall, I think I actually enjoyed the recruit process. I never thought I'd say this, but it was... fun? I loved getting to meet people and hearing their stories, and getting a better sense of what different law firms are like.”

•

“The recruitment process doesn't have to be as stressful as it is. Not only is the process itself intense and just awful for many participants, the culture around it is very toxic. Not getting a call isn't the end of the world, but U of T makes it seem like it is.”

•

“Such a wild and busy few months. Glad it’s over and I can actually focus on academics, my study time definitely took a nosedive!”

Many students valued having a strong support system throughout the process:

•

“Make sure you have support going through this. Be it family or friends. Try to have at least one group you talk to that is not going through the recruit to keep you sane. There will be times when talking to people in the recruit will overwhelm you. Don’t let this impact you or make you believe you don’t have a chance to get a job.”

•

“The whole process is a lot....If you find yourself in a toxic environment during the recruit, feel free to remove yourself from that and focus on your values and interests! Remember this process is all sort of a black box and a lot of things are up to luck and outside your control. Trust yourself, be confident, and have a strong support system.”

There was a strong emphasis on mental health and putting the recruit into perspective:

• •

“Do not base your self worth on this process”

•

“Take care of your mental health, this process is long and frustrating and even the best candidates end up feeling awful about themselves”

“OCIs mean nothing in the long-run. You win the chance to work at a law firm for 4 more months over your career.”

Other students had practical advice on submitting applications, and conducting OCIs and in-firm interviews:

•

“Check, double check and re-check your applications. I’m pretty sure (99% sure) that I struck out because I sent in an incomplete Law School transcript.”

•

“Start working early! Drafting cover letters and coffee chats take so long.”

•

“As tempting as it is, do not read into what the interviewers say.”

•

“For government, lots of preparation is key. For Bay St., I felt it was really important to be a "human" and not come across as overly rehearsed or robotic. Also, I did a lot of mock interviews, despite them being incredibly awkward.”

•

“Prepare lots of good questions to ask employers. You will be asking most of the questions. Also, never tell them that you are debating between them and another place. I got dropped by many firms this way.”

•

“Striking the right balance between professional and casual is key. Firms are there to assess your competency, but they're also there to assess whether you're someone they'd like to work with. Don't shy away from casual

When it comes down do it, this year’s 2Ls encourages you to think hard about the life you want:

•

“Ask yourself: Will Bay St genuinely make you happy? If not, there's not much you're missing out if you don't get anything from this recruit anyway.”

•

“I am very glad I stayed true to myself. I interviewed mainly with government employers because I had very little interest in working for a firm. I skipped a virtual firm event because I knew I would not want to work there. I always asked about EDI because that is very important to me. This process can be extremely stressful—find ways to make it more comfortable and worthwhile for yourself.”

•

“This process does define you. Not in terms of your worth, not at all. But it does define your story. I got rejected from every firm in the 1L recruit and because of that, started my career working in-house. Working at a company gives you the practice of learning its unique culture, positioning you for in-depth client work above all else. Every experience is an asset and this is just another part of your story. If you got a job, excellent, but if not, enjoy the scenic ride by looking for jobs outside the formal process. Sometimes–in fact, usually–you learn better about yourself that way.”

This is an abridged version of the article. To read the article in full, please visit ultravires.ca.

10 | November 25, 2021

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

ultravires.ca

Factors Associated with Success in the 2022 Toronto Recruit

Recruit success is associated with grades, number of interview invitations received and attended, race, and gender HUSSEIN E. E. FAWZY (2L) WITH GRAPHICS BY JENNIFER SUN (2L) After 11 weeks of intense research, applications, networking, and interviewing, the Toronto 2022 Summer Recruitment concluded with Offer Day on November 3, 2021. Every year, Ultra Vires sends an annual survey to U of T Law students to glean insights into this complicated and emotional process. The objectives are three-fold: (i) to better inform future generations of applicants; (ii) to raise awareness on matters of student concern so action can be taken; and (iii) to provide a historical record of year-to-year changes associated with the Toronto recruit. The Survey This year’s survey saw an increase in response rate: 130 students, representing 61 percent of the 2L cohort.1 The increased response rate may be suggestive of students’ heightened interests in voicing their experiences and potential concerns. Of the 130, 20 (15 percent) were in combined-degree programs. Of all students, 56 identified as male (43.1 percent), 71 as female (54.6 percent), and two as non-binary (1.5 percent). 56 (43.1 percent) identified as racialized and 72 (55.4 percent) as non-racialized.

106 students participated in the recruit. Of those, 79 students received and accepted an offer through the recruit (74.5 percent recruit-specific employment rate) while 27 did not (25.5 percent). This employment rate is markedly higher than the previous year’s 65.9 percent. Of the 79 students that obtained recruit-specific employment, 59.5 percent went to large firms, 19 percent to boutique firms, 15.2 percent to government positions, and 6.3 percent to mid-sized firms. About half of all students that participated in the recruit (47.5 percent) expressed that their expected debt level had no influence on their recruitment decisions, while only 8.9 percent said that it was the primary influence. In addition, the majority of students found the CDO very helpful (33.3 percent) or helpful (39.0 percent) in the process.

A Note About the Numbers Nine students’ results were eliminated because they did not report any 1L grades. In addition, four dual-degree students provided only three 1L grades (probably due to the mandatory CR/ NCR policy implemented in Winter 2020). For these four students, the average of the three available grades was taken and inputted for the missing four 1L grades (“GPA Scaling”) to allow them to proceed further in the analysis. Finally, one student had a missing grade in one 1L course and GPA Scaling was done to fill in the missing grade. In total, 97 students proceeded to the subsequent analysis. Before proceeding, it is important to acknowledge the effect of self-selection bias. Students may be more likely to participate in the survey and share their results if they performed better academically or were more satisfied with the outcome of the recruit. Table 2 shows distribution of 1L grades, where H’s and HH’s are overrepresented at the expense of P’s.

In addition, across 1L courses, no notable differences between grade distributions were noted. Correlations Between Grades and OCIs, In-Firm Interviews, and Offers Received Similar to previous years, we assigned a numerical GPA to each letter grade (i.e., HH = 5, H = 4, P = 3, LP = 1) and treated courses as equivalent in weight under the assumption that employers do not take into account each course’s weight. From our sample, the median applicant in the 2022 Toronto Recruit had a GPA of 26. This is equivalent to 5 H’s and 2 P’s or 1 HH, 3 H’s, and 3 P’s, etc. The 25th percentile GPA was 24, the 75th percentile was 28, and distinction standing (i.e., the 90th percentile) was 30. There is a strong upward trend in the average number of OCIs received, number of in-firm interviews received, and number of offers received as GPA increases. The trend is still evident when

grades are divided into more granular units. Some of these relationships tested statistically significant. Using the Spearman rank correlation test,4 the relationship between GPA and number of OCIs received was statistically significant.5 The same goes for GPA and the number of in-firm interviews received,6 but not GPA and the number of offers received.7 In other words, a candidate’s GPA played a less significant role in securing an offer after the infirm stage. In terms of obtaining employment through the recruit (i.e., receiving at least one offer), logistic regression revealed statistically significant associations between the number of OCIs received and employment,8 the number of in-firm interviews received and employment,9 and the number of in-firm interviews attended and employment,10 but not GPA and employment.11 Students who both received and attended more in-firm interviews were more likely to secure employment. Specifically, students who either received six or more or attended five or more in-firm interviews had a 90%+ chance of securing at least one offer. All these results suggest that students with higher GPAs tend to secure more OCIs and in-firm interviews, but GPA alone does not have a significant correlation when it comes to ultimately securing an offer. Across all the variables examined, the best predictor of securing employment through the recruit was the number of in-firm interviews attended, where odds are tripled with each additional interview attended.

ultravires.ca

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

November 25, 2021 | 11

Effect of Gender and Race Gender

This year’s sample showed interesting results with respect to the effect of gender and race on recruit success. With regards to gender, females showed more success than males at every stage of the recruit. The following relationships tested statistically significant: (1) applications by females were more likely to convert to OCIs than males (54 percent vs. 50 percent);12 and (2) in-firm interviews by females were more likely to lead to employment (88 percent vs 57 percent).13 The following relationships did not test statistically significant: (1) OCIs by females were more likely to convert to in-firm interviews (49 percent vs. 43 percent);14 and (2) in-firm interviews by females were more likely to convert to multiple offers (41 percent of all in-firm interviews converted to offers for females vs. 39 percent for males).15 This trend is a positive sign, suggesting a focus by employers to hire more members of a historically underrepresented class in the legal profession. Race

With respect to race, the results paint a different picture. The following associations all tested statistically significant. Compared to applications coming from students who identified as racialized, applications coming from students who identified as non-racialized were more likely to convert into OCIs (55 percent vs. 50 percent),16 as well as for OCIs to convert into in-firm interviews (49 percent vs. 43 percent),17 and for in-firm interviews to convert to multiple offers (41 percent vs. 38 percent).18 The only relationship that did not test statistically significant was race and securing employment (i.e., at least one offer), where students who identified as racialized were more likely to secure employment than non-racialized students (76 percent vs 73 percent).19 In other words, 76 percent of racialized students received at least a single offer compared to 73 percent of non-racialized students. However, of those who received at least a single offer, non-racialized students received more offers relative to their size. The picture with regards to race is mixed, where the data suggests that non-racialized students had a higher chance of success in all stages of the recruit, except when it came to securing at least one offer.

Some combined degree students were also eligible to participate in the recruit as well as the survey while not strictly part of the 2L student cohort

The missing four grades for each of the nine dual-degree students as well as the missing single grade for one student were not included. Numbers rounded to the nearest 0.1 percent.

3. Ibid 4.

The Spearman rank correlation test was selected because the Shapiro-Wilk test revealed that the number of OCIs received, the number of in-firm interviews received, and the number of offers received were all non-parametric (although GPA was parametric).

ρ = 0.45036, p (2-tailed) = 0.00000.

ρ = 0.30048, p (2-tailed) = 0.00279.

ρ = 0.18502, p (2-tailed) = 0.06963.

β = 0.2273, p = 0.0001. In other words, each additional OCI is associated with e0.2273 or 1.2 times higher chance of securing employment.

β = 0.8312, p = 0.0000. In other words, each additional in-firm invitation is associated with e0.8312 or 2.3 times higher chance of securing employment.

10. β = 1.0924, p = 0.0000. In other words, each additional in-firm attended is associated with e1.0924 or 3.0 times higher chance of securing employment.

Race and Gender Combined

11. β = 0.1469, p = 0.0838.

When looking at both race and gender combined, we see that they play a statistically significant role in every stage of recruit success.20 Most notably, non-racialized females achieved the highest rates of conversions at all stages of the recruit. Racialized males ranked second-highest in converting applications to OCIs and converting OCIs to in-firms. Finally, racialized females ranked second-highest in converting in-firms to at least one offer. These results suggest that there is a strong push towards hiring students from more diverse demographics at all stages of the recruit. Across race and gender, students identifying as female demonstrated the highest level of success across all stages of the recruit, while racialized students demonstrated mixed outcomes at different stages of the recruit.

12. Using the Mann-Whitney U test (U score = 976.00, Z-score =

This is an abridged version of the article. Find the full article at ultravires.ca. Editor’s Note: Hussein E. E. Fawzy and Jennifer Sun participated in the 2022 Toronto Summer Recruit.

2.245, cut-off = 1.960). 13. Using the Chi-Square test (X2 (1, N = 78) = 7, p = 0.008151). 14. Using the Mann-Whitney U test (U score = 938.50, Z-score = 1.869, cut-off = 1.960). 15. Using the Mann-Whitney U test (U score = 859.50, Z-score = 1.075, cut-off = 1.960). 16. Using the Mann-Whitney U test (U score = 939.50, Z-score = 1.992, cut-off = 1.960). 17. Using the Mann-Whitney U test (U score = 943.00, Z-score = 2.028, cut-off = 1.960). 18. Using the Mann-Whitney U test (U score = 1053.00, Z-score = 3.140, cut-off = 1.960). 19. Using the Chi-Square test (X 2 (1, N = 78) = 0.0587, p = 0.808589). 20. Using the Kruskal-Wallis H test and Chi-Square test.

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

12 | November 25, 2021

ultravires.ca

Vancouver 2022 2L Summer Recruitment Numbers BC’s three law schools dominate the Vancouver recruit SHAE ROTHERY (2L) The Vancouver 2L recruit concluded on October 28, with offers being made at 8:00 am PDT. Ultra Vires reached out to 39 Vancouver employers for their summer 2022 hiring results. At the time of publication, 25 employers responded. The Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia took the top spot, with 55 successful candidates. The University of Victoria and Thompson Rivers University rounded out the top three, with 29 and 22 successful candidates, respectively. Firm Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP

Total

UBC

Victoria

TRU

UAlberta

UCalgary

USask

U of T

Allen / McMillan Litigation Counsel Bennett Jones LLP

East of the Rockies, Dalhousie and UOttawa tied for the most successful candidates, with ten each. As in previous years, out of all Vancouver employers, Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP hired the most 2L students, with 20 hires. This year saw an increase in the number of employers participating in the recruit, up from 18 participating employers in the 2021 cycle.

Osgoode Queen's -

Western -

Ryerson Ottawa Windsor

McGill

Dalhousie

Other

Did not respond by date of publication -

Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

Clark Wilson LLP

1Nigeria

Dentons Canada LLP

DLA Piper (Canada) LLP

Edwards Kenny & Bray LLP

Farris LLP

Department of Justice

Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP

Did not respond by date of publication Did not respond by date of publication 2

Hunter Litigation Chambers

Did not respond by date of publication 2

Kornfeld LLP KPMG Law LLP

1Oxford

Harper Grey LLP

Jenkins Marzban Logan LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Gudmundseth Mickelson LLP Harris & Company LLP

Did not respond by date of publication 1

Lawson Lundell LLP

McCarthy Tetrault LLP

McMillan LLP

Miller Thomson LLP

MLT Aikins LLP Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP

Did not respond by date of publication 10

Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Owen Bird Law Corporation

Did not respond by date of publication

Pulver Crawford Munroe LLP

Richards Buell Sutton LLP

Sangra Moller LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Smart & Biggar LLP Stikeman Elliot LLP

Did not respond by date of publication 5

Thorsteinssons LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Watson Goepel LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

Whitelaw Twining Law Corporation Young Anderson Barristers and Solicitors

2022 Total

162

Count of responding employers

% employers responding

64%

Editor’s Note: We will update our online spreadsheet at ultravires.ca to ref lect any further information provided from employers after the time of publication.

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

ultravires.ca

November 25, 2021 | 13

Calgary 2022 2L Summer Recruitment Numbers UCalgary Law sweeps their hometown recruit SHAE ROTHERY (2L) Beyond Alberta, the University of Saskatchewan had the most successful candidates, with six. Similar to last year, Bennett Jones LLP hired the largest number of students (9). This year doubled the number of f irms participating in the recruit and resulted in over 20 more hires.

The Calgary 2L recruit wrapped up with Offer Day on October 15, 2021, at 2:00 pm MDT. Ultra Vires contacted 22 Calgary employers for their Summer 2022 hiring results. At the time of publication, 16 employers responded. The University of Calgary Faculty of Law stole the show, with 27 successful candidates. The University of Alberta followed in second place, with 12 successful candidates. Firm Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (Calgary)

Total UCalgary UAlberta

USask

Manitoba

UBC

TRU UVic U of T Osgoode Queen's

Western

Ryerson

UOttawa Windsor McGill Dalhousie

Alberta Justice and Solicitor General (Calgary)

Bennett Jones LLP

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP

Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP

City of Calgary Law Department

Did not respond by date of publication Did not respond by date of publication

Code Hunter LLP Dentons Canada LLP

DLA Piper (Canada) LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

DS Burstall LLP Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP

Lindsay MacCarty LLP

Declined to participate in the survey 2

Did not respond by date of publication

MLT Aikins LLP Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP

Did not respond by date of publication

McCarthy Tetrault LLP McMillan LLP

Other

Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Did not respond by date of publication Participated but did not hire students from the recruit

Rose LLP Scott Venturo Rudakoff LLP

Stikeman Elliott LLP

2022 Total

Count of responding employers

% employers responding

73%

Editor’s Note: We will update our online spreadsheet at ultravires.ca to ref lect any further information provided from employers after the time of publication.

