On the initial stage of a cross-country tour of law schools, federal justice minister Irwin Cotler paid a visit to the Common Law Section of the Faculty of Law on January 16.
The event raised national media attention as Cotler called a news conference at the end of his visit to announce that he was withdrawing “from any involvement in the Maher Arar case.” Before his appointment to cabinet, Cotler had been acting as counsel for this Canadian citizen who was extradited by the U.S. and sent to Syria where he was imprisoned and tortured.
The minister’s visit was the first in a series of consultations that he plans to have with law schools in coming weeks. Cotler met with a group of Inuit students of the Akitsiraq Law School who were participating in the winter term of the Common Law Section. He later had discussions with another group of law students. During the meetings, students raised issues about access to justice, aboriginal representation on the Supreme Court of Canada, decriminalization of marijuana and the Arar case.
The Akitsiraq Law School is a unique program designed to train a group of Inuit lawyers to work in Nunavut. The students’ “southern visit” is sponsored by Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP, the Department of Justice, the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, the Maurice Price Foundation and the University of Ottawa.
