TMU vs. Western

[lawhopeful1234]

Hi everyone, can anyone please share the core differences between TMU and Western? For interests in social justice and criminal law, what program is better suited and why? 

[FellowTraveler]

Could you define what "social justice and criminal law" means to you? Because in the abstract those can mean fundamentally opposed things.

• The crown who puts "bad people" in prison believes he is promoting social justice through the criminal law.
• The abolitionist criminal defence lawyer would also consider herself to care about "social justice and criminal law", while doing basically the opposite.

[lawhopeful1234]

10 minutes ago, FellowTraveler said:

Could you define what "social justice and criminal law" means to you? Because in the abstract those can mean fundamentally opposed things.

• The crown who puts "bad people" in prison believes he is promoting social justice through the criminal law.
• The abolitionist criminal defence lawyer would also consider herself to care about "social justice and criminal law", while doing basically the opposite.

Honestly, interested in both sides! Thank you for asking this! 

 

Would either TMU or Western be better suited towards either end? 

Edited April 25 by lawhopeful1234

[BHC1]

4 hours ago, lawhopeful1234 said:

Honestly, interested in both sides! Thank you for asking this! 

 

Would either TMU or Western be better suited towards either end? 

Western had a good clinic if you want to get hands on experience with LTB, civil and criminal cases. A lot of the clients are low income and would fit your social justice bend. 
 

More importantly, where do you want to work and what is the cost difference for you? If you want to do social justice work, keeping debt down should be your number one priority. Otherwise, you are going to be tempted by the dark side of the law and fall into the social justice to Big Law pipeline - in which case Western is the clear winner.