Founding of the chair

In 2005, Shirley E. Greenberg, retired lawyer and class of 1976 alumnus, made an outstanding donation in support of  activities related to women and the legal profession, permanently endowing the Shirley E. Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession in the Common Law Section of the Faculty of Law. Beginning with her annual support in 2002, legal issues that are important to women have received wonderful support from Ms. Greenberg. Thanks to this generous gift, the Greenberg Chair is now permanently established at the law school.

Role of the chair

The Shirley E. Greenberg Chair is held by professors in the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.  It is designed to circulate among qualified feminist faculty members. The holder of the Chair works with a large existing group of feminist scholars, all committed to women’s equality through law, to encourage women to enter the profession, to train legal professionals to deliver services to women, to connect women in law school with women in the legal profession, and to further law reform and research impacting on women as clients and women in the profession.

The advances [in the battle for women’s rights and equality] are great compared with what it was like when I was a young woman. Women are much better able to move into whatever field and endeavour they choose, without the barriers that we experienced then. In some ways, it is still a man’s world. I would like to see more women in the House of Commons; I would like to see more women running for office and as leaders of parties. But we are getting there." 

Shirley Greenberg has been a trailblazer in the Canadian women's movement for most of her adult life. She helped found the Ottawa Women's Centre, from which subsequently developed the Rape Crisis Centre, the Women's Career Counseling Centre and Interval House, a refuge for battered women. She entered the University of Ottawa's law school in the 1970s; while still busy raising three children.

After obtaining her law degree, Ms. Greenberg went on to create the first all-female law practice in Ottawa. Many of the most successful women lawyers in Ontario today began their careers in the law office of Shirley Greenberg.

Throughout her career, she fought systemic discrimination against women in laws and legal documents. Greenberg has since retired from the practice of the law, but her commitment to improving the lives of women continues.

With the help of her generous donation, the Shirley E. Greenberg Centre for Women's Health was established at the Riverside campus of the Ottawa Hospital. This centre, specializing in gynecology and cancer detection, puts particular emphasis on the well-being of older women.

• Natasha Bakht, “The Surprisingly Positive Impact of Section 27 of the Charter” in Howard Kislowicz, Richard Moon & Kerri Froc eds, The Surprising Constitution (UBC Press, in press).
• Natasha Bakht, “Indigenous Religious Rights: Reconciling Religious Views and Decolonizing Section 2(a) of the Charter” in Jeffrey Hewitt & Richard Moon, eds, Indigenous Spirituality and Religious Freedom (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, in press)
• Natasha Bakht, “How Low Can We Go? Combatting Systemic Islamophobia with the Unwritten Constitutional Principle of Respect for Minorities” in Anver Emon ed, Systemic Islamophobia in Canada: A Research Agenda (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023).
• Natasha Bakht, “2(b) or not 2(b): The Expressive Value of the Niqab” in Amélie Barras, Jennifer Selby & Melanie Adrian, eds, Producing Islam(s) in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021).
• Natasha Bakht, “Transnational Anti-Muslim Racism: Routes in Law” (2021) 20:2 Meridians: feminism, race transnationalism.
• Natasha Bakht, In Your Face: Law, Justice and Niqab-Wearing Women in Canada (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2020).
• Mary Jane Mossman, Natasha Bakht, Vanessa Gruben, Karen Pearlson, eds, Families and the Law, 3rd ed (Concord: Captus Press Inc, 2019).
• Natasha Bakht & Lynda Collins, “Are you my mother? Parentage in a Non-Conjugal Family” (2018) 31:1 Can J Fam L 105.
• Natasha Bakht & Lynda Collins, “The Earth is Our Mother: Freedom of Religion and the Preservation of Aboriginal Sacred Sites in Canada” (2017) 62:3 McGill Law Journal 777.
• Natasha Bakht, “In Your Face: Piercing the Veil of Ignorance About Niqab-Wearing Women” (2015) 24(3) Social and Legal Studies 419.  
• Natasha Bakht & Jordan Palmer, “Modern Law, Modern Hammers: Canada’s Witchcraft Provision as an Image of Persecution” (2015) 35 Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues 123.
• Jennie Abell, Elizabeth Sheehy, Natasha Bakht, eds, Criminal Law and Procedure: Proof, Defences and Beyond, 5th ed (Concord: Captus Press Inc., 2014).
• Jennie Abell, Elizabeth Sheehy, Natasha Bakht, eds, Criminal Law and Procedure: Cases, Context, Critique Proof, 5th ed (Concord: Captus Press Inc., 2012).
• Natasha Bakht, “What’s in a Face?  Demeanour Evidence in the Sexual Assault Context” in Elizabeth Sheehy ed, Sexual Assault in Canada: Law, Legal Practice and Women’s Activism (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2012) 591-611.
• Natasha Bakht, “Veiled Objections:  Facing Public Opposition to the Niqab” in Lori Beaman ed, Reasonable Accommodation: Managing Religious Diversity (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012) 70-108.
• Natasha Bakht, “Mere ‘Song and Dance’: Complicating the Multicultural Imperative in the Arts” in Home and Native Land: Unsettling Multiculturalism in Canada, eds, May Chazan et al (Toronto: Between the Lines Press, 2011) 175-183.
• Natasha Bakht, ed, Belonging and Banishment: Being Muslim in Canada (Toronto: TSAR Publications, 2009).