Debra M Haak

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Dr Debra M Haak PhD (Queen's), MPhil (St Andrews), LLB (UNB), BA Hons (Western) is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen's University where she teaches Criminal and Constitutional Law and co-directs Feminist Legal Studies Queen's, an interdisciplinary research group that critically examines how legal systems and practices have excluded, devalued, or harmed women and other marginalized groups.

Dr Haak’s research explores the intersection of law, public policy, and social change, examining how legal institutions respond to contested questions of equality, rights, identity, and social policy, and how evidence and competing conceptions of equality shape Canadian law and policy. For over a decade, Dr Haak has closely examined Canada’s criminal prostitution laws and claims those laws violate sex workers’ rights. Her published work on this subject was recently cited by the Supreme Court of Canada. Her current project – Sex in the Age of Gender - looks at how the integration of gender (identity) into the human rights landscape in Canada may impact how we understand and protect women’s rights. Dr Haak’s work has been published in journals including The Supreme Court Law Review, UBC Law Review, Alberta Law Review, Queen’s Law Journal, and the Canadian Journal of Women and Law.

Dr Haak’s research and teaching draw on 20 years of practice experience as a commercial litigator and partner at a large multi-service law firm in Toronto. Her research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Bar Association Law for the Future Fund, and the Queen’s Law Research Fund.

Experience

  • 2026–present
    Associate Professor, Queen's University, Canada
  • 2020–2026
    Assistant Professor, Queen's University, Canada
  • 2020–2021
    Postdoctoral Fellow, Queen's University, Canada
  • 2016–2020
    Adjunct Professor/Visiting Scholar, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada
  • 2015–2019
    Teaching Fellow, Queen's University, Canada
  • 1993–2016
    Partner/Associate, Gowling WLG

Education

  • 2019 
    Queen's University, PhD
  • 1996 
    Law Society of Upper Canada, Called to the Ontario Bar
  • 1995 
    University of New Brunswick, LLB
  • 1993 
    University of St Andrews, MPhil
  • 1990 
    University of Western Ontario, BA (Hons)

Publications

  • 2026
    R v Kloubakov: Three Significant Clarifications about Canada’s Criminal Prostitution Laws, 11 Supreme Court Law Review (3d) 201
  • 2025
    Thinking Like a Practicing Lawyer as a Legal Research Methodology, Canadian Legal Education Annual Review
  • 2025
    Treating Male Violence Against Women as Hate in Canada, Canadian Journal of Women and the Law
  • 2024
    Two Different Conceptions of Equality: Assessing the Constitutionality of Commercial Sex Laws in Canada” Supreme Court Law Review, Supreme Court Law Review
  • 2023
    Revisiting the Analytical Distinction Between Section 7 and Section 1 of the Charter: Legislative Objectives, Policy Goals, and Public Interests, 112 Supreme Court Law Review 115
  • 2022
    The Case of the Reasonable Hypothetical Sex Worker, 60:1 Alberta LR
  • 2021
    The Good Governance of Empirical Evidence About Prostitution, Sex Work, and Sex Trafficking in Constitutional Litigation, 46:2 Queen's LJ 187
  • 2019
    Re(De)fining Prostitution and Sex Work: Conceptual Clarity for Legal Thinking, 40 Windsor Rev Leg Soc Issues 67
  • 2017
    The Initial Test of Constitutional Validity: Identifying the Legislative Objectives of Canada's New Prostitution Laws, 50:3 UBC L Rev 657

Grants and Contracts

  • 2023
    Sex in the Age of Gender
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
  • 2023
    Sex in the Age of Gender
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    Canadian Bar Association

Contact Debra for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision