The top constitutional cases of 2003, as selected by the Osgoode Hall Law School Constitutional Advisory Board, a blue-ribbon panel of constitutional experts from across the country, will be announced at the conference.

This year’s outstanding speakers include keynote speaker Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant, Osgoode Dean Patrick Monahan and fellow professors Janine Benedet, Jamie Cameron, Peter Hogg, Allan Hutchinson, Shin Imai, Marilyn Pilkington and Bruce Ryder. Other speakers include Kent Roach and Lorne Sossin of the University of Toronto; Colleen Sheppard of McGill University; Danielle Pinard of the Université de Montréal; Grant Huscroft of the University of Western Ontario; Roslyn Levine and Debra McAllister of the Department of Justice Canada; Adam Dodek and Lori Sterling of the Ministry of the Attorney General Ontario; and leading counsel such as Paul Burstein of Burstein, Unger, Jean Teillet of Pape & Salter and Geoffrey Cowper of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

Key issues to be discussed at the Conference, which is co-chaired by Patrick Monahan and Jamie Cameron, include:

• Why is Powley such an important decision for the Métis people, and for the section 35 jurisprudence?

• What did the Supreme Court say about the harm principle in the marijuana cases?

• Has the Supreme Court gone too far in its decisions on costs and remedies?

• What are the important developments under section 15, and what do they tell us about the judiciary’s willingness to enforce equality rights against the state?

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