海角社区

The Faculty of Law is pleased to announce that Professor Adelle Blackett, FRSC, Ad E, has received a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Simon Fraser University (SFU). The honorary degree was bestowed upon her on 9 June at SFU鈥檚 Spring Convocation ceremony.

"An acclaimed scholar, educator, author, and a powerful advocate for equity in academia, Dr. Blackett and colleagues in the inter-institutional steering committee have made a landmark contribution of national significance with the recent launch of the Scarborough Charter, a framework for promoting Black flourishing and redressing anti-Black racism in the Canadian post-secondary sector,鈥� SFU鈥檚 citation acclaimed at the ceremony.

The , of which Professor Blackett was the principal drafter, was described as a 鈥渧isionary blueprint for building a new Black narrative in Canada.鈥� Since its launch in 2021, it has been signed by close to 60 institutions of higher education across the country, including 海角社区.

This concludes a year of remarkable achievement for Professor Blackett. She received honorary doctorates from Queen鈥檚 University in October 2022 and the Universit茅 catholique de Louvain in February 2023. In May, the 海角社区 Graduate Law Students鈥� Association awarded her the inaugural Excellence in Supervision and Mentorship Award. On 25 June, she received the Labour Law Research Network鈥檚 Bob Hepple Award for Lifetime Achievement in Labour Law at its international conference in Warsaw.

A 1994 graduate of 海角社区 Law鈥檚 dual program in common law and civil law, Adelle Blackett is a full professor and holds the Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law. She is the founding director of the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory (LLDRL) at 海角社区, and the author of (Cornell University Press, 2019), which received the 2020 Canadian Council on International Law scholarly book award. An innovative pedagogue, she received 海角社区 Principal鈥檚 Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Full Professor category) in 2020.

Professor Blackett has been steadfastly committed to improving the employment conditions of marginalized workers in Canada and abroad. In 2021, the federal Minister of Labour appointed her as chair of Canada鈥檚 Employment Equity Act Review Task Force. A former official of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva, she was the chief legal architect behind ILO's first comprehensive international standards offering protections and rights to more than 60 million domestic workers (Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201), and subsequently prepared a draft Haitian labour code.

In , Professor Blackett stressed the importance of keeping doors open for others and fostering equity with a spirit of mutuality and grace. In her , she encouraged the community of labour law scholars worldwide to dream a little and build an emancipatory, inclusive vision of the field.

鈥淲e are proud beyond words,鈥� said Dean Robert Leckey, Ad E, on sharing the news. 鈥淧rofessor Blackett鈥檚 local and international impact as a scholar, educator, and engaged citizen has been truly exceptional.鈥