Colleen M. Flood

Dean, Queen's University Faculty of Law

Colleen M. Flood is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. She served as a professor and the Canada Research Chair for the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law from 2000-2014 and as the inaugural director of the Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics and University of Ottawa Research Chair in Health Law & Policy from 2014-2023. Dr. Flood holds a Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) and Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Honours from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research informed national and global debates over privatization, health system design, accountability, governance, and the role of courts in defending rights in health care.  

Her latest research focuses on the governance of health-related artificial intelligence. She holds many honours and accomplishments, including being named a Justice Emmet Hall Laureate in 2022, and member of the Canadian Council of Academies Scientific Advisory Committee in 2021, and a member of the Royal Society Taskforce on COVID-19 in 2021. She has over 100 publications and over 1200 citations, including publications on implementing digital passports for COVID-19 immunizations, vaccine ins and outs, the legal issues that have been raised in the presence of COVID-19, and accounts of what our country could look like post-pandemic. 

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Jocelyn Downie

Professor Emeritus, Faculties of Law and Medicine, Dalhousie University 

Jocelyn Downie is the James S. Palmer Chair in Public Policy and Law at Schulich School of Law, and a member of the Order of Canada.  

In 2004, she published "Dying Justice: A Case for Decriminalizing Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Canada." She was selected to be a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, and sat on the Experts Committee for Human Research Participant Protection in Canada. In 2010, Downie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

In 2015, Downie was involved in the result of Carter v Canada, a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision where giving Canadian adults who are mentally competent and suffering intolerably and enduringly the right to a doctor's assistance in dying. She served as a Special Advisor to the Canadian Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide and worked with the pro bono legal team in the case. In the same year, Downie became the first scholar in Nova Scotia to be named a Trudeau Foundation Fellow.  

Professor Downie has been the principal investigator on numerous research projects including a $1.8 million training program in health law and policy funded by CIHR and a $1.5 million CIHR grant in neuroethics.

She has served on many committees and boards. Professor Downie was a member of the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying, the National Blood Safety Council, the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Advisory Committee on Population Health, and the Experts Committee for Human Research Participant Protection in Canada. 

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Cathy Szabo

President & CEO, Providence Care 

Cathy Szabo is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Providence Care, the leading provider of Aging, Mental Health and Rehabilitative care in southeastern Ontario.Her experience has focused on Health System Improvement, creating organizational cultures of quality and excellence while delivering patient care that meets individuals needs.

Under her leadership, Central CCAC developed a Medication Management Support Services program which was awarded Best Innovation Healthcare Practice in Canada by the National Research Corporation (NRC). Additionally, this program was recognized at the bronze level by the Institute for Public Administration of Canada (IPAC).

A dedicated advocate for healthcare, Cathy is a member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care; Osgoode Hall Health Law Program; GS1 Canada Health Care Advisory Council; and the HQO IDEAS Strategic Advisory Committee – Improving and Driving Excellence Across all Sectors. Cathy is past chair of HIROC – the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada.

Cathy holds a Master of Public Health, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and a diploma of Clinical Administration from the Ontario Hospital Association. She is a Registered Nurse and a Certified Health Executive with the Canadian College of Health Leaders.

 

Erik S. Knutsen

Professor, Queen’s Law

Erik S. Knutsen's areas of academic interest include insurance law, tort, civil litigation and civil procedure, health law and medical liability and accident law. He earned an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School, and a B.A. (Hons.) from Lakehead University.

Professor Knutsen is the author of Halsburys Laws of Canada – Insurance. He is a co-author of the treatise  Canadian Tort Law (with Linden, Feldthusen, Hall & Young), one of the leading Canadian tort treatises, and also co-author of Stempel and Knutsen on Insurance Coverage, one of the leading American insurance law treatises. He has also co-authored the leading casebook on Canadian civil litigation, The Civil Litigation Process (with Walker, Kennedy & Piché), and one of the core casebooks on American insurance law, Principles of Insurance Law (with Stempel). He is also the author or co-author of more than 70 scholarly articles, book chapters and other publications in the areas of insurance, tort, and civil litigation. His articles have appeared in top-ranked Canadian, American, and international journals, been cited by Canadian, American, and European appellate and trial courts, and presented at academic and professional venues in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China.  

