Within Canada and around the globe, a growing number of social justice issues have emerged at the intersection of language and the law. Internationally, the interdisciplinary field of language and law has responded to these issues with the development of international conferences, journals, and associations. Despite these advances, these venues have not been successful in drawing attention to the unique legal and linguistic context of Canada or enhancing links between the academy and Canadian practitioners that could benefit from the research being produced.
The social and legal context of Canada is of special interest to those in the language and law field as Canada is officially a bilingual country with a bijural legal system. Additionally, Indigenous languages are increasingly recognized at official levels (e.g., Inuktitut in Nunavut), and Indigenous cultural norms are often brought into contact with colonial laws and legal and policing norms, resulting in intercultural/interlinguistic interactions in the legal process. Canada’s multicultural and multilingual settler population also creates the potential for intercultural/interlinguistic communication in legal or sociolegal contexts, for example, in police-civilian interactions, lawyer-client interactions, courtroom interactions, etc.
Plenary Speakers
Dr. Elizabeth Allyn Smith (Université du Québec à Montréal, QC)
Dr. Lorna Fadden (BC First Nations Justice Council, BC)
Dr. Janny Leung (Wilfrid Laurier University, ON)
Dr. Kirk Luther (Carleton University, ON)
Professor Naiomi Metallic (Dalhousie University, NS)
Important Dates
Conference Information
Location: York University
Dates: June 16 - 18, 2023
Organizing Committee
Dr. Philipp Angermeyer
Dr. Susan Ehrlich
Marianne Laplante
Brittney O’Neill
Dakota Wing