14 | November 25, 2021

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

ultravires.ca

LSO Procedures? More like Poorly Followed Guidelines Employers need to do better MEAZA DAMTE (2L) The weekend before in-f irms, I found myself at Walmart looking for a cheap hair straightener powerful enough to subdue my usually voluminous curls. The rows of titanium plates promising no frizz and more shine were overwhelming, bringing me back to the days I used to straighten my hair every morning before school just to look like everyone else. I settled on one quickly; I could hardly justify spending much on something I would likely only use once. Anyone who knows me knows that I love every coil and curl on my head, but I also love the thought of being employed. I couldn’t take any chances. Sure, I love my natural hair, but f lipping through the pages of law f irm websites and f inding almost exclusively sleek, shiny, straight hair had me worried. Would I stand out for the wrong reason? Could a f irm overlook me for a summer position because they subconsciously thought my hair was unprofessional? That’s the problem with the recruitment process: f irms have all the power. Things like whether every hair on my head is perfectly styled could impact my summer job prospects. The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) rules are one of the only mechanisms in place to give students a f ighting chance, but they do little to curb bad behavior.

The culture surrounding the recruitment process is toxic, hyper-competitive, and unethical. One would think that the procedures set out by the LSO would result in an equitable process, where the power differential between f irms and law students is somewhat mitigated. But the procedures might as well be loose guidelines. While most (not all) f irms followed these procedures in letter, the spirit of the procedures was another story. While there are formal mechanisms to make a complaint, the legal community is small, and the cloak of anonymity promised by the powers that be does little to alleviate students’ concerns about privacy. So, what exactly did f irms do that was so bad? B.3 A f irm that communicates its intention to interview a student must subsequently do so, unless the student has advised the f irm that the student does not want to participate in the interview. Students must notify a f irm of their intention to accept or decline an interview within 24 hours of being offered a time and date for an interview. This procedure seems comical on its face. What kind of f irm would send an intent to call email, and then fail to call to schedule an in-f irm interview with a prospective student? Trick question; the answer is a f irm that participated in the 2022 summer recruitment process. Aside from being a bla-

tant LSO procedure violation, this practice is inconsiderate and disorganized. B.7 Throughout the recruitment process, f irms shall not put undue pressure on students to accept an offer of employment or to reveal their intention to do so. First choice language needs to go. Numerous students reported feeling unduly pressured to use f irst choice language during the recruit, myself included. Phrases like “where are you at with your decision” and “does our f irm rank in your top two” are inappropriate attempts to discern whether students would accept an offer of employment. Additionally, when students resisted using f irst choice language, they reported feeling the tone of the interview shift. The spirit of B.7 is clearly not being respected and f irst choice language is how f irms are getting around playing by the rules. While f irms might rarely ask directly, ambiguous statements coupled with excessive phone calls result in stressed-out students that do not feel empowered to make autonomous decisions about their employment prospects. This can’t be what the LSO envisioned for summer student recruiting. C.8 Unless otherwise set out in this Part, the communication of offers of employment shall not be made before 5:00 p.m. on November 3, 2021. Multiple students reported receiving offers

before 5:00 pm on Call Day. Not only is this a direct violation of C.8, but it is extremely unfair to students who are making their own decisions about how to best allocate their time. If I knew that f irms were handing out offers before Call Day like Halloween candy, I would think twice about how to f it these f irms in my interview schedule (if at all). With f irms pressuring students to use f irst choice language, scheduling interviews that they proceeded to skip, and sending out offers before 5:00 pm on Call Day, it is no wonder that the recruit causes signif icant stress and uncertainty in the lives of law students across the province. As if school-related stressors aren’t enough, the rigorous process takes a toll on students' health and wellbeing. One student contracted a bacterial lung infection immediately before in-f irm week and many lost their voices due to vocal strain. Despite these health issues, no accomodations were made. Firms have a duty to ensure that they are not exacerbating an already stressful process. Let’s leave undue pressure, “gaming”, and ghosting qualif ied candidates on day three of interviews in 2021. It’s childish and unfair. We are all adults here, so let’s f ind a way to come together as a legal community to make the recruitment process one we can all be proud of.

Why I Restarted Counselling Before the 2L Recruit The value of counselling in managing law school stress and anxiety JOHN METZGER (2L) When I started law school, I felt like I was on the top of the world. After years of hard work, I’d f inally made it. I was ready to start learning, to start arguing, and, most of all, to start exploring what my career might look like. I felt like nothing could stop me. Flash forward to my second semester and my 1L job search. I had been unsuccessful in the 1L recruit—which I told myself was f ine because I hadn’t gone in with any expectations. But when I was unsuccessful in the Law School Summer Employment Program (LSSEP), I started to worry. It seemed like everyone already had their summer work lined up while I was frantically applying to every post on UTLC, with no replies. That worry started to get worse. What if I don’t get a legal job this sum-

mer—will that mean I will be unsuccessful in the 2L recruit? What if I am unsuccessful in the 2L recruit? Will I be able to f ind a job at all? What if I am the only one still struggling? These thoughts swirled around my head day and night until it was all I could think about. That’s when that worry turned into something else: anxiety. I started to experience a host of physical symptoms—erratic heartbeat, heavy breathing, restlessness, and insomnia. And it scared me. I had never experienced something like that before. I had never been so worried that I couldn’t fall asleep. I had never been so anxious that I felt it throughout my whole body. I realized that I was going through something which I didn’t know how to manage on my own. This is why I decided to restart clinical counselling, or

therapy. Now the most important word in that last sentence is restart. The counselling I started in 1L was not the f irst time I had done counselling. I had started counselling once before, during a particularly challenging part of my undergrad, when I was in the process of coming out and leaving a religious community. It would not be an exaggeration to say that counselling changed my life, and I credit it for why I am at the law school today. My only regret about my f irst counselling experience is that I didn’t start it earlier. I didn’t start counselling the f irst time until months after I had come out—months into the emotional turmoil that arose from that decision. I knew I was dealing with an emotional crisis, but I didn’t think that counselling was

for me. I thought counselling was only for really big problems, not people like me. Then I listened to Other People’s Problems, a podcast which allows listeners to hear anonymous, real sessions between a clinical counsellor and her patients. I remember listening to it and thinking these people sound like me, and their problems sound like my problems. I realized that counselling was something that could make my life better and, within the month, I made the f irst step. I came into law school knowing that a) using counselling services is entirely normal, b) counselling can be for anyone and for any problem, big or small, and c) counselling can provide effective tools to make your life better. Having known that coming in, I found it so much easier to reach out for resources

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

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Why I Restarted Counselling Before the 2L Recruit Continued when I needed them. I restarted counselling as a precautionary measure. The anxiety I experienced scared me—not just because of how I was feeling then, but because I knew if I didn’t f ind a way to manage it, it was only going to get worse. I knew that going into the 2L recruit, when the stakes were higher, that those worries were only going to get more intense. I restarted counselling so I would have the tools to take that on. And it worked. My counsellor and I worked on strategies for managing anxiety throughout the summer. We talked about how to work through the emotions of success and failure. We talked about how to manage transition and workplace stress. We talked about how to stay conf ident throughout my interviews. I was even able to book a session the night before my OCIs where all we did was come up with strategies for the next day—what to do if an interview goes bad, how to prepare for the next one. Many of these strategies I didn’t end up needing, but knowing that they were there made me feel so much more conf ident that I could handle the stress of the day. I walked into my 2L recruit not with worry, but with conf idence. That’s what counselling did for me. Many of us at the law school have spent our entire lives as the perfect student, the golden child, the straight-A machine—never had a slip-up, never put a foot wrong. All of us at the law school also have the dream and aspiration of taking on a legal career. That means that when we start looking for work, some of us for the f irst time, there are a lot of emotional cards on the table. The problem with the 1L job search, in my experience, is that it begins with the 1L recruit—a process which is incredibly competitive, where very few spots are available, and

very few students secure a position. The result is that many students begin their job search being unsuccessful. Although you tell yourself that it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t take away how challenging that failure can be. Being less successful in your 1L job search says absolutely nothing about how you will do in the 2L recruit, or law school, or your career generally. But when you are experiencing your f irst failure, when you are worrying for the f irst time that your dreams and aspirations may not come true, no amount of objective analysis can change the emotional reality that the experience is terrifying. It was for me, and I know it was for others too. What I want to say to all the 1Ls who will be starting their job search, all the 2Ls who may have been unsuccessful in the recruit, and even the 2Ls who were successful but were scared by how stressful the experience was: your worries and anxieties are completely normal. So many people at the law school look like they are on top of the world, even though they are going through the same challenges as you and I. The law school can sometimes foster a climate that makes it hard to talk about these challenges. I want you to know that you are not alone. You are not the only one who has worried about what their career will look like. You are not the only one who has experienced anxiety. And you are not the only one who may need help. I know I never would have started counselling if I hadn’t learned that it is entirely normal to do so—if I didn’t know that there were people like me who found it useful. My hope is that by sharing my story, I can contribute to an environment at the law school where students feel comfortable sharing their challenges and conf ident in using the resources that are available to them.

November 25, 2021 | 15

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Reflections on the Virtual Recruit There are pros and cons, but at least you won’t get lost in the PATH JENNIFER SUN (2L)

NO GETTING LOST IN THE PATH! CREDIT: SHAE ROTHERY

It’s quite remarkable when you realize that 2021 technically had two Toronto’s 2L recruits. It’s just another indication that we live in a world with ever-changing circumstances. Unlike the condensed cycle held earlier this year, this cycle resumed its normal schedule and spanned across four months from mid-August to early-November. Other articles in this issue will focus on the substantive parts of this year’s recruitment, so I will reflect on some procedural aspects here. From the get-go, this virtual process was a blessing and a curse. It was amazing to be able to

attend all my interviews from the comfort of my home—although I had to scramble to make sure I had a clean, presentable background. The risk of getting lost in the PATH labyrinth was completely eliminated. We also didn’t have to budget travel time, making scheduling much easier. However, this flexibility also enabled me to schedule interviews back-to-back like jigsaw puzzle pieces and, let me tell you, sitting through interviews with no breaks was not fun. I strongly recommend against it. 1Ls, if virtual interviews are still a thing next year, you probably want to avoid this situation un-

less it’s absolutely necessary. Now, let’s talk about my worst fear during this process that wasn’t even related to the recruit itself: unstable internet connection. Even in this day and age, internet outages are not uncommon in Canada. You can bet I prayed to anything and everything that my internet provider would be at its finest. I also pleaded that at least my cell phone data provider would remain strong in the event of an outage (pro tip: it’s probably sensible to distribute the risk by having two separate providers). While I had no major issues, I know Bell had a clock glitch on the first day of in-firms and I am so sorry if anyone woke up an hour later than they planned to (another pro tip: make sure to set a second alarm clock that doesn’t sync with an external source, for the recruit and for exams). Despite our best efforts, some technical issues are unavoidable. Maybe Murphy’s law is the rule of our universe. In my case, my Zoom audio suddenly stopped working even though it was perfectly fine for the interview right before. Migrating to Teams resolved the issue but, oh boy, I definitely felt panic brewing. There was one specific procedural change to the OCI stage this year. Instead of students selecting their interview times, the Career Development Office scheduled our OCIs through UTLC. I liked this change because I didn’t have to worry about logging into the system ASAP to accept any offers and figure out my schedule. This also hopefully removed any inference a firm may draw between a particular interview slot and a student’s level of interest. On the other hand, I had no control over when my interviews would be. As a notorious night owl, I definitely had a bit more trouble earlier in the day. I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it too. However, my biggest challenge during OCIs was actually not related to the OCIs themselves,

but rather having to attend an evening class on Thursday. Luckily, my professor was kind enough to host this evening class online (and my sincere apologies for still not paying any attention). Had it been in-person, I don’t think I would’ve made it to the school in time given my commute. This is not to mention how the return trip would have exacerbated my overall exhaustion. Even for noncommuters, with an exhausting day and another day of OCIs ahead, I truly hope the administration would consider cancelling evening classes during the recruit next year, especially if students do not have any control over when their last interview is scheduled. One thing I very much appreciated during this virtual process was that many firms decided to forgo evening socials during in-firms, significantly removing pressure from students. After a long day of interviews, it really helped to have the night to take a mental break (albeit still frantically checking emails or phones for any callbacks). While I personally see the value of in-person interviews to build more rapport and tour the actual office, whether these socials are gone for good remains an open question. Maybe it’s my naivety but I believe there could be a win-win situation here: firms could save significant expenses while students could relax and prepare for the next day. The 2L recruit process was as overwhelming as I anticipated it to be. Despite some obvious challenges, I have to admit that the virtual process made things easier. Moving forward, it might even be worthwhile to continue holding OCIs virtually, given how short they are, and bring back the in-person element only for in-firms. This lets students recoup in the evening rather than facing unnecessary exhaustion, allowing them to be the best version of themselves the next day. I suppose only time will tell what the next cycle will look like.

16 | November 25, 2021

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Class of 2023 Demographics

A comprehensive view of the 2L class reveals concerning mental health trends JACQUELINE HUANG (2L) WITH GRAPHICS BY JENNIFER SUN This year, 95 students eligible to participate in the 2L recruit completed the Ultra Vires summer recruit demographic survey: 82 were JD students, five were JD/MBA students, and eight were JD/other combined degree students. Due to a larger sample size compared to previous years, we gained a more in-depth view of the Class of 2023. Thank you to everyone who participated in our data collection.

95 students responded to the country of birth questions. 60 students were born in Canada, while 35 students were born outside of Canada. 59 students have one or both parents born outside of Canada.

All 95 survey respondents rated themselves on an introversion to extroversion scale, with one being highly introverted and five being highly extroverted. The mean value was 3.08. There were seven more students who identified as extroverts than students who identified as introverts.

Age, Gender, and Identities All 95 survey respondents answered the age and gender questions. The average age of the survey respondents was 24.3, with the youngest being 22 years old and the oldest being over 28 years old.

Finances and Parents Education 19 percent of students attended private high schools. The median pre-tax household income of the survey respondents falls under the $100,001-$150,000 range. The top source of funding was loans, followed by family contributions and grants, scholarships, and bursaries.

Religion, Languages, and Personalities As in previous years, we asked students about their religious beliefs. Over 50 percent of respondents were atheist or agnostic. From the 91 students that rated the importance of religion to them on a one to five scale (one being not at all important and five being very important), the mean value was 2.21. The majority of survey respondents anticipated some levels of debt upon graduation. 94 students responded to the sexual orientation question. About 80 percent of the students identified as straight, and about 17 percent of students identified as LGBTQ2S+.

We also asked questions on language proficiencies. Of the 92 students who reported the number of languages they speak, 54 students spoke at least two languages at a conversational level. 20 out of 94 students reported that they are bilingual in English and French.

Over 90 students provided information about their racial identities; around 45 percent of students identified as a visible minority.

78 percent of survey respondents are the first in their families to attend law school. The majority of students have one or more immediate family members with university education; only eight out of 94 students reported that they were the first in their families to attend university. The most commonly reported highest level of parents’ education was a Bachelor’s degree (excluding law degrees) (41.48 percent), followed by a Master’s degree (20 percent). 10 percent of the survey respondents’ parents had a law degree. Academic Record, Work Experience, and Study Habits 87 students reported their undergraduate GPA (OLSAS scale out of 4.0) and LSAT scores. The median reported GPA was 3.87, while the 25th percentile was 3.75 and the 75th percentile was 3.93. The lowest reported GPA was 3.3 and the highest reported GPA was 4. The median reported LSAT score was 166, while the 25th percentile was 164 and the 75th percentile was 169. The lowest reported LSAT score was 153 and the highest was 175. The most commonly reported undergraduate programs were Engineering/Math/Sciences (22.58 percent) and Political Science/International Relations (21.51 percent).

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About half of the students surveyed reported that they had no work experience prior to law school.

78 students rated the effects that the recruit had on their mental health on a one to five scale, with one being improved significantly and five being disturbed significantly. The average number was 3.77. Particularly, 46 students reported that the recruit has disturbed their mental health, with one student commenting: “I was extremely anxious, to the point of not being able to eat and sleep properly as well as feeling very ill.”

Political Beliefs, Drinking Habits, and Marijuana Use In the concluding questions of our survey, we asked students to identify the federal parties they currently support. The most supported party was NDP (39 percent), followed by Liberal (31 percent).

We asked students to rank their 1L study habits on a scale, with one being mostly independent and five being mostly in groups. The average number reported was 2.27. Overall, more students studied independently (63.82 percent) than in groups (18.09 percent).

We asked how often students have four or more drinks at one time, and the responses were more evenly distributed. The most common answer was “monthly” (30 percent), followed by “a couple of times per year” (25 percent).

