2024 Sefton-Williams Memorial Lecture

Join us for our 2024 Sefton-Williams Memorial Lecture, , delivered by Adelle Blackett, Professor of Law and the Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law at the Faculty of Law, McGill University. We will also present the Sefton-Williams Award for Contributions to Labour Relations.

This is a free event and all are welcome. Seating is limited, so please ensure you RSVP to attend in-person. Alternatively, you canlive-stream the event via zoom (link forthcoming).

Abstract | In July 2021, the federal government launched the first comprehensive review of Canada's Employment Equity Act framework. The task force held over 100 consultations over 51 meeting days and received an additional 400 written submissions, alongside enhanced engagement reports prepared by equity groups. The report reviews a voluminous body of past studies, and incorporates extensive statistical, comparative and international research. The final report was made public on 11 December 2023, in time for international human rights day, and was accompanied by historic governmental commitments delivered by then Labour Minister, Seamus O'Regan. The report makes the case that employment equity is labour law, devoted to responding to a particular but integral set of questions central to building an inclusive labour market that stops leaving working people behind. The transformative framework it calls for to achieve and sustain employment equity centres barrier removal, strengthened regulatory oversight, and of particular interest to labour law: meaningful consultations.

Where are we now, almost one year after the report was made public? And more importantly, what is the responsibility of the community of labour law and industrial relations scholars and practitioners to champion an understanding of our field that is equitably inclusive?

• Date & Time | Thursday, November 28, from 4-5:30pm | Reception to follow
• Location | Debates Room, Hart House

The presents topics of interest to scholars and practitioners of labour-management relations, and is jointly delivered by Woodsworth College and the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto.

Host or Publisher Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources