Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC): Medical Anti-Black Racism

Project Type: Public Legal Education (presentations, workshops, podcasts, brochures, blogs, etc.) and Research (memoranda used for internal purposes only)

Fields of Law: Health Law, Human Rights Law

Positions Available: 1

 

About the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC):

Established in 2017, the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is an independent not-for-profit community legal clinic that combats individual and systemic anti-Black racism by providing free legal services, conducting research, developing public legal education materials, and engaging in test case litigation and law reform.

   

Project Details:

Anti-Black racism within the medical system, including mistreatment and disparities, has been documented through social science evidence and more. BLAC does not currently deal with medical malpractice cases, but given the prevalence of this issue, the legal clinic would like to see what avenues of redress may be available.

Students will:

  • Develop a public resource on anti-Black racism in health care.
  • Conduct legal research on the prevalence of anti-Black racism in health care (e.g. maternal, mental).
  • Outline possible avenues of redress (e.g. complaint to regulatory body, civil claim for medical negligence, application to human rights tribunal, appeal to Consent and Capacity Board), including the process and associated pros/cons (e.g. adverse costs, remedies, timelines, limitation periods). This portion will include a review of relevant case law.
  • Pull together available community resources (e.g. patient navigators).
  • Research possible issues with provincial or federal laws and regulations that may be leading to disparate health outcomes, and which BLAC might seek to reform.

 

Will the student(s) be expected to show up for regular shifts each week, or is the schedule flexible?

The schedule is flexible.

 

Requirements and Expectations:

  • History of self-directed research
  • Strong research background (e.g. freedom of information requests)
  • Background in science or medicine is an asset