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Marie-Eve Sylvestre
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Marie-Eve
Sylvestre
Dean on administrative leave, Full Professor
LL.B. Universit茅 de Montr茅al 1999
LL.M. Harvard Law School 2002
S.J.D. Harvard Law School 2007
Room
57, rue Louis-Pasteur, bureau 203
Phone
613-562-5800 poste 5902
Email
Biography
Marie-Eve Sylvestre is Dean and Full Professor at the Civil Law Section of the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. She holds an LL.B. from the Universit茅 de Montr茅al (1999: Gold Medallist), as well as a LL.M (2002) and a S.J.D. (2007) from Harvard Law School where she was a Frank Knox Memorial Foundation fellow. In 2000-2001, she served as a law clerk to Justice Charles D. Gonthier at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Her research focuses on the criminal justice system, and, more specifically, on policing and judicial practices, as well as legal rules, that have a discriminatory impact on poor and marginalized populations. She is also interested in alternative responses to criminalization, including in the Indigenous context, as well as in the regulation of individuals who use public spaces. She has published extensively in law, criminology, and geography. Her most recent book, Red Zones: Criminal Law and the Territorial Governance of Marginalized People, co-authored with Nicholas Blomley and C茅line Bellot, and published by Cambridge University Press, was awarded the 2021 W. Wesley Pue Book Prize by the Canadian Law and Society Association. In 2018-2019, she held the University of Ottawa Research Chair in Law, Criminal Policy, and the Regulation of Marginalized People.
From 2017 to 2019, Professor Sylvestre acted as the justice expert for the Public Inquiry Commission into the Relationships between Indigenous People and Certain Public Services in Quebec: listening, reconciliation, progress (CERP). She is a founding member of the Observatory on Profiling and in 2022, she testified as an expert for the plaintiff in Luamba v. A.G. Qu茅bec on racial profiling and traffic stops in Quebec.
Throughout her career, Dean Sylvestre earned several prizes and awards. In 2011, she received the Canadian Association of Law Teachers鈥 Scholarly Paper Award for an article entitled 鈥淩ethinking Criminal Responsibility for Poor Offenders鈥, published in the McGill Law Journal, as well as the Quebec Bar Foundation Award for best legal manuscript for an article on the penalization of homelessness published in the Canadian Journal Law and Society. In 2012, she was the first law professor to be granted the Young Researcher of the Year Award, for the arts, humanities, and social sciences, at the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada since 2018. In 2022, she was awarded the distinction of Advocatus Emeritus by the Quebec Bar and in 2023, she earned the Merit of the Barreau de l鈥橭utaouais.
Dean Sylvestre is the co-president of the University of Ottawa Standing Committee on Academic Freedom. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute and a Board member of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Publications and communications
- .
- Julie Desrosiers, Margarida Garcia and Marie-Eve Sylvestre,鈥疌riminal Law Reform: Challenges and Possibilities / R茅former le droit criminel au Canada: d茅fis et possibilit茅s, 脡ditions Yvon Blais, 2018
Research Projects
1. 脡tat et cultures juridiques autochtones: un droit en qu锚te de l茅gitimit茅 (CRSH Connexion - Partenariat, 2013-2018) (1 901 675$)
Co-chercheuse et co-directrice du projet "Vers un mod猫le de justice atikamekw" (avec Myl猫ne Jaccoud, UdeM) (214 000$)
Chercheur principal: Ghislain Otis, Universit茅 d'Ottawa
L鈥檕bjectif ultime de ce projet est de soutenir et de renforcer la gouvernance atikamekw. Le projet porte plus sp茅cifiquement sur les mod猫les 茅tatiques et atikamekw de prise en charge des probl猫mes et des conflits en mati猫res de violence conjugale et familiale et de protection des enfants dont le d茅veloppement est compromis. Il vise 脿 renforcer, d茅velopper et soutenir les modes atikamekw de r茅solution des conflits et 脿 assurer leur reconnaissance tant au sein de la nation atikamekw qu鈥檃upr猫s de l鈥櫭塼at qu茅b茅cois.
