York University Professor Fay Faraday will be awarded the 2016 Spirit of Barbra Schlifer Award for her work in human rights.
Fay Faraday
Faraday, a visiting professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School and a Packer Visiting Chair in Social Justice in York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LAPS), is the fourth recipient of the award. She will be presented the award on June 9 during the 22nd Annual Barbra Schlifer Tribute in Toronto.
The event is a tribute to Schlifer, a young lawyer who was sexually assaulted and murdered on her way home from celebrating her Call to the Bar of Ontario. Schlifer is the inspiration behind the long-running Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, which works to provide legal support to women experiencing violence.
This award recognizes a woman who makes a “demonstrable contribution to improving the lives of women wanting to build lives free from violence”.
Faraday is a lawyer with an independent social justice practice in Toronto. She represents unions, community organizations and coalitions in constitutional and appellate litigation, human rights, administrative/public law, labour and pay equity. She also works collaboratively with community groups and coalitions to provide strategic and policy advice on constitutional and human rights issues.
In her work as a lawyer, she has addressed a wide range of issues relating to equality and fundamental freedoms under the Charter, gender and work, rights of migrant workers, rights of persons with disabilities, race discrimination, employment equity, poverty, income security, socioeconomic rights, and international human rights norms. She has represented clients in constitutional litigation at all levels of court, including numerous cases at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Fay Faraday graduated as the gold medalist from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1993. As visiting professor, she teaches at Osgoode in the areas of ethical lawyering, Charter/human rights and appellate advocacy. In her position as Packer Visiting Chair in Social Justice at York University, she teaches in the areas of social justice and political activism, and transnational labour migration.