Reem Bahdi receives The Law Foundation of Ontario’s Guthrie Award
December 12, 2017
Professor Reem Bahdi was awarded The Law Foundation of Ontario’s 2017 Guthrie Award. Now in its 20th year, the Guthrie Award is the Foundation’s signature award that recognizes exceptional access to justice champions who have a significant and proven track record of furthering access to justice.
Professor Bahdi is an author, researcher, and human rights expert, with particular expertise in the human rights of Arabs and Muslims within Canada. She was the Canadian Bar Association’s first Equality Advisor and was instrumental in the creation of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association.
Canada’s first tenured Palestinian-Canadian law professor, Professor Bahdi is an associate professor at the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Law and a visiting professor at Birzeit University’s graduate program in democracy and human rights in the West Bank. She helped introduce a mandatory access to justice course at Windsor Law in 2003 and served as the law school’s Associate Dean from 2012 to 2015.
Professor Bahdi’s research focuses on the human rights of Arabs and Muslims after 9/11 and Palestinian judicial education. She has served as an expert witness, often on a pro bono basis, in many legal proceedings involving Canadian-Muslim rights and national security, including the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar.
From 2005 to 2012, Professor Bahdi established and managed an international development project called Karamah, which means ‘dignity’ in Arabic. Karamah promoted human dignity in the administration of justice in the West Bank and developed a model for judicial education to advance human rights.
Read the full award announcement on The Law Foundation of Ontario’s website to learn more about Professor Bahdi and her achievements.
The Law Foundation of Ontario
www.lawfoundation.on.caThe Law Foundation of Ontario has been advancing access to justice since 1974. Through granting and collaboration, the Foundation invests in knowledge and services that help people understand the law and use it to improve their lives. The Foundation also administers the Class Proceedings Fund, which provides cost assistance in class actions. The Foundation’s main source of revenue is interest received from lawyers’ and paralegals’ mixed trust accounts. Another source of revenue is cy-près awards. When received, cy-près revenue is allocated to the Foundation's national Access to Justice Fund.
Professor Reem Bahdi
The Law Foundation of Ontario
Law School
University of Toronto
Year Of Call
1996
Area Of Practice
Human Rights