Cheryl Milne

Cheryl Milne, LL.B., M.S.W., is the Executive Director of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights at the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. Prior to this position she was a legal advocate for children with the legal clinic Justice for Children and Youth for 17 years. There she conducted Charter litigation at the Supreme Court of Canada including the challenge to the corporal punishment defence in the Criminal Code [Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (2004)], the striking down of the reverse onus sections of the Youth Criminal Justice Act for adult sentencing [R. v. D.B. (2008)], and an intervention involving the right of a capable adolescent to consent to her own medical treatment (A.C. v. Manitoba Child and Family Services]. She has represented numerous young people in education related proceedings under the Education Act, child welfare and family law proceedings, and in youth court under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, among others. She has been Chair of the Ontario Bar Association’s Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights section, the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, and Justice for Children and Youth. She is the current Chair of the CBA Children’s Law Committee and sits on the Steering Committee of the National Association of Women and the Law. She was appointed to the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying for Mature Minors and was recently cross-appointed to the Child and Family Services Review Board and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. She teaches a clinical course in constitutional advocacy as well as child and youth law at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and has taught Social Work and the Law at Ryerson University.