Alan Young (lawyer)
Alan N. Young is Professor Emeritus of law at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Young retired July, 2018. Prior to starting his teaching career at Osgoode in 1986, Young clerked for Chief Justice Bora Laskin of the Supreme Court of Canada and worked as a criminal lawyer in Toronto.
Young is the co-founder and former director of Osgoode's Innocence Project, which seeks to investigate and overturn cases of wrongful conviction and provides experiential education to law students. Young has been recognized by Canadian Lawyer Magazine as one of the "Top 25 Most Influential" in the justice system and legal profession in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. In 2018, Young was also awarded the Dianne Martin Medal for Social Justice Through Law.
Early life and education
Young grew up in a middle-class Toronto home in the Jewish neighbourhood of Bathurst and Wilson until the age of 10 and attended Associated Hebrew Day School. Young attended school at York's Osgoode Hall Law School, ranking at the top of his class. He also won a total of seven academic awards during his time at law school. He then clerked for former Supreme Court of Canada Chief of Justice, Bora Laskin, in 1981. He then obtained his LLM at Harvard Law. In 1986, Young was hired as an Associate Professor by Osgoode Hall Law School, York University Keele Campus in Toronto.An avid writer since childhood, between 1998 and 2006, Young wrote regular columns in the Toronto Star and Now Magazine, covering controversial topics such as racial profiling, liability of public officials, and legal protection of alternative lifestyles.
Challenging state authority
As a young law professor, Young commenced a series of challenges to state authority in the late 1980s. In 1989, Young was writing an article for the Media and Communications Law Journal on a recent decision by a court in Florida to ban the sale of a rap record called "As Nasty as They Wanna Be", and while writing this article, a bookseller in London, Ontario, Mark Emery, was charged for selling this record. With extensive research having been completed for the article, Young offered to assist the bookseller on a pro bono basis by launching a constitutional challenge to the obscenity law and a challenge to the manner in which expressive materials are seized prior to trial.The challenge was not successful, but, this case began a 25-year journey of offering pro bono legal assistance to vulnerable people seeking to challenge state authority. The wide variety of challenges and cases Young has brought can be organized around six thematic categories:
Constitutional challenges to the Criminal Code
After the unsuccessful obscenity challenge in 1991, Young was also then unsuccessful in challenging the gambling offences in 1993. However, he was successful in striking down the drug literature prohibition under s.462.2 of the Criminal Code in 1995. He also unsuccessfully challenged the drug paraphernalia prohibition contained in the same section in four different jurisdictions and two provinces.In 1997, Young launched a constitutional challenge to the offence of marijuana possession, which was ultimately dismissed by the Supreme Court of Canada. However, although the law was upheld, Young created two significant exemptions to the marijuana laws. In 1996, he secured the first licence for a farmer to grow cannabis for industrial purposes, and, more significantly, in a series of court cases from 1998 to 2006, he established the right of patients to use cannabis for medical purposes. These cases compelled the government to enact a medical program and to establish a supply of medical cannabis. In addition, due to the inadequacies of the medical program, Young was able to secure court rulings requiring the government to amend its regulatory provisions on two occasions
Perhaps one of the most celebrated victories of Young's career is the case of R v Bedford, in which he, and a team of students, successfully challenged three provisions of Canada's sex work laws. As a result of this successful invalidation, Parliament enacted a new legislative regime governing prostitution. Despite the success of the court case, Young was very disappointed with the Harper government's amendments to the Criminal Code, and in an interview with CBC, he stated that:
In 2014, the government... was given the chance to make history, but instead, chose to repeat the mistakes of history...The government has created a regime which will hurt communities, and is contrary to public interest, as it will push sex workers back into dangerous street forums.
Furthermore, in an article written by Kirk Makin for Canadian Lawyer Magazine, Young's long, dedicated and difficult time defending sex workers was aptly summarized:
'It was sad and pathetic,' he recalls. 'I couldn't see the public interest behind the raid. It was just hurting people and wasting court and police time.' The message Young took away would dictate the shape of his nascent career: the state has no business interfering with consensual, pleasure-seeking acts.
