From: Zoe Sinel
<zsinel@uwo.ca>
Sent: Tuesday 9
April 2024 14:40
To: obligations
Subject: Tort Law
and Social Equality Speakers Series: April 19, 2024 (12pm EST), Koshan and
Sowter on the Tort of Family Violence
Attachments: Koshan
& Sowter.pdf
Dear colleagues,
I am happy to announce the next Tort Law and Social Equality
Project's event. On Friday, April 19 from 12pm-1:30pm,
Jennifer Koshan (Calgary) and Deanne Sowter (Osgoode) will speak on the tort of
family violence (full details below).
The talk will take place on Zoom: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/85361139671 Please
see poster (attached) and the TLSE website for
more information. Please share widely.
I hope to see you there!
Best,
Zo
The Tort of Family Violence and its Potential to Remediate the
Consequences of Abuse
Torts even intentional torts were not traditionally conceived
of as a means of redressing intimate partner violence (IPV). Within the last
fifty years, Canadian tort law (and related limitations laws) have evolved to
allow IPV survivors to seek tort-based remedies. However, these remedies have
been sought rarely and have been largely limited to existing categories of
intentional torts such as assault, battery, and the intentional infliction of
emotional distress. These torts do not always encompass the myriad harms
sustained by survivors of IPV, particularly the harms of economic abuse and
coercive control. In Ahluwalia v Ahluwalia, a 2022 family law decision, Justice
Renu Mandhane responded to this gap in the law by recognizing a new tort of
family violence, but her decision was overturned by the Ontario Court of Appeal
in 2023. Our presentation will provide an intersectional feminist analysis of
the role of tort law in providing remedies for survivors of IPV, situating tort
remedies within the wider context of Canadian IPV laws as well as tort theory
and critiques. This wider context raises issues about access to justice and
socio-economic responses to IPV for members of marginalized groups in
particular.
Jennifer Koshan is a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Research
Excellence Chair at the University of Calgary. Jennifer s research and teaching
focus on equality and human rights, legal responses to interpersonal violence,
and access to justice. With a number of colleagues across the country, she
recently completed a project on Domestic Violence and Access to Justice Within
and Across Multiple Legal Systems that was funded by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council. Research from the project includes work published
here and here. Jennifer has also been working with colleagues in Nursing and
Social Work at the University of Calgary on an interdisciplinary course module
on gender-based violence using virtual gaming simulation. She blogs on domestic
violence and other issues on ABlawg.ca, and regularly presents her research to
judges, lawyers, and other academic and professional audiences. Jennifer also
sits on the National Association of Women and the Law s Violence Against Women
Working Group, and regularly works with the Women s Legal Education and Action
Fund (LEAF) on its projects.
Deanne Sowter is a doctoral candidate and Vanier Scholar at
Osgoode Hall Law School. She is also a Research Fellow with the Winkler
Institute for Dispute Resolution. Deanne s research focuses on gender-based
violence, family law, and legal ethics, and it has been supported by SSHRC and
several prestigious fellowships and scholarships including the Honourable
Willard Z Estey Teaching Fellowship and the OBA Foundation Chief Justice of
Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Studies.
Deanne s work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals
and it has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. She has taught as an
Instructor at the University of Calgary and as an Adjunct Professor at Western
Law. Deanne has a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School, an LLM from the University
of Toronto.
Zo
Sinel
Associate Professor
and Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies)
Faculty
of Law, University of Western Ontario
519.661.2111
x83832
Editor, Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence
Zo
Sinel
Associate Professor
and Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies)
Faculty
of Law, University of Western Ontario
519.661.2111
x83832
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