Ena Chadha

Last updated

Ena Chadha is an Indo-Canadian human rights lawyer, investigator, author and educator, known for her equality rights litigation and adjudication. [1] She was appointed as the interim Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) on July 22, 2020. [2] Chadha was the 2019 recipient of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce's Female Professional of the Year Award. [3] She was a co-reviewer of allegations of racism within the Peel District School Board, the second largest public school board in Canada, in 2019. [4]

Contents

Biography

Ena Chadha was born in New Delhi, India, and moved to Canada at 2 years of age. She first lived in the Regent Park area of Toronto, Ontario, and later settled in Brampton, Ontario, where she attended elementary and high school, graduating from North Park Secondary School in 1986. Chadha has a journalism degree from Ryerson University, a law degree from University of Saskatchewan, and a Masters of Law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. [5]

Family

Chadha's parents are Rajinder and Mohinder Chadha and she has a sister, Meena Chadha. After her mother's death, Chadha and her family established an entrance scholarship at the University of Saskatchewan for a first year female law student of indigenous background to honour her mother's legacy of community service and belief in supporting disadvantaged women. [6]

Career

Chadha was appointed as the interim Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission on July 22, 2020. [2] Her appointment came at a critical moment as the OHRC sought to address human rights issues emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, while initiating a Right to Read public inquiry [7] and a systemic racism inquiry into the Toronto Police Services. [8]

Highlights of Chadha's career include being the chair of the board of directors of the Human Rights Legal Support Center (2018-2020), [9] Director of Litigation of ARCH: Disability Law Centre (2000-2007) and her appointment as vice-chair at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (2007-2015), [10] where she was a mediator and adjudicator rendering important rulings in the areas of race discrimination and sexual harassment. [11] Chadha has been recognized by the Canadian Bar Association as a "Leader of Change" for her work in challenging institutionalized inequality and racial barriers.[ citation needed ]

Throughout her career, Ena Chadha has been a vocal advocate for systemic change, particularly in areas affecting underrepresented groups. Her work in disability law, both as a lawyer and as an academic, has contributed to significant policy changes in Ontario and beyond. Ena Chadha’s efforts have been recognized with numerous awards, reflecting her influence on Canadian human rights and her commitment to creating a more equitable society. In 2019, Ena Chadha was honoured by the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce as Female Professional of the Year. She received the 2022 Canadian Law Awards Female Trailblazer Award, celebrating her contributions to the legal field and her advocacy work. [12] Ena Chadha was the sole recipient of the Ontario Bar Association’s 2022 Distinguished Service Award and the Public Law Award of Excellence. In 2023, Ena Chadha was awarded the prestigious Law Society Medal for her exceptional contributions to the legal profession in Ontario and was recognized by the South Asian Bar Association with the Legal Excellence Award. [13] Ena Chadha currently serves as the Law Society of Ontario’s member representative on the Ontario Judicial Council, dealing with issues of judicial ethics and conduct.

Ena Chadha is an Executive Producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary To Kill A Tiger. The film, which has received international acclaim, explores the stigma surrounding sexual violence and examines the impact of cultural biases on survivors of sexual assault. Her involvement in this project highlights her commitment to advocating for equity beyond the courtroom, utilizing film as a medium to champion social justice and promote community activism and meaningful dialogue.

Publications

Chadha has written extensively on the topic of human rights. Her articles have been published in the Supreme Court Law Review, National Journal of Constitutional Law and Journal of Law and Social Policy. She has contributed to equality rights books and co-wrote a chapter in a 2018 Oxford University Press treatise about international human rights law for women with disabilities and is a frequent public speaker promoting human rights. [14]

Ena Chadha is a prolific writer on topics related to social justice, equity and disability rights. Her opinion pieces have been featured in prominent media outlets, including The Toronto Star, where she authored the widely read piece, “A Black man, a fatal police shooting, and a widow who didn’t back down: The 1979 case that electrified the city and launched a movement.” [15] The article reflects on a pivotal police shooting case in Toronto that galvanized local activism and underscored the need for policing reform and race relations. In The Conversation, Ena Chadha addressed workplace harassment in her piece, “Frank Stronach allegations highlight harassment in the workplace,” [16] examining the dynamics of power and gender in work environments. Ena Chadha’s legal scholarship includes co-authoring articles with Emmett Rogers on advancing equity rights, such as “What does a lawyer look like? Time to truly embody diversity and inclusion” [17] in the Ontario Bar Association’s JUST magazine (November 2022). Chadha and Rogers also co-authored “Does the SCC give a ‘freak’ about disability dignity?: The inclusion fallacy 25 years after Eldridge,” [18] published in the Supreme Court Law Review (2022), offering insights on the need for increased disability representation in legal discourse.