Professor Knutsen is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the European Law Institute, and an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel. He is appointed to Ontario's Civil Rules Committee, the group that oversees reform to the rules of civil procedure for the province.

Bryan Thomas

Research Fellow, Queen's University Faculty of Law

Bryan Thomas is a Senior Research Fellow with Faculty of Law, Queen's University. His research spans a wide range of topics including Canadian and comparative health law and policy, health rights litigation, long-term care, global health law, the regulation of health AI, and the role of religious argument in legal and political discourse.  Dr. Thomas holds an SJD from University of Toronto, a BCL/LLB from McGill Law, and a Master’s degree in philosophy from Dalhousie. 

Alexandra Manthorpe

Partner, Wills & Estates, Cunningham Swan

Alexandra Manthorpe is a Partner in the Wills & Estates group at the Cunningham Swan law firm. Following a First Degree Honours undergraduate degree at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, she attended Queen’s Law in Kingston where she received a course prize (first place) for Wills & Estates, graduating in 2010.

Currently, her focus is estate and trust planning, business succession planning, and estate and trust administration. She enjoys working with clients to help them prepare for the future in order to protect themselves and provide for their loved ones in the best manner possible. 

David Freedman

Professor, Queen’s Law

David Freedman is an Associate Professor at Queen’s Law. He earned his LLB at Osgoode before obtaining postgraduate degrees (MA, PhD) at Oxford and Cambridge, respectively. Professor Freedman has taught trusts, wills and estates, estate litigation, civil procedure, and trial advocacy, subjects about which he has published extensively.

Professor Freedman maintains a practice with Wagner Sidlofsky LLP in Toronto. He practices in the areas in which his teaching and scholarship are concentrated: trusts and estates litigation, and disputes respecting capacity; complementary academic and practice work strengthens his areas of expertise and helps keep him current.

Professor Freedman approaches teaching with a focus on foundational principles and skills so that students understand the content of the law and the manner in which it is applied in a real, contemporary context.

James Downar

Head and Professor, Division of Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa; Clinical Research Chair in Palliative and End of Life Care, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa 

Dr. James Downar is a Critical Care and Palliative Care physician in Ottawa, serving as Professor and Head of the Division of Palliative Care at the University of Ottawa, where he holds a Clinical Research Chair in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. He completed medical school at McGill University, residency at the University of Toronto, and earned a Master’s degree in Bioethics there.

He is the co-chair of the Pan-Canadian Palliative Care Research Collaborative, Secretary of the Canadian Critical Care Society, and an adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications, secured 25+ research grants, and received the Ontario Medical Association Award of Excellence in 2021.

Hilary Young

Professor, University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law

Hilary joined UNB Law in 2012. After clerking for Justice Louis LeBel of the Supreme Court of Canada, she was a civil litigator at Cox & Palmer in Halifax. She has an international reputation as a defamation law scholar and also has expertise in torts and health law. Her research has been cited by the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. She is one of the authors of Linden, Feldthusen, Hall, Knutsen & Young, Canadian Tort Law 11th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2018).

She obtained her LLB at the University of Ottawa, where she won the Gold Medal, and then an LLM from Harvard Law School. Before going to law school, she earned a doctorate in linguistics from Rice University.

Danielle Kain

Assistant Professor, Division of Palliative Medicine, Department of Medicine (DOM), Queen’s University; Co-Chair (Interim), Division of Palliative Medicine and Clinical Director of Palliative Care, Providence Care Hospital

Dr. Kain completed her medical school in 2009 at the University of Toronto, followed by Family Medicine and Palliative Medicine residency training at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She spent two years at Dalhousie in the Division of Palliative Medicine before coming back to Toronto (University Health Network) in 2015. Kingston is her home, and she was grateful for the opportunity to return to Queen's in 2018.

Dr. Kain has led Palliative Care program development expansion at Queen's, integrating palliative care into several malignant and non-malignant outpatient clinics including ALS, advanced COPD/ILD, and a rapid lung cancer diagnostic clinic (LDAP).

