For the Law School Show's 200th episode, we focus on alumni. We reached out to several Univer[s]ity of Ottawa law grads to ask them about their stories within the profession, and our responses ranged from articling students to long-time practitioners, inside and outside conventional practice. Over a series of mini-interviews, Kenya-Jade Pinto, Aditya Rao, Helen Berry, Samantha Peters, Wali Ahmad, Jolene Hansell, and Stephanie Wright showed us the places our studies can take us, from international documentary projects to Supreme Court clerkships and beyond. If you've ever been curious about human rights law in a global pandemic, how to get involved in start-ups, the similarities between law and ballet, or just how to find your place in our profession, then you'll find a lot to like in our great big bicentennial.
“I think limiting a worker’s options — full stop — is troublesome, particularly when the workers’ identities exist at the margins,” they told the Star. Peters added that for some people the HRTO is important because it puts their dispute — and a decision about it — on the public record.”
- Samantha Peters
Samantha recognized that lawyering in the traditional sense often caused harm to the Black queer community. Thus, she challenged herself to ask some important questions that the traditional practice of law would not permit her to entertain: (1) How can I participate in a legal practice that is not causing harm, or is disrupting harm, or is transforming the legal system in a way that causes less harm? (2) How can I make the practice of law more feelings-based, community-based and caring? (3) How can I practice law in a way that centres the livelihood and desires of Black queer femmes that I know and that I support who are more likely to experience sexual violence, harm and exploitation in the workplace due to their existence on margins of the white hetero-patriarchal gender binary?
“There is a lot of femme erasure despite femmephobia being a real thing. And so, for me, it's important to define femme although there are many definitions of femme. But defining femme, but particularly defining Black femme, because our experiences are more unique than others. Our Black identities interlock with other forms of discrimination and identities of oppression, but it's important to define it just because femmes are often not given space or are rather erased in queer spaces.”
- Samantha Peters
“Our advocacy work is all about calling for changes to support Black and Black LGBTQ2 folks through effective workplace policies and legislative reforms. Transformative [legal] shifts that trickle down to governments, organizations and communities are key,” she says. “But I also think employers do have a responsibility to ensure their workplaces are safe and healthy.”
- Samantha Peters
In this episode we are joined by Samantha Peters. Samantha is a lawyer, LLM candidate at Queen’s University Faculty of Law, and the current Director of Legal Initiatives and Public Interest at Black Femme Legal. Samantha is also a frequent commentator and writer on workers’ rights, sexual and gender-based violence, social policy and critical race theory in Canada. In this episode Samantha asks the important question: who does the law protect and serve? We also discuss how Samantha has found empowering and soul nourishing work, the need for ongoing support for Black law students, why abolishing the bar exam is so important, and the power of a delicious mushroom quinoa risotto.
“I love being able to practise law in ways that don’t have me operating in silos – I want to still firmly be in community, be connected to the law in some respect and use my legal education and skills in ways that are transformative and helpful to systemic change and community mobilizing.”
- Samantha Peters
“[…] Black Femme Legal was born out of an informal working group of Black queer women, femmes and gender diverse folks who experienced harm in the workplace, including but not limited to: anti-Black violence, discrimination, harassment, exploitation, underpayment, hyper surveillance, and even misogynoir - which is a term coined by Moya Bailey over 10 years ago - which is the anti-Black racism and misogynoir that Black women experience […]”
- Samantha Peters
“More lawyers who exist at different intersections not only means diversifying historically a very white, cis-hetero male profession,” Peters says, “but it also possibly means a more intersectional lens and approach to the practice of law.”
- Samantha Peters
"An inclusive legal education illuminates historic and contemporary manifestations of systemic discrimination in laws, policies and law practice, including in the legal profession, and imagines transformative solutions within and beyond the confines of the law."
- Samantha Peters
