Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC): Social Media Primer

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

Fields of Law: Libel and Slander Act, Human Rights Code

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:

When is social media advocacy, such as raising awareness of racism, considered defamation or slander? What legal issues and risks arise here? As this recent lawsuit demonstrates, these questions are very real. Recently, pro bono counsel at Torys LLP produced a 45-page primer for BLAC addressing the potential risks and liabilities which can arise from engaging in advocacy over social media. This legal memo now needs to be updated and translated into plain language resources for BLAC to share with the wider community.

In this project, the student will review the memo and update it to include any recent/ongoing cases. The student will use Canva and Powtoon to translate the memo into an educational campaign (graphics, videos, plain language documents) which will be shared with the public.

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:

• Understanding of provincial human rights system
• Ability to translate complex legal processes and issues into plain language
• Background in adult education is an asset