Lorian Hardcastle

Assistant Professor, University of Calgary Faculty of Law

Lorian Hardcastle is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, with a joint appointment to the Department of Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine. She is also a member of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health and the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary. Lorian obtained her J.D. with Health Law and Policy Specialization Certificate from Dalhousie University, and her LL.M. and S.J.D. from the University of Toronto. She also completed a fellowship at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to commencing graduate studies, Lorian worked in a hospital legal department, for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and in a national law firm's health law group.

Daphne Gilbert

Full Professor, University of Ottawa Common Law

Professor Gilbert specializes in teaching criminal and constitutional law, including courses in Criminal Law and Procedure, American Constitutional Law, and Advanced Sexual Assault law. She has also taught a course on Animals and the Law. Her research interests lie primarily in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with a particular emphasis on equality rights, reproductive rights, medical assistance in dying (MAiD), sexual violence, and safe sport/abuse in sport. Her most recent work considers best practices in codes of conduct that focus on sexual violence, with a particular emphasis on sexual violence and abuse in all levels of sport in Canada. She has also recently written on the impact of conscience protections on access to contraception, abortion and MAiD in Canada.

She joined the Faculty at University of Ottawa after obtaining an LLM from Yale University as a Fulbright and SSHRC scholar. She clerked for Chief Justice Antonio Lamer at the Supreme Court of Canada and Mr. Justice Robertson at the Federal Court of Appeal. She is President of the Board of “Women Help Women”, an international abortion service provider. She also sits on the Boards of Dying with Dignity Canada and Fòs Feminista.

Timothy Holland

Department Head, and Assistant Professor, Department of Bioethics, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University

Tim Holland, MD, CCFP(EM), graduated from Dalhousie Medical School in 2011 and completed his family medicine residency in Halifax in 2013. In 2014, he co-founded the Newcomer Health Clinic in Halifax where he is the current Medical Lead. He co-founded the Canadian Refugee Health Network and currently sits on the organization’s Steering Committee. He Co-Chairs the Community of Practice for the National Newcomer Navigation Network. He also shares a family practice at the Sipekne’katik Health Centre in Nova Scotia.

He is currently the Department Head for Bioethics at Dalhousie University, and his career has always had a strong focus on bioethics. He served as Chair of the Ethics for the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) from 2016 to 2022. As Chair, he oversaw many important policy initiatives including the Guidelines for Physician Interactions with Industry, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) and, most notably, the 2018 major revision of the Code of Ethics and Professionalism. In 2022, He completed a master’s degree in philosophy with a thesis on Advance Requests for MAiD. He currently chairs the Advance Request Working Group of the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers and was on the Conference Planning Committee for the MAiD2023 Conference in Halifax. He also served on the planning committee for NARHC 2024 in Minneapolis. He Co-Chairs the Ethics Sub-Committee for the Society of Refugee Health Providers.

Vanessa Gruben

Associate Professor, University of Ottawa Common Law

Vanessa Gruben is a professor in the Common Law Section of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law. A recognized expert in Canadian health law and policy, her scholarship probes some of the most difficult contemporary legal and ethical issues related to health care. Specifically, her research explores the law and ethics regarding assisted reproduction, harm reduction, organ donation and transplantation, and health care professional self-regulation.

Professor Gruben is the co-editor of the 5th edition of Canada’s leading health law text, Canadian Health Law and Policy (LexisNexis, 2017). She is also co-author of Families and the Law in Canada: Cases and Commentary (Captus, 2019). Her research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canadian Blood Services, and the Foundation for Legal Research. In addition to her research, Professor Gruben teaches courses on introductory health law, reproductive health law, property law, and family law. She has also taught courses on access to health care and public health law.

Professor Gruben has made numerous substantial contributions beyond academia. She was formerly a member of the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board and the Health Services Appeal and Review Board. She currently serves as board member of the Canadian Health Coalition and AMS Healthcare. She has appeared on behalf of Amnesty International Canada before the Supreme Court of Canada in Charkaoui v. Canada, [2007] 1 S.C.R. 350; Charkaoui v. Canada, [2008] 2 S.C.R. 326; Khadr v. Canada, [2010] SCC 3; and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.