Jonathan Rudin

Jonathan Rudin received his LLB and LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School. In 1990 he was hired to establish Aboriginal Legal Services and has been with ALS ever since; currently he is the program director. Mr Rudin has appeared before all levels of court, including representing ALS before the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Ipeelee (among other cases).

At ALS he helped establish the Community Council—the first urban Aboriginal justice program in Canada in 1992, and in 2001 he helped establish the Gladue (Aboriginal Persons) Court at the Old City Hall Courts in Toronto.

Mr Rudin has written and spoken widely on issues of Aboriginal justice. He co-wrote the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples’ report on justice—Bridging the Cultural Divide—and was a member of the Research Advisory Committee of the Ipperwash Inquiry. Mr Rudin also teaches on a part-time basis in the Department of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, and also at Ryerson University. Last but not least, he plays the mandolin and sings with Gordon’s Acoustic Living Room, a group that plays regularly in Toronto and has a number of videos on YouTube.