List of articles

Book chapters

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Arbour</span> Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist (born 1947)

Louise Arbour, is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McGill University Faculty of Law</span> Canadian law school in Montreal, Quebec

The Faculty of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest law school in Canada. 180 candidates are admitted for any given academic year. For the year 2021 class, the acceptance rate was 10%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Hall (politician)</span> Canadian politician

Barbara Hall is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 61st mayor of Toronto from 1994 to 1997, the last mayor of Toronto prior to amalgamation. Hall served as the chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2005 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osgoode Hall Law School</span> Law school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Osgoode Hall Law School, commonly shortened to Osgoode, is the law school of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Law Commission of Ontario, the Journal of Law and Social Policy, and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. A variety of LL.M. and Ph.D. degrees in law are available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverley McLachlin</span> Chief Justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017

Beverley Marian McLachlin is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th chief justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017. She is the longest-serving chief justice in Canadian history and the first woman to hold the position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalie Abella</span> Canadian jurist

Rosalie Silberman Abella is a Canadian jurist. In 2004, Abella was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, becoming the first Jewish woman and refugee to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court bench. She retired from the federal bench in 2021.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established in the Canadian province of Ontario on March 29, 1961, to administer the Ontario Human Rights Code. The OHRC is an arm's length agency of government accountable to the legislature through the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) is a non-profit Canadian Muslim civil liberties and human rights advocacy organization. The organization was established in 2000 to focus on combatting Islamophobia, hate and racism through legal action, public advocacy, education, and media representation. NCCM's mission is "to protect Canadian human rights and civil liberties, challenge discrimination and Islamophobia, build mutual understanding, and advocate for the public concerns of Canadian Muslims."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Canada</span>

Human rights in Canada have come under increasing public attention and legal protection since World War II. Prior to that time, there were few legal protections for human rights. The protections which did exist focused on specific issues, rather than taking a general approach to human rights.

The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario is an administrative tribunal in Ontario, Canada that hears and determines applications brought under the Ontario Human Rights Code, the provincial statute that sets out human or civil rights in Ontario prohibiting discrimination on the basis of a number of grounds in certain social areas. It is one of the 13 adjudicative tribunals overseen by the Ministry of the Attorney General that make up Tribunals Ontario. Any person who believes they have been discriminated against under the Human Rights Code may bring an application to the Tribunal.

Constance Barbara Backhouse, is a Canadian legal scholar and historian, specializing in gender and race discrimination. She is a Distinguished University Professor and University Research Chair at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada. In addition to her academic publications, Backhouse is the author of several books on feminist- and race-related legal rights topics. Backhouse is President of the American Society for Legal History, and is the first non-US scholar to hold this position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberta Kaplan</span> American lawyer

Roberta Ann Kaplan, also known as Robbie Kaplan, is an American lawyer focusing on commercial litigation and public interest matters. Kaplan successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of LGBT rights activist Edith Windsor, in United States v. Windsor, a landmark decision that invalidated a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and required the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. She was a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison before starting her own firm in 2017. In 2018, she co-founded the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in law</span> Involvement of women in the study and practice of law

Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.

M. David Lepofsky is a Canadian academic, retired lawyer, disability advocate. Blind for much of his life, Lepofsky was named one of Canada's most influential lawyers in 2010.

Malliha Wilson is a Tamil Canadian lawyer who served as an Assistant Deputy Attorney General of the Government of Ontario from April 2008 to November 2016.

Renu Mandhane is a Canadian jurist and lawyer who was appointed a judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Brampton) on May 22, 2020.

