Speaker details

Biography

Barbara Jackman, a graduate of the University of Toronto Law School, is senior counsel at Jackman & Associates practicing in immigration, refugee and citizenship law. She has appeared before all levels of courts in Canada including the Supreme Court, seeking to advance the rights and protections afforded to non-citizens and citizens in respect of their status in Canada. She has argued a number of precedent setting cases before the Supreme Court starting with Singh in 1985 which recognized that the human rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply to non-citizens, to more recent appeals such as Chhina in 2019 which recognized that non-citizens have a right to challenge their detention by way of habeas corpus. She is the recipient of several awards recognizing her work, including four honourary doctorates (Law Society of Ontario 2007, University of Windsor 2010, University of Ottawa 2016, University of Toronto 2023) and the Order of Canada (member 2019). She has been honoured for her work by several communities - Tamils, Arabs, Sikhs, Palestinians and Muslim organizations.