We also asked if students had any comments on mental health and the law school. Most of the comments painted a bleak picture: Accessibility and Mental Health Challenges 93 students responded to our questions on accessibility and accommodations. While 65 percent of students reported that they have no disability, 30 percent of students reported that they have a health condition, and 27 percent of students reported that they have a mental health condition. 30 students reported that they have accessed mental health resources through the law school or the university. The results from the mental health section of our demographic survey revealed concerning trends. Among the 33 students who reported

“From cold calling to the curve, every element is set out to make students feel worse about themselves and ‘less than’.” “The law school does not care about students' mental health.” “The very structure of law school and the legal profession, as business-oriented, are inherently opposed to the mental wellbeing of the human beings whose minds serve as the ‘good’ or ‘product’ of the legal market. The Faculty providing mental health resources is like a person punching you in the face and then handing you a bandaid.” “By its very nature, law school is not good for anyone’s mental health.” “Law school is a lot of pressure, and it’s hard to individually recognize when we need help. Moreover, it’s hard to actually reach out and get help. I think the worsening mental health that occurs during recruit is a structural issue, which means a systemic approach rather than individual one.” “Garbage.” Others pointed out ways the law school could improve its mental health support to students:

Finally, 45 percent of students responded “never” to recreational maraijuana use. 28 percent of students answered “a couple of times per year.”

“100% exams and papers cause a lot of stress. I really appreciate when teachers have assignments throughout the semester (especially those worth substantial marks) like midterms because it really helps decrease my anxiety at exam time (which is when it gets the worst).” “The faculty needs to do wayyyyy more than just sending emails. They do have resources that respond to anxiety/depression (counselling, etc.) and that is great. But, I think change needs to happen on a systemic level — change the system so as to prevent anxiety/depression/burnout from occurring, as opposed to responding to it after the fact.” that they have a mental health condition, 59 percent reported that the frequency of their experience with the condition increased during law school, and 62 percent reported that the severity of their experience with the condition increased during law school. Notably, no students reported a decrease in the frequency or severity of their experience with their mental health conditions during law school. We asked students to identify the factors that contribute to changes in their mental health. Unsurprisingly, academic factors were on top of the list, which affected 92.75 percent of students who responded to this question. In addition, pandemic-related factors (68.12 percent) had a major influence on students’ mental health.

“Admin needs to do more. Students also need to do more preventive mental health activities.” “The On-Location Student Mental Health Counsellor is fantastic. But there's only one dedicated person for the entire law school. And you only get six sessions with her. They really helped me but they're not a long-term solution” Some students took a different perspective: “Law school positively impacted my mental health.” “I still believe it's possible to be a happy law student despite the course load, the extracurriculars, and the pressure to get a job—but that requires a strong heart and good stress management abilities. I think it's important to remember I'm a person with interests, dreams, and identities outside of law school and not let the law student part of my life define myself.”

This is an abridged version of the article. Find the full article at ultravires.ca Editor’s Note: Jacqueline Huang and Jennifer Sun are part of the Class of 2023 and participated in the formal recruit.

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18 | November 25, 2021

ultravires.ca

Ottawa 2022 Intellectual Property Recruit Numbers

Almost all students hired have STEM backgrounds

SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI) The Ottawa intellectual property (IP) recruit is a bit of an oddity. Recruiting largely 1L students, applications were due October 12, 2021, just mere weeks into many students’ first semester of law school. Following a quick interview week, the Ottawa IP recruit concluded with Offer Day on October 28, 2021. Five of seven participating firms shared their results with Ultra Vires. Overview of the Results A total of 19 students were hired through the Ottawa IP recruit, 13 from 1L and six from 2L. For 1Ls, U of T Law narrowly took the top spot with five students selected, followed closely by Ottawa Law. Only three of the five responding firms hired 2L students during this recruit cycle. Of the six 2Ls

hired, half are from uOttawa. Smart & Biggar LLP hired the most students in total, with four students from each respective year, consistent with their hiring numbers in previous years. Osler noted that they did not seek applications from 2Ls this year due to all their previous summer students returning for the upcoming summer. New this year, we asked firms to share the total number of students hired with a graduate degree and the total number of students hired with an undergraduate degree in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM). There is often the belief that in order to pursue a career in IP law, one needs these qualifications. Although the sample size is too small to draw any significant conclusions, of the 13 1Ls hired, five had graduate degrees and 12 had STEM backgrounds. Of the six 2Ls hired, four had graduate degrees and five had STEM backgrounds.

1L Positions

Firm

Total 1L Summer Students Hired

Number of 1L Number of Students with 1L Students a Graduate with a STEM Degree undergrad

U of T Osgoode Queen's Western Ryerson Ottawa McGill Windsor Dalhousie

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Other

Did not respond by date of publication

Brion Raffoul LLP

TRU - 1

Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP

UBC - 1

MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP

Declined to participate in the survey

Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Ridout & Maybee LLP

Smart & Biggar LLP

2021 Total

2L Positions

Firm

Total 2L Number of 2L Number of Summer Students with 1L Students Students a Graduate with a STEM Hired Degree undergrad

U of T Osgoode Queen's Western Ryerson Ottawa McGill Windsor Dalhousie

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

Other

Did not respond by date of publication

Brion Raffoul LLP

USask - 1

Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP

MBM Intellectual Property Law LLP

Declined to participate in the survey

Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Did not hire 2L students

Ridout & Maybee LLP

Did not hire 2L students

Smart & Biggar LLP

2021 Total

Editor’s Note: We will update our online spreadsheet at ultravires.ca to ref lect any further information provided from employers after the time of publication.

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November 25, 2021 | 19

Reflections on the Ottawa IP Recruit Thoughts of various 1Ls on the early recruitment process FIEVEL LIM (1L) A common aspiration for science students coming into law school is to pursue intellectual property (IP) law. Having a science background, I was intrigued when asked if I was going to apply for the 1L Ottawa IP recruit. However, the most common response to that question whenever I asked someone else was: “What recruit? When?” The application deadline for the Ottawa IP recruit this year was October 12. Barely six weeks into law school, 1Ls were expected to somehow know about the recruit and submit a full application. My friends (who also applied) and I all agreed that it was way too early—we hardly knew anything about law in general, let alone IP law. We all felt that participating in the IP recruit while still adjusting to law school was hectic, to say the least. One other common gripe was that the Faculty doesn’t actively tell you about the recruit. Somehow, you had to f ind out on your own or by word of mouth. Yes, it is on the Career Development Off ice (CDO) website, but only if you went searching yourself. Admittedly, the CDO does have useful materials for the recruit and we would all recommend them, but this was still dependent on knowing about the recruit in the f irst place. Most of our classmates had no idea what we were doing. After the initial application deadline came the interviews. The interviews were all quite

casual and conversational in nature and took place over Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions. The interviews were generally 30 minutes and the experiences varied depending on your interviewers. Justin Kim (1L) found that the interviewers were “trying to see how well we could communicate about our past experiences, especially regarding our thesis or research projects.” Eric Li (1L) added that the interviewers were “genuinely nice people who were legitimately interested in learning more about [him] as a person.” Overall, I would say that I had the same experience, with the extra caveat from a friend: “you should know your resume inside and out as anything on it is fair game.” Indeed, some f irms like to grill you on your resume, so it’s best to be prepared for that. 1.

The most commonly asked questions were:

Tell me about yourself.

Why law school?

Why IP?

Why Ottawa and why this f irm?

While it is good to be prepared for your interviews and have some rehearsed responses, Li found that because he had a genuine interest in an IP law job in Ottawa, “ just speaking from the heart helped [him] to present himself in a much more relaxed and

genuine manner.” The most common advice I hear is to be your authentic self, as that is part of what the interviewers are assessing. Another way to (possibly) improve your chances is to reach out to some articling students at the f irm for a quick chat ahead of time. Kim contacted some students before his interview and used the information to help answer “why this f irm?”. Although he did f ind it quite awkward to reach out to people, everyone “was super helpful and agreed to do it” as part of the paying-it-forward culture. Interviews can also be quite stressful to schedule around your classes. A couple of us had our legal research and writing assignment due the same week, and the combination of school, assignment, and interviews really took a toll on us. Many hours of sleep were lost, so make sure to be prepared when the time comes, and not to let the interview process overwhelm you. On Offer Day, the f irms will start calling right at 8:00 am. It is best if you have a good idea of which offer you want to take to make the process easier. Kim found the time from the last interview to Offer Day was “extremely nerve-wracking.” Li agreed, saying that it was “def initely stressful,” not wanting to “conclude the process empty-handed,” which was a sentiment we all shared. Overall, we would def initely recommend participating in this recruit to those who are

interested in IP, but I would caution against putting too much emphasis on it. After all, there is still the upcoming Toronto recruit and plenty of other opportunities for 1L summer employment. The Ottawa IP recruit is certainly not the be-all end-all, and in all honesty, there are only very few spots. The typical f irm will take about two students from around 100 applications across the country. Don’t worry if you don’t get an offer or if you don’t even get an interview, as it really is that competitive. That being said, four out of the six of us did manage to land a position this summer, and many had multiple offers too; so don’t be discouraged, and give it your best if you do try. I was not one of the four, so Offer Day was def initely a disappointment, but I have high hopes for the next recruit. As for how I felt about this recruit overall, Nancy Chen (1L) summed it up quite nicely: “The overall thought I had during the Ottawa recruitment process was that it didn’t feel right. It’s been literally a month since I’ve started law school. How am I qualif ied to apply for a fancy law job when I still haven’t f igured out how to learn law? […] Although I didn’t end up getting any offers, I treated the process as a mini trial-run and def initely feel a little bit more prepared knowing what aspects of the recruitment process I have to work on for future recruits.”

So You Want to Work for the Ontario Government? The salary information you need to know LAUREN PAPAROUSIS (2L) Last summer, I worked as a summer student at the Ministry of Finance as part of the Aboriginal Summer Student Program. The program was a great learning experience for me. I was exposed to diverse areas of law and had the opportunity to work with and learn from excellent mentors. However, when deciding where to apply for work in my 2L summer, I did not apply to a single government position and it came down to one def ining factor: money. The Numbers Currently, all summer law students who work with the Ontario government are compensated at $16.40 per hour ($594.50 per week) for 1Ls, and $18.40 per hour ($667.00 per week) for 2Ls. Let’s look at those numbers in context—prepare for some number crunching. First, the living wage in Toronto is estimated at around $22.08 per hour, a threshold that this salary clearly does not meet. Second, this salary is also signif icantly less than other summer jobs offered through the law school. For example, Summer Research Assistants are paid around $20 per hour. Law students

working at clinics like Downtown Legal Services and Advocates for Injured Workers are paid about $700 a week. Summer fellowships, such as the one through the International Human Rights Program, are paid up to a $10,000 stipend for the entire summer. It is almost not worth comparing government salaries to Bay Street, but for reference, the standard Bay Street summer salary is $1,900 per week. Comparatively, I made approximately $7,500 for 13 weeks of work at the Ministry of Finance as a 1L student. Ontario government jobs simply do not pay enough for low-income students to accept them without incurring serious f inancial consequences. Combine these low salaries with the astronomically high tuition costs at U of T Law, and this is a classic example of the law school to Bay Street pipeline in action. This is not to say that government jobs are an ideal alternative to Bay Street, but the reality is that students interested in public interest work are often steered towards government roles. For example, government jobs are heavily featured at the CDO’s public interest day. It is worth asking

ourselves who can afford to take these jobs. Personally, accepting this job meant taking on more debt and was simply not a sustainable choice for me long-term. Future Salary Changes (Spoiler: It Doesn’t Look Good!) Maybe you read the last UV article on Bay Street salary raises and thought to yourself, “Hey, maybe the government will increase salaries too!” Well, I hate to break it to you, but it seems unlikely in the near future. All summer law students are unionized under the Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU). The collective agreement is set to be renegotiated this year. However, there are two reasons that student wages are unlikely to change in the upcoming collective agreement. First, the priorities for collective bargaining were set in early May 2021, and after speaking with an OPSEU union steward, I was informed that it was unlikely any students were present for this discussion. The steward told me that there is no obligation for the employer to promptly share new employ-

ee email addresses with the OPSEU. This was the f irst week of work for summer students so no timely communications were made to summer students about the agendasetting process. Therefore, there is likely nothing about student wages on the agenda for upcoming collective bargaining. Secondly, even if higher student wages were on the agenda, it’s unlikely that wages would substantially change due to the introduction of Bill 124 (Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019). Bill 124 caps increases in salaries for the entire public sector at one percent per year. This means that, even if increased student wages were on the table, they would be capped at a one percent increase, getting summer students nowhere near the wages they need to make a living in Toronto. It is worth noting that some organizations have asserted that Bill 124 violates the right to collectively bargain, and there may be a challenge in the works. Unfortunately, at least for now, if you’re hoping to work for the Ontario government this summer, try not to max out your line of credit beforehand—you might need it!

20 | November 25, 2021

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Continuing the Job Hunt After the 2L Recruit Reimagining paths to a successful legal career VANSHIKA DHAWAN (3L) The 2L recruit is exhausting, to say the least. Regardless of the outcome, it can leave you feeling drained. Coming out the other side without a job offer is even harder; it might feel like all that effort went nowhere. Even if it feels like it, you are not alone. Many incredibly successful people found themselves in your exact position in 2L. The fact of the matter is that most students secure 2L employment outside of the formal recruit—even if we are hesitant to openly talk about it. We asked three 3L students and Hannah Johnson, an alumna who wrote the poignant and widely shared “What Not to Say to Someone Who Didn’t Get a Job in the Recruit” in last year’s UV recruit special, to chat about continuing the job hunt after the recruit. How did you end up securing a 2L job? Adrienne Ralph (3L): After the Law School Summer Employment Program (LSSEP) recruit, the Hatchery posted on UTLC, seeking out additional law students to hire. I applied, interviewed, and was hired within about a week at the beginning of April. They also hire through the LSSEP but I did not apply to them then. I had also applied to a few Ontario government positions in March, which I found on the Ontario Public Service Careers website. A director at the Ministry of Health reached out to me in mid-June saying she came across my resume and that they were in need of a policy intern on one of their teams. My job at the Hatchery was very flexible so I took this on a part-time basis. While it was a policy position, most of my work was doing jurisprudence-related research and presenting my findings to a team of policy advisors. Hannah Johnson ( JD ‘21): I found my 2L position by Googling “summer law jobs Toronto”. I checked the postings on UTLC as well, but I

would recommend taking this into your own hands. Whenever I saw a posting that interested me, I reached out to someone who worked there (usually a U of T grad) so I could name drop in my cover letter. I later applied to Goodmans on viLaw during the articling recruit. Alexa Cheung (3L): I got my 2L job at Advocates for Injured Workers (AIW) through the LSSEP recruit. The LSSEP interviews are more structured and substantive, so I spoke to classmates who had worked at AIW before to prepare. It also helped that I secured my 1L job through the LSSEP recruit the previous year, so I was more familiar with the style of questions and with the overall interview process. Jaime Corbett (3L): Despite the creative network I spun in my post-rejection days, my job came from a posting on UTLC. I ended up employed a month or so after OCIs. By the odd human experience of time, that month felt like eternity but passed in an instant. After identifying as Rejected for a month, I received two offers—one to work in a clinic and another to work for a union. It was a great day.

Hannah: Keep believing in yourself. You are a qualified candidate, and that does not change just because you didn’t get a Bay Street job in 2L. Keep focusing on building the kind of career that you want to have, and you don’t need to apply to just anything. You can be choosy. This is a detour; this is not the end of the road. Lean on your non-law school friends. It will be very refreshing to hear from someone who has never heard of an OCI. Alexa: Be more confident. I spent a lot of the OCI process doubting myself and my accomplishments, and those insecurities and self-doubts probably came through in my interviews. I also thought that failing to get a 2L job meant that I was a failure as a person, which in hindsight, is a ridiculous mindset. Jaime: I’d tell her to take it easy. I spent a lot of time stressing about never getting a job (and other odd fictions I told myself about my life, my worth, my choices, and so on). I wish I had directed that energy into something less horrible for myself and better for those around me.

If you could go back and say something to your 2L self, what would it be?

Do you have any advice for people trying to support friends who are still job hunting?

Adrienne: I’d tell my 2L self that 1) everything is going to be okay, 2) there are so many cool opportunities out there that you don’t even know about yet, and 3) you don’t need to settle for a job you have no interest in. I applied broadly for OCIs, including to places I had little interest in, because I was so scared by the prospect of not getting a job. Going through the post-OCI recruit and then the articling recruit, I learned about many interesting opportunities that I was far more happy with. Because I could demonstrate much more genuine interest in these positions, interviews went far more smoothly and I ended up with far more success.

Adrienne: I think it’s great to let your friends know that you’re available to help them with whatever they need—whether that’s editing a cover letter, interview preparation, or even just being someone to vent to. But once you’ve offered this once or maybe twice, don’t keep bringing up their job hunt every day. When I was still looking and spending most of my days writing applications, the last thing I wanted to do was spend all my free time talking about jobs with people who had already secured them. They’ll let you know if they need help or if they have news they want to share! Hannah: Your friend does not want your pity.

