ACCESS TO JUSTICE

U of W’s Bahdi earns praise

The study of human dignity has been a common thread throughout Reem Bahdi’s career.

The University of Windsor associate professor says it has an intuitive appeal.

“Wrapped up in the idea of human dignity is the idea that everybody is equal, everybody is entitled to human rights, everybody has potential.

“And in an ideal world, we would live in a way that allows individuals to live up to their potential and not put social or political or economic barriers in the way.”

As a scholar, she’s particularly interested in access to justice. Bahdi is the 2017 recipient of the Guthrie Award from the Law Foundation of Ontario, in recognition of her contributions to the field.

“I was very honoured ... and very surprised when I heard about the award,” Bahdi said, laughing. “I actually didn’t tell anybody but my husband for several hours. I was just so surprised.”

Bahdi was nominated for the Guthrie Award by university president Alan Wildeman with letters of support from her colleagues, including dean of law Christopher Waters, and former students.

“Even at Windsor Law, where access to justice is our primary institutional theme, Professor Bahdi stands out as a leading light,” Waters said in a statement.

Bahdi helped develop the Palestinian justice system, created a model for judicial education to advance human rights in the West Bank by promoting human dignity and worked to form Windsor’s mandatory access to justice course for law students.

Waters added that Bahdi’s diverse contributions to legal education have put her at the forefront of access to justice, theoretically and literally.

Bahdi’s family moved to Canada from Jerusalem when she was three to escape war.

A nun in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan sponsored three-year-old Bahdi, her one year-old brother, and her mother and father.

“I think, looking back on the fact, that I was so tremendously lucky to be pulled out of a war-torn region and put in a country where education is valued and where health care is supported,” Bahdi said. “Certainly not fully and not equally for everybody (but) obviously more significant and fully than it was from where my family had come from.”

Bahdi said recognizing her luck, “and that the world could be a different place,” pushed her toward access to justice studies.

Her studies focused initially on international women’s human rights law, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001, created a new topic of study.

As the only law professor of Palestinian background in Canada — Bahdi also believes she was likely the only law professor of Arab background at the time, as well — she was inundated with requests for research and opinions after 9/11.

Bahdi said Sept. 11 put the Arab community under particular scrutiny both legally and socially.

“So people were asking me to respond to that, knowing that I came from an Arab background (and) also knowing that I had a general interest in human rights,” she said.

Bahdi said she felt a responsibility, as someone with an Arab background, to demonstrate and represent “that there are people in North America, generally and in Canada in particular, who are very much dedicated to this country.”