Press Release: CCF Announces the New Position and Hire of a Runnymede Society Director

Press Release: CCF Announces the New Position and Hire of a Runnymede Society Director

The Canadian Constitution Foundation today announced the addition of a new staff member to a newly formed position in the organization’s Toronto office. Joanna Baron will assume the role of Runnymede Society Director (RSD) in January 2016. The RSD will oversee the Canadian Constitution Foundation’s new Runnymede Society, a law-school-based membership group that specializes in holding provocative and enlightening debates and symposia focused on the rule of law. Joanna brings to the position a strong background in public law and advocacy, and a passion for freedom, in all of its expressions and protections.

“Our new Runnymede Society Director will take the lead in creating a forum for law students to interact with bright legal experts who respectfully challenge the status quo in legal academia – and inspire students to challenge their own and each other’s ideas,” said Marni Soupcoff, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation. “For over a decade, we have been educating Canadians about their constitutional rights. The new society and position will allow us to go even further, changing the legal climate in the country so that freedom-oriented constitutional interpretations and jurisprudence are no longer viewed as suspicious outliers, but rather strongly supported alternatives. We’re delighted to have Joanna on freedom’s defence team.”

“I’m thrilled to be expanding the Canadian Constitution Foundation’s capacity to defend the constitutional rights and freedoms of Canadians, and to be enhancing the rigour and diversity of legal discourse on Canadian law school campuses,” said Joanna Baron.

Ms. Baron is a Toronto native and a graduate of the Classical Liberal Arts program at St. John’s College MD and McGill University Faculty of Law. Joanna completed her articles as a Law Clerk to the Justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario and spent a year in leading commercial chambers in London, UK, working alongside barristers as a visiting Fox Scholar. Upon returning to Canada, Joanna practiced criminal law at trial and appellate levels as an associate with Greenspan Partners LLP, where she appeared as counsel in all levels of court in Ontario as well as the Supreme Court of Canada.

Joanna has written on a wide range of legal, political, and cultural topics for major Canadian and international publications.

The Runnymede Society is a joint project of the Canadian Constitution Foundation and Advocates for the Rule of Law, a non-partisan think tank dedicated to furthering the rule of law in Canada. Asher Honickman, president of the ARL, said that he and the other ARL members are “very excited to be working with the CCF on such an important project. The Runnymede Society will challenge the accepted wisdom on many law school campuses, and in a way that remains inclusive to many diverse perspectives.”

The Canadian Constitution Foundation (“Freedom’s Defence Team”) is a registered charity, independent and non-partisan, whose mission is to defend the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through education, communication and litigation.