Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC): Medical Anti-Black Racism (1 Position)

Area of Law: Health Law - Human Rights Law

Established in 2017, the Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is an independent not-for-profit community legal clinic, funded by Legal Aid Ontario, 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. To learn more about BLAC, check out their website here: www.blacklegalactioncentre.ca

In this project, the student will conduct legal research to update the previous research on anti-Black racism in health care. Students will be expanding on what students have done in the past, such as developing a public resource on anti-Black racism in health care, conducting legal research on the prevalence of anti-Black racism in health care (e.g. maternal, mental), outlining 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), pulling together available community resource (e.g. patient navigators), and researching possible issues with provincial or federal laws and regulations that may be leading to disparate health outcomes and which BLAC seeks to reform. The volunteer will be asked to create an information presentation that pulls all these threads together, which will ultimately be used for public legal education sessions. 

Time Commitment

Students are expected to volunteer 3-5 hours per week. There are no regular shifts and most of the work can be completed remotely. 

Required Training

In addition to the PBSC mandatory training, all students will be invited to participate in internal training workshops relating to the research topic and other related areas of law. 

Number of Students and Prerequisites

  • How many students? 
    • One student
  • Can first year law students volunteer? 
    • First year students are encouraged to apply!
  • Should you be bilingual?
    •  No - bilingualism is not an expectation but is always nice to have
  • Any other expectations for this project? 
    • Students should have a history of self-directed research and a strong research background (e.g. freedom of information requests). A background in healthcare or science is an asset.