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The Faculty of Law is pleased to announce that Professor Johanne Poirier has received the 2022 John W. Durnford Award for Teaching Excellence. Named in honour of the late professor and former dean John W. Durnford (BCL'52), and conferred by students, this award each year recognizes a law professor鈥檚 exceptional pedagogy. Professor Poirier received the award during the Law Convocation ceremony on 26 May 2022 for the second time, having won it in 2019.聽聽

The students鈥� nomination letters praised Professor Poirier鈥檚 care for her students, and her 鈥渋nfectious鈥� passion for her subject. 鈥淪he has given me, a non-Canadian, a profound passion for and understanding of Canadian history and of Canadian federalism,鈥� one student wrote. They also celebrated her efforts to create community and facilitate exchanges, and her engaging teaching methods. 鈥淔rom the very beginning of the year, she learned small things about each of us, and used this knowledge to build a personalized and cooperative learning structure. She ensured we not only understood, but also connected with the subject,鈥� another student highlighted.聽聽聽

Professor Poirier (BCL鈥�91, LLB鈥�91) joined the Faculty of Law in 2015 as the inaugural holder of the Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism. She teaches constitutional law and comparative federalism. Before joining 91社区, she was a faculty member from 2004 to 2015 at the Universit茅 libre de Bruxelles. In 2017, to mark the sesquicentennial of the Canadian confederation, she co-taught . The class culminated in a simulated constitutional assembly held in the Parliament of Canada. Professor Poirier organizes the Baxter Family Competition on Federalism, an international essay competition and symposium aimed at advancing research and fostering informed debate on federalism by young jurists. Since 2020, she has contributed to studying the repercussions of Covid-19 on federalism around the world, notably by maintaining an online compendium of resources on this topic comprising approximately one thousand scholarly articles, blog entries, podcasts, videos, research projects, and other resources.聽

鈥淧rofessor Poirier exemplifies the Faculty of Law鈥檚 deep-rooted commitment to innovation and excellence in teaching law,鈥� said Dean Robert Leckey. 鈥淚n particular, her French section of Constitutional Law 鈥� back in Chancellor Day Hall 鈥� gives first-year students a challenging, stimulating introduction to the complex pluralism of the our constitutional order.鈥澛犅犅