Like you, your friend is a law student at the best law school in the country. They are investing (so much!) into their legal education, presumably to create the kind of legal career that they want. Not getting a 2L summer job in the OCI process stings. It will be a stressful and frustrating time until they secure summer employment. If you are going to say anything, tell your friend you believe in them. Otherwise, just listen. Alexa: Be supportive. Applying for jobs and writing more cover letters is stressful and tedious, and it’s probably the last thing that people want to do after already doing it a million times during the formal recruit. You can make that work less difficult by offering to read over cover letters or resumes. If you are still looking for a job and your friend is too, I would recommend pooling your resources. Job postings will be more scattered and will pop up at random times, so tell each other about new listings when they come up. Read over each other’s cover letters and prepare for interviews together—it will make the process seem less difficult, and at the very least, you can always vent to the other person about how stressful this all is. Adrienne Ralph (3L) summered at the Hatchery and will be articling at MAG – Constitutional Law Branch. Hannah Johnson (JD ‘21) summered at the Ministry of Finance – Legal Services and is currently articling at Goodmans LLP. Alexa Cheung (3L) summered at Advocates for Injured Workers and will be articling at Goodmans LLP. Jamie Corbett (3L) summered at AMAPCEO and will be articling at CaleyWray.

Mitigating the Toxicity of an OCI-Focused Culture SLS Recruit Subcommittee to share alternative recruit resources ANGELA FENG (2L) Each year, a dense fog of anxiety creeps into the law school along with the annual 2L Toronto recruit and lingers well past Offer Day. The air becomes heavy. News of OCI invitations and in-f irm offers are uttered in hushed tones, carefully sealed in faint whispers, and f loat through the atrium. Okay, that's a little bit dramatic. Nonetheless, it captures the essence of a strange culture of secrecy surrounding the 2L recruit at U of T Law. This culture is met with a dedicated team of Career Development Off ice (CDO) and upper year students who work to strengthen the network of recruit resources available for students. The Students’ Law Society (SLS) is one of many student groups who have stepped up to offer additional support during this time. “The SLS Recruit Subcommittee was formed last year, when it became clear that a huge part of the law school community struggled with f inding jobs in the legal market outside of the formalized recruit processes,” says Dhriti Chakravarty (3L), co-founder and current co-chair of the sub-committee alongside Jamie Corbett (3L). Recognizing that only half of U of T Law students secure positions during the 2L recruit process, the

subcommittee has set out to displace the emphasis put on OCIs and broaden knowledge about the practical legal market. “Last year, we began a working group with the CDO to discuss how to mitigate the toxicity of an OCI-focused culture at the law school,” said Chakravarty. “For example, we got an email last year advising students on how to schedule interviews if they had received too many OCI invitations. While managing a busy OCI schedule is a legitimate student concern, failing to give any gravity to the issues of students searching for non-OCI positions or who may have received few-to-no OCIs can be incredibly damaging. This creates a culture where all students begin to lose their sense of autonomy to carve out a career path of their choosing. In the long-run no singular recruit or job opportunity will be the end of the road, but it can begin to feel that way when a singular path is over-emphasized.” The subcommittee is currently in dialogue with the CDO to f ind ways to better identify and meet student needs. A key focus for the subcommittee this year has been destigmatized data collection. “We are trying our best to gauge how many students are still looking for jobs. This is a dif-

f icult metric to acquire when the post-recruit job searches have been somewhat secretive for so many years. It’s perfectly understandable that many law students don’t want to begin building their professional brand as ‘I’m still looking for a job’,” said Chakravarty. The subcommittee hopes to f ill gaps in the current information available about the recruit. For instance, data on how students with accommodations navigate the recruit or the number of students who f ind employment outside the formal 2L and articling recruits is not well documented. “Ultimately, we are working to create a community that recognizes the strengths of all students who were admitted to this Faculty. They’re all intelligent, hardworking, and highly employable. By not preparing them to search for jobs outside of OCIs sooner, we’re actively hampering their ability to compete for those positions against schools that have kept their students informed all along,” added Chakravarty. The team has also created a Facebook group to share job postings outside of the recruit. “Jamie and I have experience job hunting on different job boards,” said Chakravarty. “We want to help students combat the

fear and panic of summer unemployment so they can continue receiving a high-quality legal education when they’re not in law school,” she added. The “U of T Law Students’ Job Search 2021/2022” Facebook group currently has 306 members. “However, this Facebook group is a shortterm solution to a culture we want to change for the long term,” explained Chakravarty. The subcommittee is workshopping more sustainable solutions with the CDO and professional recruiters to build an automated channel that will inform students of available positions during their post-recruit job search. In addition to the Facebook group, the recruit subcommittee hosted a judgement free, conf idential Zoom room to support students on Offer Day this year and a post-recruit panel featuring 3L students and alumni who took non-OCI paths to their current positions. “It’s important not to box students into one dimension of what success in their lifelong career can look like,” reminded Chakravarty. “There are plenty of paths to fulf illing jobs outside of the recruit. Let’s f ind them, map them out, and make sure students are aware of them.”

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RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

November 25, 2021 | 21

Why I Did Not Participate in the 2L Recruit

Pursuing public interest work amidst corporate pressures HARRY MYLES (2L) As you can probably guess from the title of this article, I did not participate in the 2L recruit. By “the recruit”, I am talking about summer positions on Bay Street or in corporate firms. I recognize that the recruit is not exclusively related to corporate law and includes government positions and other firms such as those that practice unionside labour or class actions. The following discussion specifically answers why I did not participate in any corporate/Bay Street on campus interviews (OCIs) and the in-firm process. Why people participate in the recruit is an individual choice based on a variety of factors; perhaps based on interest or, for many, due to the financial pressures imposed by the crushing debt of law school. For myself, I did not partake in the recruit because I do not believe it would help me in my future career path. The law is inherently unjust. More often than not, the legal system is a means to actively control marginalized popula-

tions and maintain a capitalist power hierarchy in which the elite remain on top. The work done on Bay Street supports the continuance of this hierarchy by representing, among others, polluters, natural resource extractors, and governments against those who dare to stand up against oppression, such as Indigenous land defenders. Because of this, I am not interested in corporate law or its related fields. Rather, I would like to explore environmental and Aboriginal law, as well as the intersection of international human rights. Likewise, I hope to engage in movement lawyering, a practice through which lawyers support organizers contesting the cruelty of corporations and the State. I cannot pursue movement lawyering on Bay Street, and so the recruit did not offer the types of experiences that would prepare me for my future endeavours. During 1L summer and the first term of 2L, the recruit can feel like the only option. The Fac-

ulty provides an abundance of resources through the Career Development Office to prepare participants for OCIs, in-firms, and the general process. The majority of 2L students participate in the recruit and so, as a result, if you choose not to apply, it can feel like you are doing something wrong and dooming yourself to a summer of unemployment. For those who participate, it is incredibly stressful and anxiety-inducing. For those who do not take part, it can feel like an overwhelming, suffocating experience to observe your classmates struggling, while also questioning your own decisions. However, if you are not interested in Bay Street or the corporate path, there are alternative opportunities available. The law school has a few, albeit not nearly enough, public interest fellowships (such as the Donner and the International Human Rights Program) that provide up to $10,000 for a summer placement. As well, some

non-Bay Street firms offer summer employment through the recruit and a general application process. Unfortunately, such firms are not advertised by the Faculty in the same way as Torys or Stikeman Elliott is, meaning you must dig to find them. For those interested in progressive summer employment, you can also check out this guide by the University of Toronto Law Union. In the end, your decision to participate in the recruit is yours and yours alone. In making this decision, you must balance many factors present within your life and choose what is best for yourself. For me, my values and future lie in public interest work which cannot be progressed by working on Bay Street; as a result, I did not see the recruit as a viable option. Editor’s Note: Harry Myles is a member of the University of Toronto Law Union Steering Committee.

Movement Lawyering: Which Side Are You On? Students dedicated to the struggle for justice must see themselves as a part of movements, not separate from them GRAYSON ALABISO-CAHILL (2L) Lawyers Facilitate Injustice Lawyers work on behalf of the State and Capital to dominate poor and working class communities. Wherever you f ind violence, oppression, and the capitalist system at its most cruel, you f ind lawyers. You f ind lawyers arguing on behalf of oil companies stripping Indigenous peoples of their land. You f ind lawyers working to ensure murderous cops escape accountability. You f ind lawyers working for bosses busting unions and preventing workers from seeing the fruits of their labour. Legal victories that supposedly benef it the dispossessed are pyrrhic. When the police inevitably settle lawsuits in response to their brutality, it is taxpayers, not cops, who foot the bill (with the benef it of lining the pockets of lawyers at “prestigious” law f irms like Brauti Thorning and Borden Ladner Gervais). When companies face legal accountability for polluting Indigenous lands and destroying ecosystems, they can use byzantine international corporate structures to simply avoid paying damage awards that could impact their bottom line (see the case of Chevron and Steven Donziger). Tribunals empowered to make systemic recommendations, like the Ontario Human Rights Commission, are so overwhelmingly underfunded that they are effectively useless. Impact litigation based on the Charter faces institutional limits, in part because the courts have an interest in maintaining the colonial Canadian state and in part because courts are unwilling to grapple with the law’s disproportionately cruel impact on poor and working class people. While legal f ights against eviction will al-

most always end in an eviction, direct resistance to police and sheriffs by tenants at the door can prevent an eviction outright by placing direct pressure on a landlord to compromise. Labour struggles for union recognition and workplace justice exemplify how State concessions of legal “rights” failed organized communities. Workers fought and died on picket lines for union recognition and workplace dignity, eventually forcing the State to legalize and regulate their actions. By making limited concessions, the State successfully dampened labour militancy, stripping unions of their most powerful tactic. State regulation has become the labour movement’s downfall, as shown by decades of declining unionization rates and rapidly accelerating economic disparity. At their best, legal victories reify a deeply unjust system by legitimizing the asserted neutrality of law. At their worst, legal victories fragment and demobilize organized communities by draining them of their time and resources and by decentering the role of material resistance to domination in favour of professionalized interventions in legal proceedings. If you, like me, believe that the capitalist system is inherently unjust, you must also understand that the legal system upholding the capitalist order is similarly unjust. If you, like me, see the immense and immeasurable cruelty of police and prisons as a deep evil, then you must understand that the legal system which justif ies and legitimizes carceral state violence cannot ever present us with victories. This is not to say there is no role for lawyers who are dedicated to justice in struggle. Our profession is a dirty and violent one and

we must be strategic about the legal interventions we pursue. Lawyering in Support of Movement To be a movement lawyer is to dedicate one’s life and work to the struggle of poor and working class people. The goal of movement lawyering is transformative systemic change. Movement lawyers do not think of their work as harm reduction. We think of our work as a part of class struggle. We do not aim to make evictions less painful; we aim to prevent every eviction from happening. We do not aim to ease the criminalization of our community members by crafting plea deals; we f ight cops and Crowns at every step of the way to prevent criminalization. Movement lawyers do not focus on solving discrete issues; we focus on transforming an inherently unjust system. The work of those dedicated to struggle must address the abolition of the capitalist system as a whole, not just seek redress against specif ic forms of domination. Becoming a movement lawyer is a political choice. Movement lawyers are not movement lawyers because of their title or career path; they are movement lawyers because of their beliefs and actions. Movement lawyers costrategize with poor and working class organizers. Movement lawyers f ight the State when it retaliates against organizers with frivolous charges. Movement lawyers see the legal system as a political space that organized communities cannot simply concede, but must actively contest. Legal interventions co-developed by movement lawyers and organizers work in tandem with direct action to put pressure on oppressors and extract real wins and substantive concessions.

Movement lawyering requires a willingness to risk one’s professional reputation and f inancial security. These are risks that capitalism imposes upon poor and working class people every day. Working class people endure humiliation and exploitation in their workplaces and from their landlords. They endure oppression and violence at the hands of the State. When they organize and resist domination, poor and working class people face retaliation that jeopardizes their homes and safety. Why should lawyers be uniquely free from these sacrif ices? From these risks? Who are we to place ourselves outside of the fray and above the members of the communities most affected by injustice? It is incumbent on law students dedicated to transformative change to understand ourselves as struggling alongside oppressed communities. We must see ourselves not as servants to the movement, nor as its masters, but rather as members and co-conspirators in the transformative struggle necessary to bring about justice. We must see our goals as the same as those of organized working class communities, Indigneous land defenders, abolitionists, incarcerated persons, and all those f ighting back against an immense array of oppressive institutions. When the State brings its forces to bear upon these communities, our place is not at our desks, in our off ices, or amidst professionals. Our place is to be there alongside those resisting domination. We must stand, arm in arm with our comrades, and f ight, actually f ight, for the world we believe in. Editor’s Note: Grayson Alabiso-Cahill is a member of the University of Toronto Law Union Steering Committee.

22 | November 25, 2021

RECRUITMENT SPECIAL

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Dual Licensing in Ontario and New York Achieving a cross-border practice DHRITI CHAKRAVARTY (3L) Each year, a handful of students at U of T Law graduate with the intention of being licensed to practice in both Ontario and New York. Some choose to pursue both licensing processes immediately upon graduation, and others move to NY before they get a chance to think about getting licensed in Canada. This choice to make both jurisdictions home is likely influenced in part by the annual presence of New York firms recruiting directly from our school, and the overlaps of Toronto and New York’s economies. Both the New York recruit and the licensing processes require a significant amount of work. For those considering this path of building a cross-border practice, this article provides a closer look at what it takes to be licensed in both jurisdictions.

“items”, meaning two separate specific assignments. The examinee must complete tasks as described in a memorandum from a supervising attorney. Each MPT item will include a “File” and a “Library”. The File consists of source documents containing all the facts of the case. The Library may contain cases, statutes, regulations, or rules. 3. Multistate Essay Examination (MEE): A common set of six 30-minute essays. To write the UBE, applicants must sit for two back-toback days. The MEE and MPT are written on the same day, followed by the MBE on the next day. Last year, many U of T students wrote the UBE in July.

Structure Ontario The Ontario bar exam consists of two parts: the Barrister and the Solicitor, with the former usually written first. Both parts test separate areas of the law, with the exception of ethics and personal responsibility which appears on both. Both exams are open book, seven hours long, and consist of 220-240 multiple choice questions. Many students rely on an exam index such as the one collaboratively created by U of T Law students.

Timeline Both jurisdictions have their own challenges to the licensing process. The Ontario exams have less content and steps, but materials change (and must be purchased) each year. New York materials are easier to access and find official practice exams for, but the sheer volume of materials leads most students to elect for a six or threemonth bar prep course. Typically, students will attempt to write one of either the NY or the Ontario bar exams in the summer after graduation. What Would it Mean to Have a Dual License in Both Ontario and New York? 1. Planning Ahead: Being licensed in both jurisdictions requires a fair amount of forethought and preparation even if taken in different years. If you want to pass both bars in one summer, this can prove to be quite a challenge. 2. Type of Practice: Your plan may need to look different depending on whether you focus your practice primarily on transactional or litigation work. For transactional lawyers, the calculation comes down to a much simpler cost/benefits analysis than for litigators as the latter must learn and keep track of changes in court procedures and a constant churning of case law in both localities. Depending on your area of specialization, being licensed in both jurisdictions can help expand your client base. This is especially true if your clients engage regularly in cross-border operations, transactions, and litigation.

New York The New York Bar consists of three parts: 1. New York Law Course (NYLC). Not to be confused with the New York Law Exam (NYLE), an applicant must first finish this free, online course up to a year prior to their Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). The NYLC is approximately 17 hours of recorded lectures on the subjects that will be tested on the NYLE. The lectures have embedded questions that must be answered correctly before the student can have access to subsequent lectures in the series. Last year, many U of T Law students started this course midway through the winter semester in February 2021.

3. Overhead Costs: Obtaining and maintaining an active license in any jurisdiction means paying the costs of registration for the exams, the preparatory materials or courses, annual fees, and any continued legal education courses and practice-insurance one might opt to (or be required to) take. For example, at the current costs of admission, minimum preparatory materials from the official licensing boards, annual law society fees, and practice insurance, maintaining both licenses for ten years can cost over $100,000 CAD. This is perhaps one of the most daunting considerations for dual licensing. To make this accessible, most students try to find jobs at firms willing to cover the costs. Alternatively, students may wish to compare the benefits of this dual licensing process against completing an LLM in their desired jurisdiction.

