Colleen Sheppard

Faculty of Law

Biography

Colleen Sheppard teaches and conducts research in the areas of Canadian and comparative constitutional law, equality rights, economic and social rights, and feminist legal theory at McGill’s Faculty of Law.

She is Research Director for the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. A former law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson, she has also been a visiting professor at Dalhousie Law School, the University of Maine School of Law, and the Institute of Comparative Law, Université Lyon III.

Professor Sheppard has also been active in public interest work. She served as a Commissioner on the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission from 1991-1996 and has been a consultant with the federal Department of Justice, the National Judicial Institute, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Ontario Métis Aboriginal Association and the International Labour Organization . She is also on the Board of Directors of Equitas – International Centre for Human Rights Education.

Education

LL.M. (Harvard) 1985

LL.B. (Toronto) 1984

B.A. (Toronto) 1980

Employment

Director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University, 2010-

Research Director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University, 2005-2010

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 1993-present

Commissioner, Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission, 1991-96

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, 1988-93

Visiting Assistant Professor (joint appointment), Dalhousie University and University of Maine, 1986-88

Law Clerk for Chief Justice Brian Dickson, Supreme Court of Canada, 1985-86

Research on equal employment opportunities and affirmative action, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Women's Bureau, 1980-81

Areas of Interest

Constitutional Law, Human Rights (especially equality rights), Feminist Legal Theory, Economic and Social Rights and Anti-discrimination in the workplace.