2. L'Observatoire sur les profilages social, racial et politique dans les espaces publics (CRSH Connexion, D茅veloppement de Partenariat, 2013-2016) (200 000$)
Co-chercheuse et responsable du groupe sur le profilage social
Chercheuse principale: C茅line Bellot, UdeM (avec Pascale Dufour, Francis Dupuis-D茅ri, Paul Eid et Suzanne Bouclin, co-chercheurs)
L鈥橭bservatoire sur les profilages est un organisme de veille et de vigilance sur diff茅rents types de profilage, visant 脿 soutenir le d茅bat public dans une perspective d鈥檃m茅lioration des pratiques et des politiques sociales. Pour ce faire, l鈥橭PS incarne une alliance interdisciplinaire et interinstitutionnelle entre divers chercheurs (droit, sociologie, science politique, travail social et criminologie) et organismes de d茅fense des droits (institutionnels et communautaires), qui vont produire de nouvelles donn茅es et analyses afin de fournir des connaissances scientifiques, judiciaires et m茅diatiques r茅centes sur le ph茅nom猫ne des profilages.
3. Court-imposed restrictions to public spaces and Marginalized People in Canada (CRSH Savoir, 2012-2016) (117 416$) (Subvention class茅e au 1er rang sur 81 demandes au Canada)
Chercheuse principale
Co-chercheurs: C茅line Bellot, UdeM et Nicholas Blomley, SFU
This research project focuses on bail and sentencing conditions imposed in the context of criminal proceedings involving marginalized groups of people, including street-level drug users and sex workers, the homeless, and demonstrators who occupy public spaces in four Canadian cities (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver). We are particularly interested in the use of conditions with spatial dimensions. Some of these conditions specifically rely on a geographic or spatial component (e.g. prohibiting people from being within the limits of a determined perimeter or from being in a particular place like a park or property generally accessible to the public such as a restaurant or a store), while others have spatial effects (e.g. prohibitions to demonstrate or to participate in public meetings or assemblies; curfews, no contact orders, etc). Using a multidisciplinary (law, geography and criminology) and multi-methods (both qualitative and quantitative) framework, our project analyzes the nature of these court orders, the legal context in which they are embedded, and their effects on individuals鈥 rights and uses of public spaces, and on the criminal justice system.
4. La judiciarisation des personnes itin茅rantes 脿 Montr茅al et Ottawa: 茅tat des pratiques contre-productives (CRSH Subvention strat茅gique conjointe 2008-2009) (50,000$)
Chercheuse principale
Co-chercheuse: C茅line Bellot, UdeM
5. La judiciarisation des personnes itin茅rantes au Canada (CRSH Subvention ordinaire 2008-2012) (141 000$)
Chercheuse principale: C茅line Bellot, UdeM
6. La judiciarisation des personnes itin茅rantes au Canada (CRSH Subvention ordinaire 2008-2012) (141 000$)
Co-chercheuse
Chercheuse principale: C茅line Bellot, UdeM
Courses Taught
- DRC 1707A - Droit p茅nal I (Winter 2019)
- DRC 4780 - Droit des peines (Winter 2018)
Links
Conf茅rence 芦禄, avec C茅line Bellot, pr茅sent茅e le 17 f茅vrier 2015, 脿 l'Universit茅 de Montr茅al dans le cadre du Cycle de conf茅rences du Centre International de Criminologie Compar茅e (CICC).
颁辞苍蹿茅谤别苍肠别&苍产蝉辫;, pr茅sent茅e le 4 d茅cembre 2014, par l'Universit茅 de Montr茅al, le Centre International de Criminologie Compar茅e (CICC) et L'Observatoire Sur les Profilages (OSP), dans le cadre du lancement de la saison scientifique 2014-2015 du CICC.
L'observatoire sur les profilages (OSP):
脡mission Le droit de savoir, saison 4, (diffus茅e en septembre 2014)
Fields of interest
(in french only)
- Droit p茅nal et d茅termination de la peine
- Criminalisation de la pauvret茅
- Droit p茅nal et personnes marginalis茅es (itin茅rance, travail du sexe, usage de drogues)
- Occupation des espaces publics
- Criminalisation de la dissidence et des manifestations
- Syst猫me de justice p茅nale et les autochtones