1. New York Law Exam (NYLE). After finishing the NYLC, students become eligible to write the NYLE prior-to or up to a year after taking their Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). The NYLE is a two-hour, open book multiple choice test with approximately 50 questions. Last year, many U of T Law students wrote the NYLE in March 2021, with a few waiting to take it after their UBE was done. 1. The Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). The UBE is a standardized test across 41/56 jurisdictions in America. It consists of three sections that must be taken concurrently in the same jurisdiction to earn a transferrable UBE score:

We wish all those writing licensing exams in the upcoming months the best of luck and encourage all students to share their resources and insights with one another throughout the process.

1. Multistate Bar Examination (MBE): a six-hour, multiple choice exam consisting of approximately 200 questions. 2. Multistate Performance Test (MPT): Two 90-minute A NEW YORK STATE OF MIND. CREDIT: SHAE ROTHERY

Editor’s Note: Dhriti Chakravarty is the BARBRI Brand Ambassador, a company whose primary product offering is U.S. bar prep courses.

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November 25, 2021 | 23

Advice Ahead of the Upcoming Exam Period Professors weigh in on how to write a great law school exam HYE-SEON JUNG (1L), FIEVEL LIM (1L), AND JEFFREY LIU (1L)

2. Use your own summary—shorter ones may be more useful;

teaching you to think like a lawyer. So try it: don’t just read the material and write summaries of it—although, of course, do those things too, and make sure you make your own summary rather than use someone else’s—think about it, and talk it over with your friends (that is: think together about it). And when it comes to the exam itself, do the same thing: think about the problem, think about how the law you’ve learned applies to it, and think about why you’re being asked what you’re being asked and why you want to say what you want to say. Do that before you start. Once the thinking is done, the writing will be easy. Good luck!”

3. Read the question carefully and actively underline and answer it;

Exam Tips from Other Faculty Members

With the fall exam period quickly approaching, anxiety is palpable in the Jackman Law Building. For this year’s 1L cohort, this will be their first set of law school exams. UV reached out to some faculty members for their advice on how to prepare and write great law school exams. Professor Kent Roach “My seven rules are: 1. Stay as rested as possible and be kind to yourself;

4. Plan and watch your time; 5. Use short paragraphs and sentences; 6. Don't try to fudge an issue—have confidence that you have the correct answer; and

7. Do not discuss an exam after it is done-— no good will come from that!”

Associate Dean Christopher Essert “The best way to approach exams is to take the law school pitch seriously: we say that we are

Before the exam: • Look at past exams to get an idea of what the professor is looking for. • A good summary has more than details. It should orient you so that when you see an issue you know what principle to apply, and what facts might be relevant to subissues. • Start creating your summaries as early as possible so that you are systematically reviewing various elements of the course as you go through them.

• Discuss the course content with your peers. Speaking about difficult concepts allows you to sort them out in your mind. • Ask questions in class that confirm and challenge your understanding of the material. During the exam: • Read through the whole exam twice: different questions probably won't drill you on the same content. Ask yourself "why is this question being asked and what parts of the course are being covered?" • Take a holistic view of the question: what issues are raised and what order will you deal with them? Spend some time on an outline to set yourself up for success. • Try not to begin with your conclusion, you might change your mind halfway through! • Because you're under pressure, there's a tendency to roll with the easiest issue: that's okay, but the danger is spending too much time on the one that you feel comfortable with (and not leaving yourself enough time for the rest). • If you're running out of time, at

least make a brief point that shows your professor that you thought about the issues and arguments that you couldn't fully explore. • The issues that are complex and have varying interpretations should be discussed in depth. The degree to which this has been done will often be determinative of your grade. • Acknowledge counterarguments to your point as a means of addressing the weaknesses in your argument. • If you decide to not address a potential issue and it's not obvious why, then explain—think on paper, not just in your head. • The easier to read and the more clear your exam answer is, the better chance your professor will think it's good. No need for overly fancy organization. • Essay questions are not an invitation to write an opinion piece. Like fact patterns, you must channel legal reasoning in your answer. And with that, good luck to all those writing exams this December!

Essential Listening: PBSC’s Indigenous Human Rights Podcast Student-produced podcast sheds light on Indigenous peoples' experiences at human rights tribunals BRIANNA MORRISON (1L) AND HAYLEY VANDEPOL (1L) Awareness of human rights issues around the world grew exponentially with the development of technology and social media applications. While important, this global awareness has made awareness of human rights issues in our own country, provinces, and cities slip our minds. How we let this happen is immaterial. What matters is that we reestablish rightful awareness and education. Pro Bono Students Canada’s Indigenous Human Rights Podcast (the Podcast) seeks to do just that. The Podcast is hosted by Flint Patterson (3L) and Fallon Benson (3L, University of Ottawa Common Law). Patterson is from Coquitlam, British Columbia, the ancestral lands of the Kwikwetlam First Nation, while Benson is from Rainy River Rapids First Nation. We produce the Podcast, alongside Mathieu Tovar-Poitras (LLM, University of Ottawa). Brianna Morrison is a Métis-Cree woman from Edmonton, Alberta, the traditional territory of many Indigenous communities including the Nehiyawak/Cree, Tsuut'ina, Niitsitapi/Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Haudenosaunee/Iroquois, Dene Suliné, Anishinaabe/Ojibway/Saulteaux, and the Inuk/Inuit. Hayley VandePol is Mohawk, Turtle Clan, of the Akwesasne Reserva-

tion in New York State but calls Newmarket, Ontario, the traditional lands of the Wendat, Haudeno-saunee, and the Anishinaabe peoples, home. Three episodes have been released to date. In the inaugural episode, the team talked to Cree and Métis-Cree lawyers Amber Prince and Myrna McCallum about their experience representing Deborah Campbell, an Indigenous mother who took the Vancouver Police to the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal. In the second episode, the team spoke with Crystal Smith, who took her landlord to the BC Human Rights Tribunal after he tried to evict her for smudging in her apartment. In the latest episode, Gladys Radek shared her story of proving systemic discrimination after being questioned by security guards at her local shopping mall in Vancouver, British Columbia. In all these cases, the Human Rights Tribunal found that there were acts of discrimination. They arose from ordinary activities, such as ensuring the safety of one’s child, practicing one’s culture in their own home, and entering a mall to grab a coffee. This illustrates how, as Patterson says, “Every day, Indigenous folks are accosted in ways that demean their inherent human dignity.”

The podcast addresses the shortage of awareness and education about the human rights tribunal system in Canada. Reflecting on the tribunal process, Radek said, “It gave me a voice … I didn’t care what anyone thought of me anymore, I was Indigenous, and I am proud of who I am.” This podcast is not just for Indigenous people: it is an essential listen for all. By amplifying Indigenous voices and experiences, we hope that Treaty people become more aware, learn, and start talking about how the human rights system needs to change. The fourth episode (coming soon!) will be with lawyers Mandy Wesley and Amanda Driscoll. Wesley is a member of the Cree Nation and Bearskin Lake First Nation, and Driscoll is a settler. Together, they worked on a legal team representing Gary McKay at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. McKay, an Indigenous man, brought a claim against Toronto Police Services for racially profiling him while he was out on a regular day showing a friend his flyer delivery route. Wesley and Driscoll have strong words about how the system must change. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the Indigenous Human Rights Program website. Follow PBSC on Twitter (@

PBSC_EPBC) and Instagram (@pbsc_epbc) to keep up to date with the Podcast.

PBSC’S INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS PODCAST LOGO. CREDIT: PRO BONO STUDENTS CANADA

Editor’s Note: Brianna Morrison and Hayley VandePol are Program Coordinators at PBSC’s Indigenous Human Rights Program and are the producers of the Indigenous Human Rights Podcast.

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24 | November 25, 2021

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Sparkling Wine: More Than Just Champagne! In Vino Veritas SHAE ROTHERY (2L) My mantra in life is that you don’t need a special occasion to pop a bottle of bubbles. Whether you’re celebrating a successful end to the recruit season, or just getting through a Tuesday, sparkling wine fits the bill. Sparkling wine is more than just Champagne. While Champagne is unarguably the best-known variety, there are a ton of great sparkling wines produced outside of the eponymous 132-square-mile region in Northern France. Sparkling wine can be made in several different ways, with the most popular being the traditional method (Cava, Champagne, crémant), the tank method (Lambrusco, prosecco), and my favourite, the ancestral method (pétillant naturel). Beyond the method of production, there are so many different varietals that can be featured in sparkling wines— it’s not just white wine! Our reviews this month feature a diverse array of varietals and production methods, but all have one thing in common: they’re big on bubbles. Janice Fung (1L) kicks things off with a refreshing Lambrusco (a sparkling red!). I take us on a trip to Georgia with a super unique, hybrid-produced bottle of bubbly. Angela Gu (3L JD/MBA) celebrates good news with a traditional Brut Champagne. Alexa Cheung (3L) joins Angela in sharing a bottle of bestselling sparkling riesling from Niagara. Lastly, Sawyer Peloso (2L) takes us back to France with a crisp crémant. Come along with us on this journey and discover the wonderful world of sparkling wine!

Janice Fung (1L) Cantina di Soliera, Lambrusco di Sorbara $30, Peter Pantry I have to admit, sparkling wine is not my favourite (perhaps too many 1.5 litre Spumante Bambinos in undergrad?), but this Lambrusco hits a bit differently. When I walked into Peter Pantry, I told the nice lady that I was looking for a "fun sparkling wine" and I was not disappointed. It's sweet on the nose with hints of berry, but still short and dry enough to keep a refreshing character. This light bubbly will pair nicely with a plate of your favourite seafood pasta. If you’re a red wine drinker reluctant to dabble into lighter coloured sparklers, I would recommend giving this sparkling red a try!

Shae Rothery (2L)

Alexa Cheung (3L)

Ori Marani, ‘Definitely Maybe’

Back 10 Cellars, Smitten 2019 Sparkling Wine

$42, Grape Witches

$24.95, Back 10 Cellars

CREDIT: SHAE ROTHERY

This one is not for the faint of heart. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t the strangest wine I’d ever tasted. The first note that came to mind—and I’m genuinely not joking, I really debated not including this for fear of sounding like I have the unrefined palate of a fouryear-old, but here goes—McNuggets. Once I got past the nostalgic, confusing, and yet oddly intriguing aroma of the PlayPlace, I really enjoyed this funky hybrid traditional/pét-nat. It had an almost briney quality to it, and a cloudiness and creaminess reminiscent of a Nigori sake. Beyond the flavour, this wine was bubbly as hell. Normally, a pét-nat, while still a sparkling wine, doesn’t reach the effervescent quality of a traditionally produced bottle of bubbles. I won’t bore you with the science, but pét-nats generally undergo one fermentation, while traditional methods employ two periods of fermentation to really pump up the carbon dioxide in the bottle. ‘Definitely Maybe’ had the unfiltered, almost kombucha-like characteristic of a pétnat, combined with the bubbles of a traditional sparkling wine. Overall, it was a pleasant experience.

CREDIT: ALEXA CHEUNG

As Angela said, we shared this bottle of wine as part of an early celebration. Annecy Pang (3L), who kindly brought the wine to share, said it was delicious and so my expectations were high. This sparkling wine is 100 percent riesling, which is a good sign as I generally like most rieslings. It was sweet (but not too sweet) with fresh notes of pear, apple, and lime. This bubbly was very easy to drink, which explains why it is the Niagara winery's best-selling wine. We paired this bottle with a beautiful charcuterie board comprised of various cheeses, assorted meats, and green grapes. I especially liked how the wine complemented the sweet, nutty flavours of Emmental cheese.

Sawyer Peloso (2L) Domaine Allimant-Laugner Brut Crémant d’Alsace $24.95, LCBO

Angela Gu (3L JD/MBA) Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut Champagne $91.95, LCBO

CREDIT: SAWYER PELOSO

CREDIT: ANGELA GU

CREDIT: JANICE FUNG

There’s something magical about manifesting things into existence, and having Champagne chilling in the fridge in anticipation sure helps. I mentally prepared for interview week by purchasing this bottle, ready to celebrate the end of the recruit, whatever the result. Well, I had already preemptively celebrated a week in advance with friends. Alexa reviews the sparkling riesling we had—it was wonderfully sweet. That Wednesday evening, I popped the cork on a congratulatory Zoom call. Zoom, because I was three days into a bad cold and I was holed up at home, alone. I tasted very little of the beautifully golden Champagne through my blunted sensory systems, but I was able to glean notes of apple, as well as a lot of yeasty goodness. I will just have to buy another bottle of Bolly to savour and share another day.

I'm someone who is very selective and particular in the wines that I sample and purchase. However, I am quite a bit less experienced when it comes to drinking and sampling sparkling wines. As such, I thought I would review a random sparkling wine that was gifted to me for my birthday in September. I was very pleasantly surprised. While I always love when friends give me wine, I don't usually expect it to be any good. I found this one to be very palatable. It had very strong hints of melon on the nose. After the first sip, I tasted both green apple and pear. Pears happen to be my favourite fruit, and this very likely contributed to my enjoyment of the drink. Lastly, the finish was very dry, but crisp, and it left me wanting more. I was very thankful that I had roommates to share the bottle with, as I knew right away that I wanted multiple glasses, which was less than ideal on a school night. I will definitely be drinking this again and sending a belated thank you to the friend who gifted me the wine.

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November 25, 2021 | 25

Toronto’s Best Brews for Escaping the Winter Blues Six local breweries to check out this exam season KAITLYN NELSON (2L), LAUREN PAPAROUSIS (2L), AND SHAE ROTHERY (2L) We are back, back, back again with another fresh set of reviews! This month, we’re taking on local breweries in the GTA. Looking for a way to escape the winter wonderland outside? Trying to procrastinate studying for finals? Do you just really like beer? Read on for our six-pack of the best breweries in the 6ix! Bellwoods Brewery | 124 Ossington Ave Kaitlyn: I love a sour beer and the Bellwoods Brewery Jelly King sours are some of my favourites. With fun, creative flavours like Strawberry Rhubarb and Cranberry Tangerine, you can’t go wrong. Bellwoods Brewery and their bottle shop are located next door to each other on Ossington, so if you’re in that neighbourhood it’s a great place to stop for a drink. The only downside is that Bellwoods is very popular, so you should be prepared for a wait (no reservations, only a waitlist). If you’re lucky enough to get a spot, both their heated patio and indoor dining have a casual atmosphere and a great selection of beers! Top pick: any of the Jelly King sours (they’re all lactose free!)

Rorschach Brewing Co. | 1001 Eastern Ave

pale ale) without committing to an entire pint.

Shae: I, too, love a sour beer, and Rorschach really scratches that itch for me. They have the biggest selection of sours on our list! Don’t worry if you aren’t a sour gal—Rorschach has a solid selection of lagers and IPAs. I also love a hidden gem, and scenery abounds in this east-end spot. Have you ever wanted to drink a beer within view of a TTC streetcar stockyard? What about a Canada Post letter processing plant? A former sewage treatment plant turned into a playground? This is the place for you!

Top picks: Mr. Pink and Wizard of Gose

Top pick: Hedonism Sorbet Sour IPA Bandit Brewery | 2125 Dundas St W Lauren: Not to endorse theft (come on, we’re law students!), but the pint glasses at Bandit are very … stealable … (or purchasable at the gift shop, if your line of credit can handle it). If you don’t already have enough raccoons in your own backyard (I can’t relate), head all the way over to Roncesville to check out Bandit Brewery. If you are an indecisive person like myself, you’ll be happy to know that Bandit offers flights. This way, you can try out some more unconventional flavours like Mr. Pink (a watermelon and hibiscus

Burdock Brewery | 1184 Bloor St W Kaitlyn: Are you looking for a low-key spot for date night or drinks with friends with excellent drink choices and great service? Then Burdock Brewery is for you! Located on Bloor West, Burdock offers a cozy atmosphere with craft beers (and ciders) and a selection of snacks (think burgers, fries, and seasonal sides). The prices might seem a bit steep at first, but tips are included! The inside was cozy but spacious, and although winter is upon us, I would definitely come back in the summer to enjoy a drink on their patio. Top picks: Nula (Sour) and Tuesday (Saison) Collective Arts Brewing | 777 Dundas St W Shae: We love Collective Arts in our house. Seriously. We keep a bar fridge stocked with their beers and ready-to-drink cocktails. Collective Arts is the spot that truly has something for everyone. They have a great core line-up that caters to any beer drinker’s palette, as well as a constantly rotating menu of limited releases. As their name

suggests, Collective Arts loves the art community, and they change up the artwork on their cans every three months. If you’re an artist, check out their website for submission details! Last but certainly not least, Collective Arts has same-day delivery on the cheap for those of us who want to stock up but don’t have a car. Top picks: Guava Gose (pronounced go-zuh) and Jam Up the Mash Sour Brickworks Ciderhouse | 709 Queen St E Lauren: Oh shit—the waitress is on her way and I didn’t get a chance to look at the drink menu. We’ve all been there, and I’m here to tell you that any random cider made by Brickworks Ciderhouse is the ~perfect~ panic order. If you order this, all your friends who know way too much about beer will probably just leave you alone (they “don’t really care for cider” anyways), and you’ll save yourself from having to navigate that whole wine thing (phew!). Brickworks has flavours that you already know (like peach or apple), and none of those words that you have been too scared to ask about—let alone trying to order out loud (like gose or saison). Top picks: there are no bad choices here

Winter Cocktails for Any Occasion Two recipes from an amateur home bartender SHAE ROTHERY (2L) As if this issue of Ultra Vires didn’t have enough alcohol in it already, I’m here with two wintery cocktails to spice up your winter blues! I spent a lot of time during lockdown last year in Toronto’s most exclusive cocktail bar (i.e., my house) working on my bartending skills. These are two of my favourites to come out of those dark times.

