Michelle Williams

B.S.W. (Dalhousie), LL.B. (Toronto), LL.M. (New York University)

 Assistant Professor
Director, Indigenous Blacks & Mi'kmaq Initiative

Originally from Nova Scotia, where she completed her B.S.W. at the Maritime School of Social Work, Ms. Williams has been a member of the Ontario Bar since 1996. She practiced with the African Canadian Legal Clinic (ACLC) undertaking test case litigation to challenge racism in general and anti-Black racism in particular, where she was involved in such groundbreaking cases as R. v. R.D.S., [1997] 3 S.C.R. 484 and R. v. Williams, [1998] 1 S.C.R. 1128. She also led the ACLC’s intervention in the Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia and appeared before federal, provincial and municipal committees to address issues of substantive equality.

Ms. Williams was a member of the inaugural class of Global Public Service Law Scholars at New York University, where she obtained a Master of Laws (2001) and was then awarded a post-graduate Global Public Service Law Fellowship. Upon completion, she was appointed Policy Advisor to the Federal Minister of State for Multiculturalism and Status of Women, the Hon. Jean Augustine, P.C., M.P.

Ms. Williams was a key organizer of the First National African Canadian Preparatory Conference in preparation for the U.N. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) and an NGO delegate to WCAR. She has also served on numerous official Canadian delegations to multilateral organizations such as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

In July of 2004, Ms. Williams joined Dalhousie Law School as Assistant Professor and Director of the Indigenous Black & Mi’kmaq Initiative. Through her work with the IB&M Initiative she hopes to strengthen ties with African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities in an effort to encourage more people to pursue law as a career and to help make the law school, the legal profession and the justice system more responsive to the goals and concerns of African Canadian and Aboriginal peoples. Her research interests include critical race theory, critical race feminism, and domestic and international human rights.

To contact her, you can send an email to MIchelle.Williams@dal.ca or at the IB&M Initiative at ibandm@dal.ca and by telephone at (902) 494-1542.