Critical Torts

Sanda Rodgers, B.A., B.C.L., LL.B., LL.M., is a Full Professor and the former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. She has been a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada and Commissioner of the Ontario Law Reform Commission and is a recipient of the Women Lawyers Association President's Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession and of the Business and Professional Women's Association of Ottawa Women's Choice Award for Outstanding Contributor to Gender Equity. She previously held the Shirley Greenberg Professorship in Women and the Legal Profession. Her primary area of research is in the area of health law, with particular emphasis on women's reproductive rights.

Rakhi Ruparelia, B.Sc., B.S.W., LL.B., M.S.W., LL.M., is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. After clerking at the Ontario Court of Appeal, Professor Ruparelia completed her graduate studies in law at Harvard University. Following her graduate work, she joined the Prison Reform Advocacy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio where she established and directed a community legal clinic to assist ex-prisoners with legal issues impeding their transition back to society. Her research focuses on race and gender issues in the law, particularly in the context of torts and criminal law. In addition to torts, Professor Ruparelia teaches courses on race, racism and the law and critical race theory. She is currently working with the National Judicial Institute to organize anti-racism training for judges. She is also a member of the CBA Standing Committee on Equity.

Louise Bélanger-Hardy, B.A., B. Soc. Sc., LL.B., LL.M., is a Full Professor and former Vice Dean at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa, where she teaches Torts and Medical Law. She is a member of the Bar of Ontario. Together with Professor Denis Boivin, she is the author of a leading textbook on Canadian Tort Law in French. Throughout the years, her work has brought her into contact with the civil law of Québec through teaching responsibilities at the law faculties of the University of Ottawa, Université de Montréal and Université de Nantes, France, and through the supervision and teaching of courses on the common law offered to civil law lawyers at the Department of Justice Canada. She has co-edited, with Aline Grenon, two companion works: Elements of Quebec Civil Law – A Comparison with the Common Law of Canada, and Éléments de common law canadienne – comparaison avec le droit civil Québécois. The latter work received the Walter Owen Book Prize in 2010.