Samantha Peters
Lawyer, Writer and Educator, Black Femme Legal
law, labour law, employment law, human rights law, workers' rights, social policy, feminist law reform, workplace sexual harassment, discrimination and harassment in the workplace, Ontario provincial politics, Toronto municipal politics, Black women in politics, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, Black Femme Theory
Media
COVID-19 Legal Info Webinar | Ontario
Join us for our Ontario episode in our COVID-19 Legal Info for LGBTQI2S Communities webshow; Tuesday, March 9 at 1 PM EST! Panelists Elizabeth Ha, Sarah Khan, Monique Woolnough, Leisha Neuman, and Samantha Peters discuss housing and employment issues across the province.
Working While Black: A discussion on recourse mechanisms for Black workers
The recent launch of a class action lawsuit on behalf of nearly 30,000 past and present federal public service workers who identify as Black, Caribbean or of African descent, has underlined the systemic discrimination Black workers face every day in the workplace. It raises the question: why do workplace recourse mechanisms for racism and racial discrimination often fail Black workers?
Join our expert panelists as we discuss this timely topic:
Amarkai Laryea – PSAC Representation and Legal Services
Doug Hill – PSAC Grievance & Adjudication Officer
Samantha Peters – Lawyer, Educator and Advocate
Craig Reynolds - PSAC Regional Executive Vice President – Ontario will moderate the discussion.
Sharon DeSousa, the PSAC National Vice-President, will open the session.
We hope to unpack pertinent questions surrounding recourse mechanisms such as:
What are the recourse mechanisms available to Black workers?
Why are there so few successful cases of racism and racial discrimination?
How can we make recourse mechanism work better for Black workers?
Panel: #WORKWORKWORK
This panel is focusing on how work is exploited, outsourced and undervalued. Our panelist guests include Emily Norgang (Canadian Labour Congress), Zenee May Maceda (United Food and Commercial Workers), Tasha Spillet (Winnipeg Indigenous Activist), Gabriel Enxuga (Baristas Rise Up), Reakash Walters (Alberta Union of Public of Public Employees), Samantha Peters and Naomi Sayers (Between the Lines Public Legal Education Initiative).
Black and Queer in Ontario
TVO's The Agenda with Steve PaikinTelevision
URL: https://www.tvo.org/video/black-and-queer-in-ontario
Episode: The Intersectionality of Being Black and Queer
What are the challenges - and joys - of living at the intersection of being Black and queer in the province; from fighting workplace discrimination, to advocating for increased visibility for trans people in the broader LGBTQ+ community.
Combating Racism in the Workplace
Breakfast Television, August 19, 2021Television
URL: https://www.bttoronto.ca/videos/combating-racism-in-the-workplace/
A recent study has revealed that 80 per cent of Black Canadians feel racism has negatively impacted them in the workplace. Here to tell us more is CEO of Gray Matter Heath, Marci Gray, and lawyer Samantha Peters.
The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay, March 28, 2021Radio/Podcast
For more than a year now, dancing with others has been discouraged — or outright banned — in the face of the pandemic and it's not clear when it will be allowed again. And if you feel like you are missing out as a result, you wouldn't be alone. There are deep reasons why so many of us are longing for the chance to move and sweat with others in shared spaces again, according to psychologist Peter Lovatt. He trained as a professional dancer, and went on to study dance in academia, and he tells Piya Chattopadhyay that dancing is a fundamental human need and a way to heal ourselves and the world.
Note: I start around the 22 minute mark.
Samantha Peters created Black Femme Legal to support Black queer workers. Here’s how they plan to expand
Good character, bad predictor, for law societies
Canadian Lawyer, May 25, 2021Print
Jill Andrew’s revolutionary politics
Xtra Magazine, August 23, 2021Online
URL: https://xtramagazine.com/power/jill-andrew-ontario-politics-covid-19-207356
Is Canada’s Bill To Criminalize Conversion Therapy Doing Enough?
Refinery 29, April 29, 2021Online
URL: https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2021/04/10439096/conversion-therapy-illegal-canada-bill-c6
These Ontario high school teachers are calling on their union to go beyond ‘lip service’ and dismantle anti-Black racism within the organization
If you’re a racialized woman, everything you’ve heard about salary negotiation is wrong
The Globe and Mail, April 5, 2021Online
International Law Firm’s Black History Month Post Boasts of Employee’s Child’s Black Friend
VICE Canada, February 25, 2021Online
The many possibilities of lawyering post-pandemic
The Lawyer's Daily, January 15, 2021Online
Respecting pronouns is a professional responsibility
CBA National, January 8, 2021Online
We Need More Black Women in Law—Here's Why
Flare, December 23, 2020Online
Women interrupted: It doesn’t take a debate stage for women to be silenced. These women are tired, and they have some advice
How Caribbean Canadians Are Celebrating Carnival This Summer
Flare, July 23, 2020Online
URL: https://www.flare.com/identity/how-caribbean-canadians-are-celebrating-carnival-2020/
OP-ED: In Defunding the Police, We Cannot Forget Black Womxn
Canadian Anti-Hate Network, June 24, 2020Online
URL: https://www.antihate.ca/in_defunding_the_police_we_cannot_forget_black_womxn
Companies aren’t ‘comfortable’ talking about anti-Black racism. Here’s how to start
Global News, June 18, 2020Online
URL: https://globalnews.ca/news/7077018/anti-black-racism-canada-companies/
Step Your Game Up! How To Support Black Employees During This Time
By Blacks, June 2, 2020Online
URL: https://byblacks.com/opinion/2559-step-your-game-up-how-to-support-black-employees-during-this-time
Increasing criminalization during a pandemic is not the solution
CBA National, April 10, 2020Online
The pandemic shows why Ontario needs to revamp its licensing process
The Ghomeshi Verdict: Re-imagining How Future Sexual Assault Cases Are Heard
Huffington Post, March 25, 2016Online
URL: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-ghomeshi-verdict-reim_b_9544430
Remembering Black and Indigenous Women in the Retention of Women in Criminal Law Practice
Huffington Post, March 22, 2016Online
URL: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/remembering-black-and-indigenous-women_b_9517250?guccounter=1
Biography
Samantha Peters (she/they) is a lawyer, researcher and educator, whose work focuses on labour, employment and human rights law. She is also the first-ever Black Legal Mentor-in-Residence/Mentor Juridique pour la Communauté Noire at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law for the 2020 – 2021 academic year.
Samantha engages in work at the intersection of law, education and policy, ranging from law reform initiatives to legal education to legislative research. She is the Director of Legal Initiatives and Public Interest at Black Femme Legal, a project funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario, which provides legal and non-legal resources and support to Black 2SLGBTQI+ workers across Ontario through a Black femme-centered approach, lens and praxis. She is also the National Vice-President of Equity and Anti-Oppression at the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, a member of the City of Toronto’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Two-Spirit (LGBTQ2S+) Council Advisory Body and a Pro Bono Lawyer where she provides free legal advice, brief services and referrals to women-identified survivors of domestic violence.
Samantha’s writing on topics such as Black women in the law, access to justice and judicial education has appeared in Flare, Huffington Post Canada, SLAW, The Lawyer’s Daily and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to name a few. In 2020, her essay titled “Making Social Context Education Mandatory: Why Cultural Competency Should Matter in the Courtroom” won the Canadian Bar Association’s Women Lawyers’ Forum’s inaugural “Writing Her In” competition. In 2020, she was also selected as one of the top 100 Black Women in Canada to Watch by the Canadian International Black Women Event (CIBWE).