Debra Haak teaches criminal and constitutional law. She studied political science at Western and earned an LLB at the University of New Brunswick. She completed her MPhil at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, in international relations and terrorist studies. Dr Haak earned her PhD at Queen’s University, Faculty of Law; her research focussed on Canada’s criminal laws targeting the commercial exchange of sexual touching and claims those laws violate sex workers’ Charter rights. Her current SSHRC project – Sex in the Age of Gender – examines the use of the word “sex” in promoting and protecting women’s rights in Canada. Her teaching at Queen’s has been recognized with the Queen’s University, Society of Graduate and Professional Students, John G. Freeman Faculty Excellence Award (2019) and the Stanley M Corbett Award for Excellence in Teaching (2024).

Until 2016, Dr Haak was a partner at Gowlings where she practiced commercial and insolvency litigation and appeared regularly before all levels of court in Ontario. She was a member of the Commercial List Users Committee, a committee that considered improvements to the operations and organization of a specialized Commercial Court within the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. She spent one court year at the Inns of Court in London, England, as the recipient of the Harold G Fox Foundation Scholarship where she marshaled for The Hon Mr. Justice John Thomas (later Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales).

Research

Dr Haak’s research is motivated by a concern over how law and policy in Canada contend with the different and at times divergent interests of individuals and groups in a diverse society. Differently situated individuals and groups increasingly make conflicting demands on the state, often framing demands in the language of rights. Legal decision makers, including judges and policy makers, make difficult choices between and among individuals and groups in a liberal and constitutional legal context. They increasingly rely on empirical and theoretical scholarship. Dr Haak’s research considers how substantive and procedural aspects of constitutional cases influence how legal decision makers reconcile interests, rights, and values in tension. Drawing on 20 years of practice experience, Dr Haak approaches her research through the conceptual and analytical lens of interest focussed legal problem-solving – an example of the study of law in context she calls “thinking like a practicing lawyer.”

Alongside her scholarly publications, Dr Haak's work has appeared in The Globe & Mail, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, CBC News, CTV News, and The Conversation. 

Articles

Selected Recent Presentations

  • “Sex in the Age of Gender: Conceptual Clarity as a Foundation for Reconciling the Interests, Rights, and Experiences of Women, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People in Canada”, Joint Conference of the LEX Network, Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network, Feminist Legal Research and Action Network, and the Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law, University of Liverpool, UK, 2024
  • “Sex and the Status of Women”, Canadian Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2024
  • “Social Change, Times of Upheaval, and Legal Education”, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Denver, USA, 2024
  • “Thinking Like a Practicing Lawyer as a Legal Research Methodology”, Canadian Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, University of New Brunswick, 2024
  • “Exploring Connections Between Research and Teaching in Criminal Law”, Canadian Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference, University of New Brunswick, 2024
  • “Whose (Vision of) Equality Matters (Most): Equality Arguments About the Constitutionality of Canada’s Criminal Commercial Sex Laws”, The Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities Annual Conference, University of Toronto, 2023
  • “The Commercial Exchange of Consent: Potential Implications of a Market for Sexual Touching on Criminal Sexual Assault Laws in Canada”, Canadian Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, 2023
  • “Criminal Prostitution Laws and Sex Workers’ Rights: Rethinking the Analytical Distinction Between Section 7 and Section 1”, CLF Annual Symposium on Religion, Law and Human Rights, Peter A Allard School of Law, UBC, 2022
  • “From Bedford to NS: Revisiting the Constitutionality of Commercial Sex Laws in Canada”, University of British Columbia, Peter A Allard School of Law, UBC, Centre for Feminist Legal Studies, 2022
  • “The Limits of Empirical Scholarship about Prostitution, Sex Work, and Sex Trafficking in Canada”, US National Centre on Sexual Exploitation Online Global Summit, 2021
  • “What We Know about Sex Work but Don’t Know about Prostitution in Canada”, Canadian Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Edmonton (online), 2021 
  • “Revisiting Bedford: The Nature and Scope of Sex Workers’ Right to Security of the Person post-PCEPA”, Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, USA (online), 2021
  • “The Case of the Reasonable Hypothetical Sex Worker”, Socio-Legal Studies Association Annual Conference, Cardiff, UK (online), 2021 

Book Reviews

Research

  • Interests, Rights and Values in Tension
  • Women’s Rights
  • Sex Laws
  • Constitutional Law and Litigation
  • Human Rights Law