Marcia Hampton Rioux was a Canadian legal scholar. She was a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Health Policy and Management at York University.

Jessica Simpson, commonly known by her former legal name, Jessica Yaniv, is a Canadian transgender activist in British Columbia who is best known for filing at least 15 complaints of discrimination on the basis of gender identity against various beauty salons after they refused to wax her male genitalia. The complaints were filed with the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal in 2018 and 2019. It was the first major case of alleged transgender discrimination in retail in Canada. In 2019, the Tribunal rejected her complaints and ruled Yaniv had racist motives. In following years, Yaniv has gone on to make additional complaints of discrimination, libel and privacy breach.

Mary Anne Eberts is a Canadian constitutional lawyer and a former University of Toronto Faculty of Law faculty member. She is a founding member of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF)

Dorothea Crittenden was a Canadian deputy minister for the Ministry of Community and Social Services from 1974 to 1978. With this position, Crittenden was the first female in Ontario to become a deputy minister. Before her deputy position, Crittenden was with the Department of Public Welfare where she helped with the creation of the General Welfare Assistance Act for Ontario and the Canada Assistance Plan between the 1950s and 1960s. After leaving the ministry, Crittenden was the first female to become chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 1978 to 1981. Between the 1980s and 1990s, Crittenden worked for the Ontario Nursing Home Complaints Committee as their chair and was a government consultant.

References

  1. ↑ Kirk Makin (February 7, 2005). "Disabled immigrant cases reach top court". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
    - Owens, Anne-Marie (January 8, 2002). "Woman with MS challenges ban on immigration". The National Post. Archived from the original on February 11, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  2. 1 2 "OHRC welcomes Interim Chief Commissioner". The Ontario Human Rights Commission. July 23, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  3. ↑ "ICCC Award Winners 2019". Weekly Voice. June 8, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  4. ↑ Kristin Rushowy (November 27, 2019). "Human rights lawyer, veteran public servant tapped to review troubled Peel school board". The Star. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
    - Katherine DeClerq (November 27, 2019). "Deputy minister, human rights lawyer appointed to review racism allegations at Peel school board". CTV News. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Ena Chadha, LL.B., LL.M.: About". Ena Chadha. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  6. ↑ Trefiak, Sarah (January 15, 2019). "New Award Celebrates a Mothers Legacy". University of Saskatchewan. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  7. ↑ "OHRC launches Right to Read public inquiry". The Ontario Human Rights Commission. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Public inquiry into racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service". The Ontario Human Rights Commission. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  9. ↑ Anita Balakrishnan (June 6, 2019). "Tribunal delays and privacy rules impacting clients with disabilities". Law Times News. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  10. ↑ "HRTO Annual Report 2008/2009" (PDF). Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
  11. ↑ Peter Edwards (March 22, 2011). "Aboriginal man subjected to racial profiling by Toronto cops". The Star. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
    - Brendan Kennedy (July 1, 2010). "Home Depot discriminated against Sikh man". The Star. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  12. ↑ "CLA22 Winner - Ena Chadha". awards.canadianlawyermag.com. Retrieved 2024-10-11.
  13. ↑ "Law Society of Ontario announces 2023 award recipients | HR Law Canada". hrlawcanada.com. 2023-03-10. Retrieved 2024-10-11.
  14. ↑ "National AccessAbility Week 2019". Law Society Gazette. June 5, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  15. ↑ Chadha, Ena (October 23, 2021). "A Black man, a fatal police shooting, and a widow who didn't back down: The 1979 case that electrified the city and launched a movement". Toronto Star .
  16. ↑ Chadha, Ena (July 9, 2024). "Frank Stronach allegations highlight harassment in the workplace".
  17. ↑ "What Does a Lawyer Look Like? Time to truly embody diversity and inclusion". www.oba.org. Retrieved 2024-10-11.
  18. ↑ Chadha, Ena; Rogers, Emmett (2023-01-01). "Does the Supreme Court of Canada Give a "Freak" About Disability Dignity?: The Inclusion Fallacy 25 Years After Eldridge". The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode's Annual Constitutional Cases Conference. 108 (1). doi:10.60082/2563-8505.1442. ISSN   2563-8505.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.