Thomas McMorrow
PhD
Associate Professor
Undergraduate Program Director
Legal Studies
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Contact information
Bordessa Hall
- Room 513
Downtown Oshawa
55 Bond Street East
Oshawa, ON
905.721.8668 ext. 5877
Background
Thomas McMorrow is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director of Legal Studies in the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities at Ontario Tech University. Thomas received Ontario Tech University’s 2023 Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities 2023 Advanced Career Teaching Award. He has been a visiting professor at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Trento Faculty of Law in Italy and a visiting fellow at the Trinity Long Room Hub at TCD, Ireland. He holds a doctorate and master's degree in law from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Law and French from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His research embraces legal theoretical, doctrinal and qualitative methods. His work has been published in academic journals, such as the Alberta Law Review, the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, the Dalhousie Law Journal, the Queens Law Journal, and the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice. He has also published opinion-editorials in such publications as Policy Options, The Toronto Star, Le Devoir and La Presse. He appeared as a witness before the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs and was an invited participant at the Federal Roundtable Consultation Meeting on Medical Assistance in Dying. Thomas is Co-Editor-in-Chief (English Manuscripts) of the Canadian Journal of Law & Society.
Education
- DCL McGill University
- LLM McGill University
- LLB Trinity College Dublin
Courses taught
- Canadian Human Rights Law
- Foundations for Social Practice and Innovation (MA course)
- Health Law and Biomedical Ethics
- Law and Social Change
- Philosophy of Law
- Family Mediation
Research and expertise
- constitutional law
- Indigenous law and reconciliation
- end-of-life decision-making
- legal education
- philosophy of law
Involvement
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Selected publications
McMorrow, T. (2021). “Denying and Reckoning with Implicit Law: The Case of the City of Toronto v Ontario (A.G.)” Review of Constitutional Studies 25.2
McMorrow, T. (2021). “The Waxing & Waning of Informed Consent: Medical Assistance in Dying and the Question of Advance Requests” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 58.2 287-336.
Tremblay-Huet, S., McMorrow, T., Wiebe, E. et al. (2020). “The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada and the Relationship of Public Health Laws to Private Understandings of the Legal Order” Journal of Law and the Biosciences 7(1) 1-17
McMorrow, T., Wiebe, E., Liyanage, R., Tremblay-Huet, S., Kelly, M. (2020). “Interpreting the Medical Assistance in Dying Law: The Experiences of Physicians and Nurse Practitioners” McGill Journal of Law and Health 14(1) 51-108
McMorrow, T. (2018). “Upholding the Honour of the Crown” Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 34(4) 311-336
McMorrow, T. (2016). “Not Ideas of the Thing but the Thing Itself: Examining a Support Group for Separated and Divorced Fathers as a Site of Legal Education” Dalhousie Law Journal 39(1) 327-347
Some of his papers are available on his Social Science Research Network page.
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Presentations
On December 14, Dr. Thomas McMorrow delivered a lecture at the University of Innsbruck Faculty of Law in Austria, entitled “Reasonable Foreseeability and the Legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada (MAID).”
Dr. McMorrow moderated a panel at Ontario Tech University on the role of universities in reconciliation.
He also wrote about it on ReconciliationSyllabus, a TRC-inspired gathering of materials for teaching law.
He appeared as witness before the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. The panel on which he appears begins at 12:30:20.
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Media appearances
Mental Illness and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)
CBC Radio Saskatchewan | March 3, 2021
Dr. McMorrow contributed his legal expertise following introductory comments from Canadian Senators Paula Simons and Denise Batters, who discussed different sides of this debate.
View more - Mental Illness and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)Bill C-7 lacks adequate limits for advance MAiD requests
Policy Options | November 11, 2020
Important questions are unanswered with the amendment to Canada's assisted dying laws. Patients can set a future date for death but at what risk?
View more - Bill C-7 lacks adequate limits for advance MAiD requestsAide médicale à mourir: pourquoi recourir aux tribunaux?
Le Devoir | January 25, 2019
Aide médicale à mourir: pourquoi recourir aux tribunaux?
View more - Aide médicale à mourir: pourquoi recourir aux tribunaux?Will the real PCs ‘for the People’ please stand up?
The Toronto Star | November 26, 2018
Will the real PCs ‘for the People’ please stand up?”
View more - Will the real PCs ‘for the People’ please stand up?Does Bill C-14 pass constitutional muster? A question Parliament must confront
Policy Options | April 22, 2016
Parliament has the power to draw the lines it chooses when it comes to the legislation on physician-assisted death, but it must make a strong case for the limits it places on Charter rights.
View more - Does Bill C-14 pass constitutional muster? A question Parliament must confront