Freedom of expression
Beyond the obscenity and drug literature cases, Young has also championed numerous free speech issues, including the right of aggrieved patients to picket on hospital property and the right of journalists to protect their sources. He was also retained to represent the interests of the art galleries with respect to the operation and impact of child pornography laws.Young also exercised his free speech rights by writing biweekly newspaper columns for the Toronto Star and for Now Magazine between the years of 2002 and 2006. His first column for the Toronto Star triggered a great deal of hate mail from monarchists and his first column for Now Magazine resulted in the police issuing a libel notice. Continuing on this path of stirring up debate, Young published a critique of the legal profession in 2003 in a book called "Justice Defiled: Perverts, Pot Heads, Serial Killers and Lawyers." In the preface to the book, he noted that he chose to write an offensive book as a form of "professional suicide note," as he wanted to expose all the blemishes and warts of the profession.
Helping individuals with mental disorders
Over the past 25 years, Young has assisted dozens of individuals suffering from mental disorders resolve emerging conflicts with family members and state officials. More specifically, he has assisted in preventing child apprehension proceedings from being commenced, in obtaining social assistance and disability benefits, in challenging involuntary committal to psychiatric hospitals in mediating family conflicts and in securing treatment options for paranoid schizophrenics to prevent the laying of criminal charges for minor offences. Most of this work was done to prevent the escalation of conflict into legal proceedings; however, Young has also represented the interests of the mentally disordered in university discipline proceedings and police discipline proceedings.One case that aptly summarizes Young's dedication to assisting those with mental disorders is R v Taylor. In 1992, he was appointed as amicus curiae by the Ontario Court of Appeal to assist a mentally-disordered appellant who was self-represented. As a result of this case, significant changes were made to operating test used by courts to determine when an individual is unfit to stand trial and with this test, there is greater due process protections for the trial rights of disordered accused persons.
Helping the incarcerated and the wrongfully convicted
As director of the Innocence Project, Young has worked on dozens of cases involving claims of wrongful conviction. In addition to investigating these claims, Young is often required to assist these incarcerated individuals with a variety of issues relating to the conditions of their incarceration and their relationships with friends and family on the outside. Over the years, he has conducted numerous parole hearings, two applications to transfer Canadians from prisons in Thailand and the securing of the right of a federal inmate to complete his university degree online.In the context of working on claims of wrongful convictions, Young has continued to use litigation as a tool for political change. More specifically, he has brought a number of applications to establish a constitutional duty to preserve evidence and to disclose evidence in a post-conviction setting. In 2019, Young successfully established a right of post-conviction disclosure for wrongful conviction claimants who are seeking information and materials found in government files.
In 2015, Young was appointed amicus curiae by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal to assist incarcerated individual who wished to challenge the terms and conditions of their imprisonment through the writ of habeas corpus. This case resulted in an expansion of the jurisdictional scope of the writ.
Challenging state officials
In an effort to increase the accountability of public officials, Young has assisted numerous individuals who sought to launch complaints against police officers, prosecutors and their own lawyers. In particular, he has on three occasions initiated complaints against police officers with respect to the manner in which the police investigated, or failed to investigate, the death of a family member. He has also assisted two self-represented individuals successfully sue the police for malicious prosecution.Victim rights
Notwithstanding his institutional role as a defense lawyer, Young has also been a champion of the rights of crime victims for more than 20 years. He has been the primary consultant for the federal Department of Justice on the issue of victims' rights since the 1990s, and has represented numerous victims' rights groups seeking legislative reform. He has also assisted numerous crime victims seeking information from police and prosecutors on the status of their cases, and has attended court as a support person for many victims. Moreover, in 1999, he commenced an application seeking to create constitutional protections for crime victims under Section 7 of the Charter, but the application was not successful.Media and communications
For the past 25 years, Young has been a regular guest on numerous television and radio networks, as well as appeared in many documentaries. His work has been profiled on programs such as CP24's "Legal Briefs", CTV's "Canada AM", "W5", and "The Verdict", and TVO's "Studio 2." Moreover, there have been several print articles written about Young's contributions to the legal profession.In 2003, Young was recognized by Now Magazine in their annual Best of Toronto Awards, and as Freedom Fighter of the Month by High Times Magazine.
On two occasions, Young has spoken at the annual Ideacity Conference, hosted by Moses Znaimer. The issues which he has discussed at this conference include that of wrongful conviction as well as the legalization of marijuana.
On September 25, 2018, TVO aired an interview with Young on "The Agenda with Steve Paikin" about his recent retirement. This interview focused on Young's career in criminal law as well as his academic career as a Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School.