We are excited to announce that we will be hiring a community organiser who specializes in migrant/immigration rights to engage in systemic advocacy. In today’s political climate where immigrants and migrants are scapegoated for the greed of the ultra wealthy and the failures of the governments to address poverty, we are thrilled to be able to push for real changes. If you are someone who has the experience and skills to be the person doing communtiy organizing and law reform work, please apply now to join our team. (fb)

We are truly saddened to announce the passing of Shelley Gavigan. Shelley served four terms as Academic Director of Osgoode’s Intensive Program in Poverty Law at Parkdale Community Legal Services. We will miss her dearly. ----- Obituary Gavigan, Shelley 1951-2025 Shelley was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2023. This is the part in many obituaries where it is noted that the deceased waged a brave and heroic battle against a medial issue. While Shelley approached her diagnosis with her customary strength and intelligence, she did complain quite a bit. Shelley and her loved ones would like to thank the staff and medical personnel of Mount Sinai, Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals for their excellent and compassionate care. Thanks also to Alketa at PMH’s Magic Castle - every child visiting an Ontario hospital should have such a space for care and fun. Shelley would like to thank her family physician Elysha Mawji for her care during Shelley’s last years and Karen and Amy would like to thank Dr. Singh and Dr. Nassiri at Toronto Western for their care at the end of Shelley’s life. Shelley died on Sunday, April 20, 2025. Our deepest thanks go to Shelley’s oncologist Dr. Lauren Philp at Princess Margaret Hospital whose first words to Shelley and Karen were “I am not known for sugar coating things”. While candor is an excellent quality for a physician to have, Dr. Philp was smart, skilled, and caring. For us, she was the perfect doctor. Words cannot express our gratitude. Shelley wanted it noted front and centre that she had the courage to change her life many times over: she practiced criminal defence for the First Nations and Metis peoples of Saskatchewan, in part because she was told that girls couldn’t do it; she pulled up stakes from the prairie that she loved to follow the late Judith Deverell to Toronto to make a new life that most importantly included their daughter Amy, which, at the time, was a trailblazing event; Shelley found her way to academia when her parents were told that she was not “university material”; she loved history so she refocussed her scholarship late in her career to publish Hunger Horses and Government Men: Criminal Law on the Aboriginal Plains where she was a runner up for the MacDonald Prize; Shelley seized the opportunity to own a little stone house in the middle of Italy where she worked on a new language, discovered new things and found new friends. Shelley’s willingness to take up challenges and change made her life a full and interesting one. Shelley’s professional life centred around Osgoode Hall Law School where she taught for over 30 years. She was long associated with its clinical programme in poverty law at the Parkdale Community Legal Service and she was most proud of her 1992 book with Jenson and Brody, The Politics of Abortion. With the encouragement and support of Dean Peter Hogg, Shelley took on the role of Associate Dean. It was as Associate Dean that Shelley found her stride at the law school that she proudly called home. She missed Peter and his wife Fran to her dying day. Retirement brought Shelley her greatest happiness. She continued to write, research and conference but without the meetings. She helped Amy as she relocated around the world in her new life with Nicholas. It meant taking in the Dickie Chicks in Oakland, Serena in Indian Wells, Gluck in Berlin, sharing space at the Bluebird Café with Deacon and spending one of Amy’s birthdays thrillingly at the Shark Tank in San Jose – for Amy, a dream come true. The birth of Jude Thomas in 2019 and Grace Elisabeth in 2022 added immeasurable happiness to an already happy life. Shelley’s only real sadness in life was that she could not be Dao Dao to Jude and Grace for longer. If you want to send a remembrance or a condolence, please mail it to the house or to Karen Andrews, The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, 55 University Avenue, 15th Floor, Toronto, M5J 2H7 which Shelley wanted profusely thanked for its support of Karen who, in turn, could support Shelley. An event to mark Shelley’s death will be planned. Shelley’s spirit and values will live on in some of the students that she taught, the words that she published, the friends that she had, the people whom she loved, the daughter that she cherished and the grandchildren that she adored. Shelley lived a rich and happy life. Grazie e arrivederci. (fb)