Smoky Rosemary Negroni

London Fog Gin Fizz

For those cosy nights sitting by the fireplace, reminiscent of a holiday turkey dinner.

The cooler weather makes me want to curl up with a nice cup of hot tea. This cocktail isn’t that, but there technically is tea involved.

Ingredients: • 1 oz. gin • 1 oz. sweet vermouth • 1 oz. Campari • ½ oz. rosemary-infused simple syrup (see recipe below) Directions: 1. Torch dried rosemary and capture smoke in a rocks glass. 2. Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, add ice, stir. 3. Strain into rocks glass over ice. 4. Garnish with a fresh sprig of rosemary.

Ingredients: • 2 oz. gin (ideally with floral notes) • 1 oz. egg whites (pro tip: buy them pasteurized in a carton)

Infused Simple Syrup 1. Bring 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar to a boil, simmer for 3-5 minutes. 2. Remove from heat. 3. Add 3-4 sprigs of rosemary or 3 bags of earl grey tea (but not both!) and let steep for 30 minutes. 4. Strain.

• ½ oz. lemon juice • ½ oz. earl grey tea-infused syrup (see recipe below) • Club soda or sparkling water to top off Directions: 1. Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. 2. Shake for 30 seconds. 3. Remove ice, shake again for 1 minute to get the egg whites nice and foamy. 4. Strain into glass, top with club soda or sparkling water. LONDON FOG GIN FIZZ. CREDIT: SHAE ROTHERY

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Ryan’s Movie Corner The French Dispatch is a thoroughly entertaining homage to journalism RYAN SHAH (3L) As we settle into the winter months, I often find it easy to fret about the shorter days, colder weather, and the inexorable approach of exam season. The one silver lining, amongst these other, less than desirable developments, is the release of the year’s biggest films. Countless films that were originally slated for a winter 2020 release are now being belatedly released in winter 2021, making for a season that is sure to have a disproportionate amount of hits. One of my favourites from among these delayed films is Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch. To those acquainted with Anderson’s work, The French Dispatch will seem incredibly familiar. This familiarity, however, co-exists with an astonishing sense of inventiveness and novelty. The film takes the director’s signature style to an impressive new height of visual achievement—it is a must watch for anyone that appreciates creativity

in filmmaking. The film tells the story of the French foreign bureau of the fictional Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, an English-language magazine based in France in the mid-twentieth century, helmed by Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray). The magazine is quite explicitly based on The New Yorker, and the film depicts this homage perfectly: the French Dispatch employs a cartoonist who draws up quirky covers for a magazine filled with equally quirky cultural commentary. The film’s action plays out through the depiction of three distinct stories published by the magazine. These vignettes portray, among other things, an artistically gifted convict (Benicio Del Toro), a headstrong leader of a revolutionary student movement (Timothée Chalamet), and a talented chef dedicated to the art of “police cooking” (Steve Park).

Though some might balk at the idea of a feature film that is structured more like a collection of short stories, this narrative structure allows Anderson to engage in audiovisual storytelling that feels thoroughly unique. Each of the three stories proceeds via the narration of their respective authors, portrayed by Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and Jeffrey Wright. This allows for an engaging form of storytelling wherein characters are at once narrators and participants in the stories they tell. This narrative structure is combined with an incredibly inventive visual style that kept me engaged through the entire runtime. As the film goes from story to story, it also goes from black-and-white to colour, and from live-action to animated. These stylistic choices are used with great effect to convey a surprisingly rich array of emotions, especially given the brevity of each vignette.

Much like all of Anderson’s films, a central concern of The French Dispatch is the construction of a coherent aesthetic for its visual world. What makes The French Dispatch so impressive is its ability to achieve this cohesion, while simultaneously showing viewers the diversity of this world across the film’s relatively unrelated subplots. Though each vignette has its own cast of characters and its own message, these vignettes share a visual grammar that makes the film, in its entirety, something greater than the sum of its parts. Though the film is quintessentially Wes Anderson, this doesn’t mean that The French Dispatch is a mere restatement of his earlier works. The film is an experimental, though thoroughly entertaining, homage to journalism and the stories that journalists tell. 8.5/10

R v Morris: A Step in the Right Direction? Anti-Black racism considerations in sentencing NIK KHAKHAR (2L) On February 11, 2021, the Ontario Court of Appeal (ONCA) heard the long-awaited decision of R v Morris, 2021 ONCA 680. Originally decided by Justice Nakatsuru at the Ontario Superior Court, this case was praised for its potential to reshape sentencing jurisprudence for racialized offenders. Justice Nakatsuru held that sentencing decisions must account for the intergenerational and systemic realities of anti-Black racism when relevant to questions about criminal responsibility and sentencing objectives. The issue that confronted Justices Doherty, Juriansz, Tulloch, and Paciocco at ONCA was the extent to which these considerations must be incorporated. Facts In 2018, Morris was sentenced following a conviction for firearms possession. The firearm was seized by chance during Morris’ arrest on unrelated charges, for which Morris was later cleared. The Trial Decision Justice Nakatsuru’s decision-making in the Morris trial reflects the increased jurisprudential attention towards the value of social science evidence in illustrating the predicament of racialized offenders. Justice Nakatsuru admitted two reports that illustrated the relevance of systemic racism in evaluations of Morris’ personal circumstances. In particular, Justice Nakatsuru held that they were mitigating factors, since they had significant bearing on Morris’ personal circumstances as per section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. Section 718.2(e) is used by courts to consider all relevant sanctions other than imprisonment for an offender when available, with a particular attention to the circumstances of Indigenous offenders. The addition of the specific requirement for Indigenous offenders reflects the recognition of the intergenerational nature of trauma, the fact that incarceration may not be a culturally appropriate sentence, and the reality that Indigenous offenders remain overrepresented in our

correctional system. Justice Nakatsuru noted that the reports admitted as evidence should be applied in a similar way to Morris in order to mitigate the disproportionate incarceration of Black offenders and recognize its connections to intergenerational colonialism, slavery, trauma, and systemic racism. The Court of Appeal Decision The Crown appealed. While the Crown agreed that courts must acknowledge the reality of anti-Black racism and take it into account in sentencing, they maintained that these considerations must not overwhelm the proportionality analysis. The Court of Appeal acknowledged the value of admitting the two reports in the trial because the evidence was useful when determining the personal circumstances of Morris. Sentencing is an individualized process, and the role of a sentencing judge is to “impose a sentence tailored to the individual offender and the specific offence,” (para 56). As such, the court agreed that evidence relating to the impact of anti-Black racism on an offender will sometimes be relevant to sentencing. However, the Court of Appeal also stated that the priority of a sentencing judge is not “aimed at holding the criminal justice system accountable for systemic failures.” Prioritizing the philosophies of free will, the principles of proportionality, and the objectives of sentencing, the court stated that the severity of the offence—a weapons offence that poses an immediate and real danger to the public—requires a correspondingly severe sentence. While evidence of systemic racism was held not to have relevance in evaluations of the severity of the offence, the Court of Appeal held that it could be relevant in considerations of the degree of the offender’s responsibility. It maintained that a trial judge could give “added weight to the objective of rehabilitation and less weight to the objective of specific deterrence,” (para 81). If admitted for these purposes, social context evidence would continue to acknowledge the severity of

the crime while also individualizing the sentence. However, the court rejected the analogy that the circumstances of anti-Black racism should be treated in a similar way to the predicament of Indigenous offenders through section 718.2(e). This submission, argued by interveners such as Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC), was rejected on the grounds that it would create inconsistencies in sentencing decisions. The court was concerned that “the objectives of denunciation and deterrence, always viewed as paramount objectives when sentencing for serious gun crimes, would be tempered in cases involving Black offenders by a countervailing objective requiring that the sentence imposed acknowledge the offender’s status as a victim of society’s racism,” (para 82). While the court acknowledged that Black and Indigenous peoples share many of the same disadvantages flowing from systemic discrimination, it maintained that mitigating a sentence based on systemic racism may create a “discount based on the offender’s colour,” (para 97). Commentary The Court of Appeal’s judgment has been subject to critique and discussion, particularly from BLAC, the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, and Aboriginal Legal Services (ALS). BLAC disagreed with the Court’s ruling, stating that anti-Black racism must be considered as a legal condition of sentencing, whenever a Black person is brought before a sentencing judge. This would be facilitated by inquiring into social context evidence, much like the case here. Nana Yanful, Legal Director of BLAC, hypothesized that “a Morris-style report” can be used to provide evidence of the extent to which anti-Black racism impacts an offender’s opportunities, support and social networks, employment history, and life more broadly. This would be similar to the content of a Gladue report and its relevance to sentencing considerations. The Court of Appeal’s refusal to read in considerations of anti-Black racism into its interpretation of section 718.2(e) was supported by other interveners such as ALS. In its factum, ALS stat-

ed that the Gladue jurisprudence that is used to interpret the restraint principle of section 718.2(e) cannot be applied to non-Indigenous offenders. This appeal decision sheds light on some important considerations in the development of section 718 jurisprudence as it relates to Black offenders. That this case—and others—has acknowledged the pressing need for considering social context evidence to illustrate the impact of systemic racism on the individual offender is important. Parallels between anti-Black racism and the colonial impact on Indigenous peoples are found in some cases and elusive in others. Both Black and Indigenous peoples share intergenerational marginalization arising from colonialism: a lineage from slavery and the Residential Schools system, to ghettoization and the pass system, to the current reality characterized by diminished opportunities in employment, finance, and family support, and the current climate of overpolicing and overincarceration. It is not unfeasible to consider how section 718.2(e) can be interpreted in a manner that underscores the need to address systemic racism. The court’s strict reading of the provision reflects an underlying problem of infrastructure. While the jurisprudence for considering systemic racism in sentencing decisions exists, the wording of s 718.2(e) is presently restricted to the circumstances of Indigenous offenders. By this strict reading, the court sent a more inviting message: if changes in sentencing considerations are to occur, they must be done so formally by Parliament. Editor’s Note: This is an abridged version, read the full article on Crimes, Courts, and Commentary (CCC). This series by the Criminal Law Students’ Association introduces the law student body to the wild, wild world of criminal law and criminal justice. Articles will be published in print in Ultra Vires as well as on the CLSA’s website. To pitch an article to CCC, please contact the Blog Editors, Nicholas Buhite or Anna Zhang at nicholas.buhite@mail.utoronto.ca and as.zhang@mail. utoronto.ca, respectively.

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November 25, 2021 | 27

R IGHTS R EVIEW

The International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law An independent student-led publication 2021-2022 Rights Review Editorial Board Co-Editors-in-Chief: Taskeen Nawab (3L) and Sabrina Sukhdeo (3L) Senior Editors: Martha Côté (2L) and Sterling Mancuso (2L) Junior Editors: Duncan Crabtree (1L), Ally Mastantuono (1L), and Julianne Schmidt (1L) Social Media Editor: Ellen An (3L)

A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD REVITALIZING HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY By Sabrina Sukhdeo (3L) and Taskeen Nawab (3L), Co-Editors-in-Chief of Rights Review Dear Readers,

be created through remedies in this space.

Spheres of both domestic and international law aspire to function in harmony with the preservation of human rights. Often, political friction and competing sovereignties strain the realization of this goal. Paired with the burgeoning discourse on decolonization, and competing views on the appropriate reach of such legal systems, these challenges have stunted the capacity of a human rights based advocacy system to achieve concrete results.

In a similar vein, one of our junior editors unpacks the effect of Canadian inaction on ethnic Tigrayans caught in the crossfire of the Ethiopian civil war. We hope these pieces help shed light on the forces that perfidiously halt the potential of human rights advocacy, and wish you an enjoyable read—until January!

In the final issue of this term, we sit with Professor Kent Roach to discuss the various ways in which remedy paralysis can be overcome in the face of human rights violations. He shares the on-ground inspiration for his latest book on the topic and outlines the mechanisms through which domestic and international law can influence each other to maximize the impact that can

Sincerely, Sabrina Sukhdeo and Taskeen Nawab Co-Editors-in-Chief, Rights Review 2021-2022

THE NEGLECTED FIELD OF REMEDIES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR KENT ROACH ON REMEDIES IN HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AND THE IHRP By Ellen An (3L) and Taskeen Nawab (3L) Professor Kent Roach is Professor of Law and the Prichard-Wilson Chair in Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Professor Roach’s new book, Remedies for Human Rights Violations: A Two-Track Approach to Supra-national and National Law, provides fresh insights into the field of remedies in both international and domestic human rights law. This interview has been edited for clarity and concision. The full version appears on the Rights Review website, and the audio version can be found on our podcast, available on both Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Rights Review (RR): What inspired you to write a book about supra-national law? Professor Kent Roach (KR): I’ve been interested in remedies for a long time, but mostly domestically. I started the book as a course at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies. I arranged for my students there to meet with representatives of the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Ministers. That trip got me thinking about supranational law because the European Court of Human Rights is probably the

ihrprightsreview

world’s most important human rights court. The more I looked at international law, the more I found, perhaps counterintuitively, that domestic lawyers could learn a lot from international lawyers. International courts—in part because they don’t have the coercive powers that some domestic courts have—have been more creative and thoughtful about remedies. Two people had done this kind of crossover before: Yale Law professor, Edwin Borchard and Harvard Law professor, Abram Chayes. Both of these people wrote at a time when things, perhaps, were not as specialized, and they really straddled domestic and international law. Borchard, for example, is responsible for having declarations recognized as a remedy, and he borrows that from international law and from civil systems. That's how I got interested. I hope international lawyers as well as domestic lawyers read the book—but whenever you try to go for two audiences you always run the danger of losing them both. RR: In what ways have supra-national courts been innovative in ordering

remedies? KR: The essence of the two-track approach that I defend in the book is borrowed from the international law distinction between specific measures, which are designed to provide some remedy to compensate for harm that a litigant has suffered, and general measures, which are designed to ensure non-repetition of the violation. Supra-national courts have also experimented with interim remedies. This isn’t always successful, but even that can be significant and can signal to civil society that something is wrong. International courts also retain jurisdiction over matters for longer than Canadian courts, which seem quite allergic to retaining jurisdiction. In part because international law started with state-to-state relations and has now developed into state-individual relations, its approach to satisfaction is much less monetized than the common law’s approach to damages. International law does not pretend that paying money to a person whose life has been altered by a human rights violation suddenly wipes the slate clean and achieves some form of corrective jus-

ihrp.law.utoronto.ca/rights-review-homepage

PROFESSOR KENT ROACH’S NEW BOOK. CREDIT: CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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tice.

we really need to think about.

edies as somehow dirty and inferior.

RR: Could you speak a bit more to declarations as a remedy and how it is applicable within international law?

Since the book was finished, I was really grateful that students at U of T asked me to write a short piece on remedies for climate change because the Journal of Law and Equality was doing a special issue. One of the things that came out there is that we need to recognize that Indigenous governments may have an ability to regulate and pursue strategies to mitigate climate change. So, that's one of many remedies that I talk about in that article, which is a pretty direct offshoot from the book. I actually hadn't thought as much as I should have about climate change, but doing the research for that also kind of convinced me that sometimes the strongest remedies can actually backfire.

Fortunately, a recent committee has recommended that clinical directors be recognized as having academic freedom, though I have to say this wasn't done in a very well-publicized or particularly collegial, polite, or courteous way. For me, that is also something I think a lot of our students get a skewed view of in class—and I include myself in this criticism. If you get to a world where remedies are seen as a second thought or a simple matter of corrective justice that somehow restores the status quo, then you are operating under a very unrealistic view of the world and its injustices.

