Canadian Lawyer 4Students

decided he wanted to use his legal edu- cation to help those without any knowl- edge of the law. Once he obtained his BA and LLB from Chandigarh, India's Panjab Uni- versity's combined program, he re- turned to Canada in June 2011 and enrolled at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law to complete his LLM. He was also elected president of the Gradu- ate Law Students Association. Fateh chose U of T because of its course-in- tensive program, where he will receive 20 credits for courses and four credits for his thesis. This style of program ap- pealed to his interest in human rights law since it allows him to take upper- year courses on narrow subjects, such as human rights and international politics: dilemmas in action and evaluation, a course taught by former Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff. Fateh says he developed a fascina- tion for human rights law from witness- ing so much injustice while growing up in Punjab. "With my jurisdiction being India, I've seen a lot of human rights abuses. Between 1990 and 2000, the law was developing in a way that if some- body was a human rights lawyer, he would just be killed or disappear," he re- calls. "There are a lot of torture stories, I just grew up with them." Although he doesn't have much de- sire to go back to India to practise law, he still wants to help those who have legal issues there. Aſter graduation, he plans to take on the role of a liaison between Canada and India, assisting those who are unfamiliar with the law. He aspires to open his own practice in Canada and dedicate part of it to the In- dian community, including travelling to India to settle clients' cases if necessary. One example of a case that has ties in Canada and India is the murder of Jassi Sidhu, who was killed in Punjab in 2000 following her marriage to an Indian man her family allegedly didn't approve of. Her mother and uncle, who live in Maple Ridge, B.C., were arrested in January and face extradition to In- dia where they are wanted on charges of conspiracy to commit murder. The concept of honour killings is something Fateh is familiar with — in fact, he's writing his thesis on the topic. He says his family's law firm receives multiple cases regarding honour killings each month. The case of a Montreal couple and their son convicted of killing their three teenage daughters and the husband's first wife in what have been character- ized as honour killings has brought this strives to help them achieve their goals. "People do a whole range of things," she says. "So what we try to do is to give stu- dents a great sense of the range of things that they can do and then try to facili- tate what they want to do, rather than trying to get people to either stay here or go away." Foreign students come to study law in Canada for a variety of reasons. 4Stu- dents spoke to various international The executive committee of the Graduate Law Students Association at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is quite diverse: (l to r) David Sandomierski, Lorenzo Bonera from Italy, Shannon Gibson, Carlin Moore from the United States, Navratan Fateh from India, Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere from New Zealand, Sahar Ghanaati from Iran, Ezra Spilke, and Daniel Lo. issue into the spotlight recently. Fateh says the notion of women being mur- dered by their family members for al- legedly bringing shame onto the family is becoming more prevalent in Canada. Ultimately, he would like to help the Canadian justice system understand honour killings and improve the laws surrounding them. In deciding what to do post-gradu- ation, Fateh says the law school didn't push him in any particular direction. In his experience, he says U of T's law faculty supports its international stu- dents whether they want to practise in Canada or return to their native coun- try. U of T law dean Mayo Moran says international students seek a variety of careers aſter graduation and the faculty students who said Canada's post-sec- ondary institutions offer a better educa- tion than what's available in their native countries. In addition, they said, Ca- nadian law schools don't just take their money and tell them to return home, nor do they pressure them to stay here to practise law. Canada is also a demo- cratic society that some international students may not be accustomed to. Third-year law student Gjergji Hasa says he hopes his degree from the McGill University Faculty of Law will allow him to help people in his home country of Albania. He leſt Albania during the 1997 civil war aſter winning a scholarship to a school in Romania. In 2004, he moved to Canada and went to McGill's admissions office to apply to the law faculty but was C ANADIAN Lawyer 4STUDENTS S PRING 2012 29

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