Law

Rosalie Abella Honorary LL.D.

A former civil and criminal lawyer, Justice Rosalie Abella of the Ontario Court of Appeal was once a commissioner at the Ontario Human Rights Commission and is the former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. She led the widely influential 1984 Royal Commission on Employment Equity. As a judge, Abella has handed down many decisions that have had a nation-wide impact -- her ruling that the term "spouse" in the Income Tax Act should include same-sex partners is spurring the federal government to change dozens of statutes. Abella is a former Boulton visiting professor of law at McGill and a frequent lecturer at the University.

Ivan Bernier Honorary LL.D.

Generally considered to be the country's chief authority on international economic law, particularly trade law, Université Laval law professor Ivan Bernier was the dean of law for his university from 1981 to 1985. Bernier served as the director of research on legal and constitutional matters for the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Prospects for Development for Canada from 1983 to 1985. He was the director general of the Quebec Centre for International Relations from 1986 to 1993.

Michael Trebilcock Honorary LL.D.

A former McGill law professor (1970 to 1972), University of Toronto professor Michael Trebilcock has been the director of the University of Toronto Law School's law and economics program since 1976. Widely active in the consumer rights movement in the 1970s, Trebilcock served as the national vice-president of the Consumers Association of Canada and as the chair of the Consumer Research Council. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a recipient of the University of Toronto Teaching Award, Trebilcock once won the Walter Owen Prize for best English legal text in Canada. He was also the recipient of the 1990 Joint Award of the Canadian Law Teachers' Association and Law Reform Commission of Canada for outstanding contributions to legal research and law reform.