Law Commission of Canada Emerging Scholars Program

Kailyn Blaser (Spring-Summer 2026)

Kaitlyn is a doctoral candidate at the Peter A. Allard School of Law and a Research Fellow with the Access to Justice Centre for Excellence. Her doctoral project engages the question of what a transformative and equitable approach to access to justice looks like with a focus on examining the intersection between societal inequality and the institutional structure of BC’s civil justice system.

Kaitlyn is also a part-time practising lawyer in British Columbia focusing on civil litigation, everyday legal problems, and innovative approaches to service delivery. Through her practice, she supports Access Pro Bono’s innovative Everyone Legal Clinic, which aims to fill unmet legal needs by training articling students to provide affordable legal services through a collaborative and virtual legal clinic model.

Kaitlyn’s presentation to the Law Commission (June 2026)

Marie-Pier Jolicoeur (Spring-Summer 2026)

Marie-Pier is a doctoral candidate in law at Université Laval under the supervision of Professor Pierre-Luc Déziel (Université Laval) and Professor Mona Paré (University of Ottawa). Her research interests focus on issues surrounding children's rights in the digital environment. Her thesis focuses on standards that aim to prevent the consequences of excessive use of digital technologies in early childhood.

She is a student researcher at the Université de Montréal's Centre de recherche en droit public and a member of the University of Ottawa's Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on the Rights of the Child, the Université Laval’s Institut d'Éthique appliquée, and the Centre sur l'intelligence emotionale (le CIEL). She is also a research and teaching assistant, and a lecturer at Université Laval.

Marie-Pier’s presentation to the Law Commission (June 2026)

Leanna Katz (Spring-Summer 2026)

Leanna is a doctoral candidate at McGill University's Faculty of Law and a Schulich Fellow at Dalhousie University's School of Law. Her research spans social welfare laws and financial regulation, with a particular interest in shifting ownership in social welfare sectors.

During her doctorate, she was the founding director of the Transnational Justice Clinic at McGill Law. Previously, she was a litigator and law clerk at the Court of Appeal for British Columbia and the Supreme Court of Canada.

She holds a JD from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, an LLM from Harvard Law School, and BASc from McMaster University's Arts and Science program.

José Saldaña Cuba (Fall 2025)

José is a human rights lawyer and doctoral candidate in Law (DCL) at McGill University. His research, supervised by Professor Sébastien Jodoin, examines Indigenous legal resistance to extractive industries in Peru’s Southern Mining Corridor, with an emphasis on global legal pluralism and environmental justice. He previously worked at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and served as a legal adviser to the Peruvian Congress and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. He has also taught constitutional law and legal anthropology at leading Peruvian universities.

José’s presentation to the Law Commission (October 2025)

Sébastien Meeùs (Fall 2025)

Sébastien is a doctoral candidate in law at the Université de Montréal, in a joint PhD program with the Université libre de Bruxelles, where he also serves as a teaching assistant for the Data Law course.

His research focuses on normative practices in digital environments, particularly on how corporate compliance efforts impact the effective exercise of individual rights. He is especially interested in the legal implications of Web3, video games, and virtual spaces (including the metaverse), from a global law perspective.

His dissertation analyzes regulatory mechanisms through technological compliance and the legal reverse-engineering of technical processes, using various case studies such as smart glasses and the protection of user and public data.

Sébastien’s presentation to the Law Commission (October 2025)

Andrea Menard (Fall 2025)

Andrea is a Métis legal scholar, public intellectual, and federal adjudicator. She is a Doctor of Social Sciences (DSocSci) candidate at Royal Roads University in the College of Interdisciplinary Studies, supervised by Dr. Siomonn Pulla. Her doctoral research reimagines professional legitimacy in Canadian law by centering Indigenous jurisdiction and the standard of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). She examines how self‑regulating legal bodies, particularly the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, risk undermining reconciliation when they legislate “Indigenous competence” requirements without Indigenous consent. Bridging legal pluralism, decolonization theory, and social‑dominance analysis, Andrea translates scholarship into practical policy tools that align legal regulation with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Call to Action 27.

Andrea’s presentation to the Law Commission (October 2025)

Natasha Jaczek (Summer 2025)

Natasha is a PhD candidate at the University of Ottawa focused on pluralist legal empowerment, critical pedagogy, and community-based justice education that raises young people's critical legal consciousness. Her work explores what youth know about the law and their confidence in navigating legal issues. Committed to community engagement, her most recent work includes youth-led, culturally responsive initiatives for urban Indigenous youth transitioning out of care. Natasha has presented her research at academic conferences in Canada and internationally, earning recognition from global justice education organizations for addressing key knowledge gaps. Through both research and practice, she works to ensure that young people’s perspectives are not only recognized but actively shape conversations about law and justice across Ontario and beyond.

Natasha’s presentation to the Law Commission (June 2025)

Alexandra Bouchard (Winter 2025)

Alexandra is a doctoral candidate at the Université de Sherbrooke, Faculty of Law, under the supervision of Professor Stéphane Bernatchez. As part of her doctoral research project, Alexandra is interested in the regulation and governance of new technologies and their use by public administration, particularly in contexts of social welfare. A lawyer, Alexandra holds a bachelor's degree in law from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a master's degree in law from the Université de Sherbrooke.

Alexandra’s presentation to the Law Commission (January 2025)

Michael Law-Smith (Winter 2025)

Michael is a JD/PhD (Philosophy) Candidate at the University of Toronto. His doctoral research, supervised by Professor Arthur Ripstein, focuses on the limits to the state’s authority in the criminal justice system. This project covers various theoretical and doctrinal issues in criminal law and tort law, including the injustice of mass incarceration, the normative purpose of criminal trials, and the state’s liability for prosecutorial misconduct. Previously, he clerked for Chief Justice Richard Wagner at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Michael’s presentation to the Law Commission (January 2025)

Esteban Vallejo Toledo (Winter 2025)

Esteban is PhD candidate at the University of Victoria, Faculty of Law. He explores the relationships between taxation, urban development, and spatial inequality in Vancouver from a legal-geography perspective. Esteban works under the supervision of Professors Bradley Bryan and Tamara Krawchenko, receiving support from Professors Kathryn Chan and Reuben Rose-Redwood, and from UVic Librarians Emily Nickerson, Jessie Lampreau, Sarah Miller, David Boudinot, Daniel Brendle-Moczuk, Tina Bebbington, Pia Russell, Shahira Khair, Nick Rochlin, and Monique Grenier. Esteban is grateful to SSHRC, the Law Foundation of British Columbia, the Law Commission of Canada, and the University of Victoria for their funding.

Esteban’s presentation to the Law Commission (January 2025)