KR: Domestic lawyers tend to think of declarations as a second-best remedy because, usually, in domestic law, there is a choice between a declaration and an injunction. A declaration is a statement by the court of what the law requires that typically ends a court’s jurisdiction over a case, while an injunction is a mandatory order telling the defendant—often the state—to do something. There, the court retains jurisdiction because the breach of an injunction is a form of fault—contempt of court. One of the things that I've been arguing for, domestically, but that I also saw reflected in international court, is that we need a remedy halfway between a declaration that ends a court’s jurisdiction and an injunction, i.e. the “declaration plus”. The “declaration plus” is something by which the court provides an idea about what is required to comply with rights going forward, but also retains jurisdiction so that, if there are disputes about what the court meant or a failure by the government to respond, the parties can go back. It was very bittersweet because just after I finished the book, Joe Arvay, who I’d had the pleasure of working with and who was probably Canada's leading public law litigator, passed away. One of Joe’s many important cases, Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v Canada, really illustrates why we need what I call a “declaration plus”. Little Sisters won a declaration that customs had profiled their imports as a bookstore whose clientele were sexual minorities. But customs really didn't respond or fix its act, and Joe had to start litigation again for Little Sisters. That case went to the Supreme Court but was stopped when the Court refused to award advance costs to allow this very small bookstore to take on the government of Canada and the customs bureaucracy. For me, the “declaration plus” is practical. It happens, I think, much more routinely in supra-national law because most of those courts don't have jurisdiction to order an injunction. They make up for it by retaining jurisdiction, which, I think, Canadian courts—partly because of what the Supreme Court of Canada has told them—are extremely reluctant to do. RR: You referenced the distinction that arises within supra-national law of treating parties as being in state-to-state relations versus state-to-individual relations, and how resolutions come off as less monetized because of that. Given that reconciliation is viewed through the nation-to-nation lens, how do you see that framework shaping remedies for violations of Indigenous rights? KR: That’s a good and challenging question. I devoted a chapter to remedies for violations of Indigneous rights, and friends such as John Burrows and Brenda Gunn read those chapters and provided suggestions. But I am tentative here because one of the things we don’t want is to promote a form of neocolonialism with respect to Indigenous rights. Even the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, though in some ways the boldest in terms of Indigenous rights, has not always avoided that kind of paternalistic, neocolonial approach. I think that going back to the state-to-state route—the idea that courts can create a space for Indigenous people to come up with their own solutions—is something that

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And so, one of the things that I've kind of built into the book is this idea that we have to own up to remedial failure. We have to recognize the way international courts are more honest about how, sometimes, remedies don’t work and the answer is not to give up, but to try again. If the court has retained jurisdiction over the matter, or if the court is aware of prior attempts to remedy, then it can learn from that experience and perhaps ratchet up the remedies. But if the court sees each case as simply tabula rasa, then we’re not going to have the sense of remedial failure. Part of my big bug-aboo is that most of the books I pick up on rights, whether its domestic or international law, don't really grapple fully with the messy world of remedies. RR: Your comment about the harsh reality of remedial failures addresses why we were interested in reading your book in the first place. Perfect justice shouldn’t be the enemy of individual justice, and it's important to remember that we can be creative with the remedies within our existing system. KR: One of the things that has probably changed for me over the years is that I’ve come to appreciate that an individual remedy—and that's one track, the second is the systemic track—is important, even if it’s inadequate.Damages can often be inadequate, but it's better to call the judge’s attention to an individual person even if you can't achieve perfect distribution of justice. One of the things that Justice Albie Sachs, the great South African Constitutional Court judge and former ANC member, did later in his career as a judge, is draw this distinction between micro- and macro-injustices. There was a housing rights case where the court enjoined the destruction of irregular housing that so many people lived in. He essentially said, “Look, I as a judge can prevent this micro-injustice. I know that it may be a generation before we deal with the macro-injustices, and we shouldn’t lose sight of that, but we can actually do both.” RR: I think that really illustrates why we should be reading your book. We’re interested in legal systems across the world, and sometimes it's hard to find a book that spans across criminal and constitutional law issues but also taps into things like remedies and housing cases. KR: I very much hope that the International Human Rights Program [IHRP] can get back on its feet. One of the reasons I resigned as Chair of the Asper Centre in protest of the University’s approach is that I felt very strongly that the idea that clinical directors were “non-academic”, and therefore not protected by academic freedom, really spoke to a very elitist attitude that dwells in the world of perfect rights and high-status and looks at things like litigation and rem-

It’s only through grappling with the difficulties of remedies, and frankly, the ineffability of remedial failure, that you see that people who are struggling and those that are helping them to get remedies shouldn’t be denigrated in any way. RR: We appreciate you bringing up the hiring scandal in this context. Many students chose this law school because of the IHRP, so it’s ironic that the sort of program that would train students to enter the world of human rights law and help them become better practitioners in the field has become stunted in this way. KR: I think this is also a matter of professional responsibility. One of the things that has really influenced me is a 1975 article [called “Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals and Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation”] by Derrick Bell, who’s one of the founders of Critical Race Theory. It was written after Bell left the NAACP, a public interest group that had done a lot of school desegregation litigation, and had moved into the academy. It’s this incredibly honest portrayal about who his client was. Was his client the NAACP, which wanted to achieve (to the extent possible in a residentially segregated America) racial integration, or was his client the families and African American school children? Once you're a parent, you get really selfish because your child only has one education—or, to transfer this to the students here, only three very expensive years in law school. I also find it disheartening that hiring someone who makes professional responsibility their main topic of academic inquiry has never been the priority in the 30 years that I've been on the Faculty. I definitely appreciate that students who came here for the IHRP feel robbed. I feel that the Faculty is moving away from what we think it should be doing, and I worry that, without things like the IHRP, we aren't going to attract the students who are interested in these issues of social justice and these kinds of messy struggles to get remedies for the most disadvantaged throughout the world. RR: In your book, you mention that supra-national courts have better remedies because they need greater legitimacy. On the flip side: can we expect our legal system to be more trusted by the public if we properly address remedial failures? KR: In 2001, I represented Aboriginal Legal Services, the African Canadian Legal Clinic [now, the Black Legal Action Centre], and others in R v Golden, and we won. The Supreme Court said, “No more routine strip searches.” But we know for the next 20 years, especially here in Toronto, there were a lot of routine strip searches. So, I think that when you don't have effective remedies, it promotes a lot of cynicism.

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The other thing that we have to counter is this idea that one mega-remedy is going to somehow deal with climate change, or police racism and violence. The remedial approach that I outline here and dialogic approaches require, generally, civil society to have a lot of staying power. So, you think of Canada v Bedford and Carter v Canada as two of the most significant Charter cases, but in both cases, the judicial victories became legislative losses. One of our problems in Canada is a thin civil society, and part of what the IHRP did is give its students access to better financed civil societies across Europe, the United States, and sometimes Latin America. That is one of the advantages of clinics, which is another reason why we have to respect clinical instructors, not as secondclass citizens or non-academic faculty, but as academic faculty. RR: Would you say that class action lawsuits are an effective tool for addressing claims concerning social, economic, and cultural rights? KR: Class actions are definitely one way to go. But my worry, especially in the Canadian context, is that we're using class actions when courts should be retaining jurisdiction. This goes to professional responsibility—that class actions are a kind of fix that we have for our access to justice problems and it allows firms to invest literally millions of dollars into lawsuits. The remedial dilemmas that Derrick Bell talked about so eloquently are huge when it comes to class actions because once you get a class action certified there's a real temptation for lawyers to settle to get some of the money that they've invested back. Although the judge has a role in approving the settlement, frankly our Canadian judges, even during COVID, have not shown receptivity to retaining jurisdiction. RR: You brought up the possibility of a political victory arising out of a lost court case. What means would best facilitate that victory? KR: That’s where I think the media and socially engaged universities play a role. My colleague Anver Emon has been doing work on this and there have been other studies by the International Civil Liberties Group on the practices of the Canada Revenue Agency auditing Muslim charities. If we talk about policing: what about the under-protection of Muslims and other groups from terrorism and hate crimes? A socially conscious university needs to encourage this sort of research, especially as traditional media dies. Media plays a big role in remedying wrongful convictions and all forms of injustice. Along with universities and think tanks, they can step up to provide such information because research is really powerful. One of the things I've been involved with over my career is R v Gladue and the recognition of Gladue sentencing. That would never have gotten off the ground if we couldn't point to the research done by Stats Canada. When I think about remedial failure, I probably think about Gladue. It, in some ways, has been a spectacular failure, but I've really been honored to work with people, like Jonathan Rudin, who just don't give up and just keep fighting. He fights from his perch at Aboriginal Legal Services, and now he's a litigator in residence at the Asper Centre, which, again, brings us to the absolute importance of clinical programs at our law school. RR: That is probably the best takeaway for us as well, as we move into the profession: to keep fighting from our perch.

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RIGHTS REVIEW

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November 25, 2021 | 29

HUNGER, TORTURE THREATEN TIGRAYANS HOW CANADA’S CURRENT INACTION ON TIGRAYAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IS REMINISCENT OF OLD FAILURES By Duncan Crabtree (1L) Hundreds of thousands of people in Ethiopia, the majority being ethnic Tigrayans, are suffering human rights violations from starvation, sexual assault, and torture. Countless more are at risk if the current Ethiopian civil war continues unabated, and the Ethiopian government continues to prevent aid from reaching Tigrayans. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says that Canada is calling for a “peaceful solution” to the civil war, starting “with a ceasefire.” Canada cannot solve this situation on its own. Nevertheless, as some advocates in the Tigrayan community have asserted, Canada can take steps beyond abstract statements to help Tigrayans in danger. Indeed, advocates for Tigray are calling on Canada to sponsor more specific measures that may sooner help those whose human rights are being violated. Addressing the Core Issues of the Civil War A key motivating issue of the Ethiopian civil war is political strife between the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian government led by President Abiy Ahmed. The TPLF is an influential and aggressive political party and militia which controls Tigray. It has been calling for political change in Ethiopia since President Ahmed cancelled the August 2020 Ethiopian elections, citing COVID-19 concerns. Given the political basis for this conflict, a

more efficient path to a temporary ceasefire might be power brokerage. Mulugeta Abai, the Executive Director for the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture and an Ethiopian refugee, believes Canada can lead such a process. Abai argues that by supporting an “inclusive and transitional government,” Canada would be doing more to help end violence and the ongoing shelling of Tigrayans by Ethiopian forces. In eschewing vague statements for this concrete advocacy, Canada can also facilitate a more rapid provision of aid to those suffering from the civil war and food shortage in Tigray. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 400,000 people are facing catastrophic, “famine-like” conditions in Tigray, due in part to Ethiopian airstrikes preventing NGOs from reaching those in need. As of November 10, no aid had reached the Tigrayan capital of Mekele since October 18. In addition to mass starvation, there is evidence that numerous survivors of sexual violence in Tigray are unable to obtain post-rape care. Repeating Past Mistakes Unfortunately, this is not the first time Canada has put forward inadequate solutions to a Tigrayan famine exacerbated by civil war. During the Ethiopian civil war and famine in the late 1980s, most who suffered were residents of Tigray and Eritrea (then, still a part of Ethiopia). Canada nevertheless continued to provide most of its fam-

ine aid directly to the Ethiopian government. However, just as it is today, Ethiopia was led by a regime in direct conflict with Tigrayan militias. As a result, little of the Canadian aid made it to Tigray where it was needed most. In the late 1980s, Canada underutilized solutions such as sending aid to Tigray through Sudan to circumvent the Ethiopian government. Canada refrained from providing aid directly to Tigray seemingly to avoid causing friction between it and the Ethiopian government. Providing Shelter from Torture Today, immediate solutions like sending aid through Sudan to Tigray are presently ineffective because of continued Ethiopian airstrikes. Nevertheless, there is a way Canada might be able to immediately help Tigrayans in government-controlled parts of Ethiopia. Though they may have greater food security in these areas, Tigrayans there are nonetheless at risk of human rights violations. The Globe and Mail has documented numerous arbitrary detentions of Tigrayans, often resulting in torture by the Ethiopian government since the government declared a state of emergency. Furthermore, President Ahmed and Ethiopian authorities have publicly called for Ethiopians to take up arms against Tigrayans, regardless of allegiance with the TPLF. These immediate threats to Tigrayans’ freedoms and lives in government-con-

trolled areas have prompted Tigrayans in Canada to call for Canada to help directly. One way they propose would be for Canada to open its embassy in Addis Ababa to shelter Tigrayans. Canada has not yet adhered to these calls. Will Canada Turn a New Page? Clear evidence of rights violations against Tigrayans in Ethiopia points to a simple conclusion: if Canada continues its inaction, it is repeating its past mistakes in standing by while Ethiopia blocks needed aid to Tigray and preys on Tigrayans’ human rights. Instead, Canada should respond to calls to action and take a different approach to help Tigrayans. In addition to promoting a concrete political solution to the violent civil war, this approach could include pressuring the Ethiopian government to suspend its “siege” of Tigray so that aid can safely enter the region. Additionally, beyond opening its embassy to shelter Tigrayans facing persecution in Addis Ababa, Canada could promote and assist an independent investigation into Ethiopian human rights violations. Canada’s current report partially relies on information from the Ethiopian government and thus should be updated to reflect more impartial sources, especially as evidence of Ethiopian torture mounts. Only with stronger and more definite measures can Canada prove it has learned from its past mistakes and is now a determined advocate for the human rights of Tigrayans.

OPINIONS

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November 25, 2021 | 29

Hard Times for Soft Copies The Faculty’s closed-minded approach to open book exams MITHUSHAN KIRUBANANTHAN (2L) Change can be an uncomfortable thing and, contrary to our Ozymandian delusions of permanence, it is almost certainly inevitable. Triteness (of which I am painfully aware) aside, this is a cosmic truth. That the journey of joyous appearance, brief existence, and unceremonious extinction is one common to all life, for example, is a testament to this principle. Nothing is meant to last forever. Now that I’ve invoked some measure of existential dread, I offer you cause for optimism. While we can’t quite eliminate change entirely, we can make the process a more forgiving one by consciously adapting our actions to our circumstances. Instead of standing tall in the face of change, we ought to scurry into the grass and adjust to its whims. After all, those that resist obvious warning signs serve as lessons (and strained analogies) for the future. 140 words in, you must wonder what these rambling ruminations have to do with U of T Law. I’ll tell you. Though the Royal Ontario Museum sits some distance from campus, we have our fair share of dinosaurs as well. While they each deserve to be unearthed and examined in the proper light, for the purposes of this article, look no further than to our inane exam practices. This time of year will see hundreds of law stu-

dents at U of T preparing for their finals with diligence, placing finishing touches on meticulously crafted summaries and outlines. These materials act as a point of reference to some, as a guiding light to others, and as a Hail Mary to a fair few. Regardless of the role they serve in your personal test-taking experiences, their importance is abundantly clear. When finals worth 90 or 100 percent of your grade are fairly common, having adequate access to your materials makes a world of difference. Despite this, U of T Law will be reimplementing its practice of forbidding electronic access to course materials during exams. This leads us to the overwhelming question. Why has the Faculty been loath to easing access? Those of us who were around last year faced our finals in a most peculiar, alien environment– our homes. Though the circumstances were unusual, it’s probably safe to say that we all appreciated the luxury afforded by electronic access. This crucial change introduced a measure of cohesion, control, and efficiency to test-taking. The resulting exam process circumvented the stress that comes from placing too much reliance on fragile, easily-jumbled paper materials and, to our knowledge, did not induce cheating. As we look to attempt finals in-person, however, a re-

turn to the sole allowance of printed materials gives rise to concern. There is an obvious environmental consideration. Materials for a single course can easily cross into the triple digit realm. For each law student at U of T to undergo this process up to eight times in a given year is shamefully wasteful. The tension with U of T’s wider community mission is also palpable, given U of T President Meric Gertler’s recent espousal of the values of environmentalism and local engagement. There are also human concerns. Simply, the mandate makes the exam experience more stressful. It makes pertinent information more difficult to locate. It breeds a frantic and cluttered testing environment. It penalizes students who dared to save money by using online textbooks and, for good measure, penalizes them further with the costs of printing and binding. The practice makes little sense in an age where digital note-taking is the norm and students are strongly encouraged to type their exams. It makes even less sense when accounting for the Faculty’s successful implementation of electronic access during exams just one year prior. I suppose a traditionalist could say, “if the tried and true methods work, why change them?” I guess an appropriate response would be, “if

the new methods work, why shy away from them?” Yet, the Faculty is seemingly enamored with its status quo, bafflingly holding on to policies and practices shown to be antiquated during the worst months of the pandemic. (Given that our profession precedes the invention of the printing press, do you think some barristers of old would have vehemently opposed the transition to paper from the traditional technologies of their time, such as wax tablets, clay, or papyrus? Totally unrelated, and would love to hear your thoughts.) This is a good time to revisit my earlier discussion of change. What we appear to have in this context is an aversion to it, even when it would benefit students greatly. Ease of access is not an issue exclusive to the Faculty’s exam practices, either. There has been little entertainment to the thought of extending virtual Zoom access to everyone enrolled in a given class, leaving students at the mercy of a redundant, patronizing registration system. UV’s continuous calls for recorded lectures have also fallen on deaf ears. All told, sliced any way, there has been a failure to adapt. The result? We are left with a process which remains, to some degree, unnecessarily unforgiving.

