Amanda Leslie
The following article is an adaptation of a document already published in the Faculty of Law Web site.
“The starting point for the work that I do is my parents. The way in which I was raised was to believe that I had endless possibilities,” says Professor Joanne St. Lewis, a recent recipient of the DreamKEEPERS’ Life Achievement Award.
The award, presented by the Canadian Martin Luther King Day Coalition to St. Lewis on January 21, 2008 at a Parliament Hill ceremony, honours an individual who has demonstrated and exemplified the exceptional values that motivated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
St. Lewis teaches civil liberties, social justice, comparative South African and Canadian constitutional law and first-year legislation at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. She also conducts research and consults with government, corporations and community organizations in the area of equality rights with a particular emphasis on legal culture, critical race theory and feminist legal theory.
St. Lewis acknowledged her parents as her source of inspiration in her acceptance speech: “In so many ways the legacy of slavery was one of complete disjuncture from everything we are supposed to be as black people. And so to have the gift of parents who can reconstruct that identity for you — for them to dream bigger than their children — really is the greatest gift.”
In addition to her role as law professor, St. Lewis is a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. She was founding director of the Education Equity Program at the Faculty of Law, as well as, a past executive director of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund. From 1985-87, St. Lewis was special assistant, Government Affairs to the Grand Chief of the Crees of Quebec, where she was involved in the negotiations of the 1986 La Grande Agreement.
