Today's show centres around immigration detention in Canada.

Organizer Rosalind Wong discusses the history and workings of immigration detention in Canada with David Zinman of the Dominion Podcast.

Immigration lawyer Jared Will speaks to the legal workings of indefinite detention; Jared represented Alvin Brown in his constitutional challenge to the legislative regime on immigration detention in Canada.

Carmelo Monge, migrant justice organizer with Mexicans United for Regularization, describes immigration detention here in Laval, Quebec, and the connections between precarious agency work and detention.

This edition of Legalease highlights Indigenous resistance to Canada 150.

Featuring Secwepemc and Ktunaxa land defender Kanahus Manuel and Kanien’kaha’ka organizer Russell Diabo from Kahnawake, both of whom recently spoke on the panel “Don’t Believe the Hype: 150 Years of Migration on Stolen Land,” organized by No One is Illegal Toronto. They discuss the criminalization and resistance of Indigenous land defenders and the history of Indigenous-settler relations over the last 500 years.

We also play an excerpt from the launch of Sylvia McAdam’s book, “Nationhood Interrupted: Revitalizing nêhiyaw Legal Systems,” produced by RezX Indigenous Voices, where she describes the language of colonial law and why she rejects the label “Indigenous-Canadian”.

---> special "Mother's Day" edition of Legalease:

a member of the Collectif des femmes sans statuts / Non-Status Women's Collective Collective will be there to speak about her experiences as someone with precarious status, in the context of the event they are holding to highlight the situation of non-status women this Sunday: https://www.facebook.com/events/115756958986038/

We will also be talking to a community organizer about housing demands in Montreal and an upcoming occupation action that +20 housing groups are coordinating to take place on May 22.

On this show --

listen to Navajo activist and scholar Melanie Yazzie explain the implications and legacy of Standing Rock to the fight against islamophobia and oppressive immigration policies;

Cheryl Harris, Co-Director of the Critical Race Studies at UCLA's Faculty of Law talks about the role of Colorblindness in enabling the rise of White Nationalism and neoliberal politics in the US, Canada, France, and the UK;

and finally we'll hear from three student activists fighting for McGill to withdraw its investments the fossil fuel industry, and criticizing the university's response to their campaign as procedurally unjust.

Le 29 Décembre dernier 6 hommes musulmans ont été assassinés dans une Mosqué à Québec. Le lendemain une manifestation de soutien et solidarité avec les familles des victimes a été organisée à Montréal. Nous allons entendre des extraits des discours donné à cette occasion.

Meanwhile Several groups in Montreal have been actively resisting the politics of fear and hate that spread by Donald Trump since his election. Gwen spoke with 3 organizers from the Resist Trump and the Far Right Network in Montreal about their fight against racism and Islamophobia.

Also on the news, the Trump administration granted authorization to Energy Transfer Partners to resume construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. We will hear an interview conducted by Lillian Boctor with a veteran at Standing Rock, fighting for water protection and against the construction of the Pipeline.

Last but not least, we will hear an interview by Legalease’s Emma Noradounkian with co-directors of the Mental Health Hub at McGill law, talking about the survey they recently launched and the prevalence of mental health issues amongst legal professionals.

Bienvenues à LegalEase, une émission consacrée au droit qui vise à

en rendre le jargon plus accessible tout en évaluant de manière

critique ses institutions.

LegalEase is a monthly show put together by a collective of former

and current law students at McGill that explores the law and its

institutions with a critical lens and at the same time makes the

jargon of the law more accessible.

First off, LegalEase’s Emma Noradounkian interviews the McGill

Faculty of Law’s Universal Access Consultant, Gift Tshuma, on his

accessibility report, which was released in the late Fall of 2016.

They discussed the details of the report and ways that students can get involved to make the Faculty more accessible and inclusive for all.

Next, we’ll hear from the McGill Legal Information Clinic on the current status of name changing in Quebec, brought to you by Alexa Franckzak.

The Legal Information Clinic is a non-profit,

student-run, bilingual and free information legal service. Their

mandate is to provide legal information, student advocacy services,

referral and community services to the McGill and Montreal

communities, with a continuing commitment to meeting the needs

of marginalized groups. The clinic is located in the SSMU building

on McTavish.

Finally, we’ll feature a talk which Professor Afua Cooper gave

during Professor Adelle Blackett's “Slavery and the Law” seminar.

A scholar, historian, poet, and commentator– she currently is an

Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social

Anthropology at Dalhousie University and founded a minor in

Black Canadian Studies. She discusses her research and the history

of slavery in Canada by pointing to individual narratives and the

cultural entrenchment of the practice in codes and statutes. She

completely demolishes the myth of a benign, slave-free Canada.

Vous écoutez LegalEase sur CKUT 90.3 FM à Montreal.

Legalease’s Lillian Boctor reports from the Standing Rock resistance encampments where water protectors have, for now, managed to halt construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline...more on that to come. We’ll also get an update on struggles against the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Ensuite, we’ll hear testimonies from members of the Non-Status Women’s Collective of Montreal, a collective of non-status women self-organizing for status for all here in Montreal, who took to the streets this past Saturday, to mark one year of collective struggle and continue their fight in denouncing the arbitrariness of Canada’s immigration system and its particularly violent impacts on women.

Finally, to add a little holiday flavor to our somber program we’ll get a brief law lesson from the Legal Information Clinic of McGill on the subject of Gifts

Unfortunately this interview got cut short in our last show, but don't worry you can listen to it entirely online!

Hear Garrett Zehr, former radlaw and Legalease member, speak about the efforts to unionize lawyers and articling students at Legal Aid ontario, some of the legal challenges that they've faced, and their hopes for the future.