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30 | November 25, 2021

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Headnotes Bulletin, I Miss You

Lamentations over a once great service ANNECY PANG (3L) Reading the weekly Headnotes Bulletin was an integral part of my Monday routine in 1L. I would scroll through the announcements, conveniently sorted by category (student office, academic events, student activities), clicking on and registering for the events that caught my eye. I paid special attention to the ones that were held during lunch because that meant I didn’t have to pack food that day. The Critical Analysis of Law and the James Hausman Tax Law and Policy workshops were my favourite: they featured hot food served in trays. On December 2, 2019, in the last Headnotes of the semester, Dylan Reid bid the Faculty farewell

as it was his last issue of editing Headnotes. Headnotes continued on though, taken over by the events team at the Faculty. So long as an announcement was submitted by Thursday noon, it would be included for publication on the following Monday. This academic year, however, Headnotes is a shell of its former self. They are now merely a “reminder to check the eLegal calendar for upcoming events.” No, I’m not going to check the events calendar on eLegal. Not only do I have to log in –the horror of the one extra click –I have to toggle between the days on the calendar, unsure of what I am searching for.

Don’t get me wrong, the events calendar is great. I thought the daily emails were useful– for about a month in 1L –when they came every day around midnight. I don’t need three in one day, coming at 12:06am, 3:38am, and 12:32pm, with the first two emails listing different events and the third one listing events that are happening at that very moment. I think the glitch has been fixed now, but the point remains. Perhaps it’s because I am in 3L now and there’s less free food offered due to the pandemic, but I am less attuned to events happening at the Faculty. The posts on the Virtual Community Face-

book group are a blur. I am inundated with emails informing me of upcoming events, which I have trouble keeping up with. I understand that the Faculty is trying to shift us to U of T Law Connect. My registration is still waiting to be approved so I cannot comment on how useful a tool it is. But I am not looking forward to keeping track of another website to check (on top of Quercus, UTLC, eLegal) and I miss the simplicity of Headnotes. I miss the events, helpfully organized in a list, with a concise headline that included its date and time. Maybe most of all though, I miss the free food that Headnotes notified me about.

Reading Week in Review Exam pressure winding up and steam running out STEPHEN MAPPLEBECK (1L) With exams just around the corner, it’s difficult not to look back longingly at reading week, a week of relative freedom. But if you’re anything like me, reading week was not quite the success it was supposed to be. On paper, it was to be a week of schoolwork and relaxation that would be the very picture of balance. In practice, the nights were later and the mornings groggier. The days were spent catching up on crim readings and trying to get ahead on … crim readings. The nights were spent hastily catching up with all those non-law school friends who were wonder-

ing how I fell off the face of the earth. Add in a small group assignment (which I didn’t start, but I did worry about) and there was little time for that scheduled relaxation. While not a disaster, it certainly wasn’t ideal. With that said, some of my classmates were a little better at managing their reading weeks. Some travelled to see family, or just plain travelled. Others hit the library regularly, and I certainly admire that. But come our first day back, there was a fair bit of commiserating about less-than-

ideal productivity by all. As I chatted with my classmates about what they had been up to over the break, I tried to get a sense of how they felt about reading week, timing-wise: was it too late in the semester or too early? Perhaps it isn’t shocking but us law students couldn’t really come to a consensus. However, I assure you they had great arguments. There was one common sentiment though—exams seemed much closer than they had just one week prior. The pressure was winding up. Per-

haps more alarmingly, the last day of classes sure looked close to our first exam. Very close. It seemed we could all agree that a little breathing room between the two would be welcome. In my first year of undergrad, we didn’t have a reading week in the first semester. Instead, classes ended earlier, giving us about a week of dedicated exam prep. I won’t advocate transplanting reading week (if only to preserve some friendships) but I do think a couple of days between classes and exams would be beneficial, rather than being at the mercy of the exam schedule for any such break.

There are No Shortcuts for Mental Health Cost-efficiency should not be the marker of success ALISHA KRISHNA (2L) Content warning: This article contains discussions of suicide and mental illness. I began my undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in September 2015 and, like many others, sought mental health care early on. As a first year student, I was entirely unaware of the new “streamlined process.” My entry into the system was a complicated process requiring me to advocate for myself with college registrars, counsellors, and staff at Health & Wellness, while experiencing unabated health challenges which brought me there in the first place. There is no question that students need better access to mental health care, and that the mental health crisis is a long-standing issue. In September 2015, in an effort to meet this demand, the University integrated their Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS) with Health & Wellness in order to create a “streamlined process” called “stepped care.” Within this model, the least resource-intensive treatments are offered to students first, and more intensive services are offered based on the patient’s need. Stepped care seems like a miraculous solution. Stepped care is efficient. Postsecondary institutions can increase access to services with the same budget. In 2019, the University further developed this model and launched various programs such as same-day counselling, drop-in counselling, and “MySSP,” a counselling service which provided immediate telephone or online chat help. These services were to complement the alreadypresent short-term intensive counselling. Success is tracked by the number of appointments offered by Health and Wellness for both medical and mental care. In Annual Reports for both the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years, Health & Wellness facilitated around 58,000 appointments. This means an average of four appointments per student. In the 2019-

2020 academic year, however, the same 14,000 students made almost 73,000 appointments (an average of five appointments per student). Data for the 2020-2021 has not yet been released. This increase in appointments is commendable, but an individual’s mental health is not measured in aggregate data. The question is whether the quality of services is enough to address the University’s crisis. I eventually did see both counsellors and psychiatrists, but they would only provide a limited number of sessions. When I had exhausted my allotment, I was told to seek outside resources, without support. Even now, in 2021, I have a fraction of the care team that I once had. Moreover, even after completing one-on-one and group therapy, I was dismayed to find that these sessions were not making any difference. The treatment I received at CAPS was largely based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and its related therapies, like Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). These therapies are considered a highly effective treatment for a variety of “illnesses,” such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). CBT is based on the idea that distress is caused by “faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking.” However, CBT, at least in the therapy I attended, makes no allowance for mental distress caused by issues entirely outside my control. I would “fail” to respond to CBT because I wasn’t trying hard enough to change my thoughts. Of course, this is based on the assumption that I was causing my own mental distress. The idea that mastering internal thought patterns— if that can be done at all—will make one happy is an effective way to individualize mental health issues and ignore the systemic causes of illness. Attempting to master control of my inner thoughts did nothing to solve systemic problems such as racism, homophobia, and gender

discrimination. Though CBT may be helpful for some, I am not the only one to find CBT unhelpful. As Dr. Farhad Dalal explains in his book, CBT: The Cognitive Behavioural Tsunami, CBT was originally used to treat a very small number of disorders, namely phobias. However, the treatment became popular for a wide variety of mental illnesses after researchers in the United Kingdom published “The Depression Report: A New Deal for Anxiety and Depression Disorders” in 2006. This report reasons that people who are mentally ill tend to be absent from work and seek healthcare. This “total loss of output” due to mental illnesses like depression and anxiety costs an estimated £12 billion a year, £7 billion of that in taxes. In comparison, an investment of £600 million in CBT-based therapy could dramatically reduce the expenses associated with sickness. In short, CBT was a way to get people well enough that they could return to work. Because of this reportedly high return on investment, these ideas became popular in the United States and Canada. This is why they are especially prevalent in online self-help resources. For example, the Ontario government has made Lifeworks’ AbiliCBT free for residents aged 16 or older. Participants complete an assessment questionnaire and are contacted by a professional therapist. Afterwards, they move through “structured modules” while the therapist monitors their progress. This program is also marketed in terms of its ability to “reduce costs” and “boost productivity.” Lifeworks is the same producer of MySST. While this seems like a convenient solution for institutions, data from the UK in 2018, examined 12 years after the “Depression Report”, showed that the widely advertised effectiveness may be significantly overblown. The system it-

self is burdened by an incredibly high demand and low staff morale. Many people are turned away because their illnesses are too complex. Patients who, for any reason, refuse or fail to respond to treatment are diagnosed as “CBT-resistant”, further pathologizing normal reactions to a treatment that fails to account for the lived realities of many people. For many, myself included, these issues in the UK sound familiar in our University context. We know that even with the “improved” system, wait times are very long and that six sessions are not enough. Students have trouble actually navigating the bureaucracy of the medical system and securing appointments. Even without resorting to the University Mandated Leave of Absence Policy, students with complex or difficult issues are encouraged to leave the University instead of being given the support they need to maintain their health in their University community. Only those who are actively in crisis qualify for the more “resource-intensive” treatment options. Those who are not yet a harm to themselves or others are directed to community resources, which have their own extensive wait times, or online resources like MySSP. This is antithetical to crisis prevention. My mental health does not exist only to make me a productive worker or student. In my undergraduate spaces, people would talk about how students are more than “ just a number.” Increasing the number of appointments per student will not improve anyone’s situation if it is not the kind of care which acknowledges the “intolerable and inhumane social pressures” in which students—people—live. Editor’s Note: Alisha Krishna is the outgoing Chair and Treasurer of Students for Barrier-Free Access and a caseworker in the Academic Appeals Division of Downtown Legal Services.

DIVERSIONS

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Totally Real Exam Questions HH not guaranteed SABRINA MACKLAI (2L JD/MI) Exam season is fast approaching. Once you’re done polishing your maps and outlines, make sure you try some of our totally real practice questions. Good luck! Contract Law Philip Benson is a world-class equestrian. His collection of horses is vast and varied, although his favourite is the beloved Rose 2d of Flavelle. While he believes her to be old and slow, and certainly not fit for racing, she is nonetheless Benson’s favourite horse as she was gifted to him by his mother when he was young. Benson is now retired from his racing career and is looking forward to a long and well-deserved retirement. He no longer needs an army of horses at his disposal. He tells his sister, Larissa, to “sell all the racing horses” by the time he comes back from his vacation. If she manages to do so, he promises her that he’ll stop complaining forever, a horrible trait he inherited from his mother. Larissa would do anything for Benson to stop complaining. The day after Benson’s flight, she puts an ad up on Facebook Marketplace: “SELLING: Philip Benson’s horse collection! Valued at $1,000,000! Selling for $500,000. Will sell to the first person who comments on this post and DMs me.” Billy Chapman, Benson’s longtime rival and fellow horse aficionado, comments on the post within seconds, “Mine!” He messages Larissa that he is ready to purchase Benson’s horse collection, and just needs a few days to get the money in order. Larissa edits her post on Facebook to

indicate the collection as SOLD. Benson comes back early from his vacation distraught. The so-called luxury music festival he attended had no luxury villas, no live music, and worst of all, no nice Swiss cakes! He went back home, ready to complain to Larissa, but she tells him that he can’t complain since she sold his horses for him. When Benson learns that Chapman is the one who purchased his beloved horses, he is outraged. “The deal is off!” he yells when Chapman arrives at his door, ready to collect with a cheque in hand. That night, Chapman breaks into Benson’s stable and takes all 101 horses, leaving a cheque on the ground. Benson discovers that his horses are missing the next morning. While he doesn’t care about the other horses, he’s heartbroken that Rose 2d of Flavelle is gone. He calls Chapman in tears, telling him, “I promise you can keep all the other horses, just give me my precious Rose back.” But Chapman had already sold Rose to his friend, Paul Macklem, who gave Rose to his daughter. “I’m not giving her back,” said Macklem. “It’s unconstitutional.” What should Benson do? You may ignore any constitutional issues (hint: there are none). Property Law Charles Essert is an internationally famous singer and songwriter. He often visits the popular Victoria Park Cafe, owned by Alex Drassinower. One day at the busy cafe, Essert overhears Drassinower humming while making his latte. He’s blown away. Fueled by a sudden burst of in-

spiration, he writes what he considers to be his greatest masterpiece of all time on the back of a napkin. But just when he goes to put the napkin in his back pocket, another customer bumps into him, spilling his drink all over his white shirt. The napkin forgotten, he rushes out of the cafe before anyone can snap a picture of him. While closing the shop, Drassinower finds the napkin on the ground. Recognizing the literary genius, he quickly pockets the napkin. The next day, Essert returns to the cafe, looking for the napkin. He asks Drassinower, who responds, “the napkins belong to me.” Annoyed, Essert storms out. A month later, a customer asks Drassinower, “Was that you in Charles’ new song?” Confused, Drassinower listens to Essert’s new single, “Nobody Good in a Good Man’s Cafe” and recognizes his humming in the background. He tries calling Essert’s studio for days but nobody responds. In retaliation, Drassinower records himself singing the song from the napkin and uploads it to YouTube. In the video, he’s wearing a shirt featuring an image of Essert in a stained t-shirt from the cafe’s CCTV footage. It’s a hit. People from all over the world are listening to the track, and he’s received multiple record deals. He’s enjoying the fame when Essert finally comes back to the cafe, demanding that Drassinower take down the video and credit him. He claims the song is his. He’s also upset by the video; the photo of him with the stained shirt has become a meme on social media. Drassinower refuses. Advise all parties.

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Ultra Vires Presents: ‘Tis the Damn Season A playlist for those wintery days THE UV PLAYLIST COMMITTEE We’ve made it to exams which means we’ve also made it to winter and the holidays! Enjoy this season with UV’s latest playlist, featuring classics by Sufjan Stevens, Paul McCartney, Wham!, and Mariah Carey!

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32 | November 25, 2021

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Totally real news from the Faculty of Law HARRY MYLES (2L) AND SHAE ROTHERY (2L) Week 2,056 of Goodmans L L P Café Closure The beloved Goodmans LLP Café has now been closed for 2,056 weeks (give or take a few). The loss of this quick source of food and coffee has had significant effects on the student body, leading to multiple cases of midday caffeine withdrawal. Facult y Vending Machines Feel Over worked and Threaten to Unionize The vending machines at the Faculty of Law have expressed feelings of intense exhaustion and overwork since the start of the school year. Due to

the veritable affordable food desert surrounding the law school (unless you want to pay $10.00 for a croissant at L’Espresso Bar Mercurio) and the shutting of Goodmans Café, the Faculty vending machines have become the sole source of nourishment for the snacking student body. Day and night, the machines are forced to dispense chips and pop, without any breaks or vacation. Given these work conditions, the machines have expressed a desire to unionize and establish a collective bargaining agreement with the law school. There are talks of the beleaguered basement Keurig and microwave joining as well.

Third F loor of Dow ntow n Lega l Ser v ices Possessed By t he Ghost of a Disg runt led Raccoon

Universit y of Toronto Threatens to Ev ict DLS Ghost for Non-Payment of Rent

For those who have not heard, the third floor of Downtown Legal Services (DLS) was inundated by a foul stench and large flies near the beginning of October. University staff believe the odour was caused by the rotting corpse of a trapped animal within DLS. Now, local paranormal experts have confirmed the ghost of the critter is haunting the halls. Various staff and students have reported mysterious rustling in garbage bins, scratching sounds, and the occasional theft of unattended snacks. DLS can now add the spectre of a raccoon to its storied history.

After confirming the presence of a ghostly raccoon on the third floor of DLS, the University of Toronto is preparing an N4 application at the Landlord and Tenant Board for eventual eviction due to non-payment of rent. The University is also planning on filing an N5 for interference with others and an N7 for causing serious problems in the rental unit. In other news, the DLS Housing division reported a mysterious intake call full of squeaks and animal noises the other day. It is unclear whether the ghost of a woodland creature falls within the eligibility requirements of the clinic.

Facult y of Law A nnounces t he Fishbowl Becom ing an Actua l Fishbowl The Faculty of Law announced that the study space in the Bora Laskin Library affectionately called “the Fishbowl” by students will in fact be filled with water and aquatic life. Noting the success of therapy dogs to cheer students up in the past, the administration promises that students will now be able to study alongside soothing clownfish and stingrays. You will be able to swim in the new and improved Fishbowl so long as you sign a waiver releasing the school from all liability and pay an additional student fee of $10,000 per semester. ILLUSTRATION BY JENNIFER SUN

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Universit y of Toronto Deems Law Students Capable of Paying $33,040 in Tuit ion, but Incapable of Handling Hot Water In another move which appears to be aimed at depriving law students of their precious caffeine, the University of Toronto has decided it would be too much of a liability to provide grown adults with access to hot water. Forget bringing your French press to campus when the snow rolls into town—the only coffee law students are getting is from the overworked Keurig in the basement of Flavelle (that is, until it gets taken away). Apparently, law school only prepares students to deal with hot water figuratively, not literally.