Having dealt with a disability since the age of nine, third-year law school student Erin Carr said her experiences have helped fuel her passion for disability issues.
Carr recently was recognized for her work in raising awareness for people with disabilities on Nov. 30 by the Paul Menton Centre (PMC) for Students with Disabilities, where she received the Dr. John Davis Burton Award.
The award is given to a student from an Ottawa postsecondary school who has made significant contributions to creating awareness and equality for people with disabilities.
“I think [my experience] gives me insight into the issues that might be faced by my clients. Of course I can’t ever know their experiences, every experience is so varied,” she said. “But it just gives you compassion having been through an experience like that.”
Carr has collaborated on research which has been presented as part of a case in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. She also volunteered for the Ticketless Defence program which provides legal support to homeless people in Ottawa and she organized a conference on workplace and classroom discrimination of people with disabilities in fall 2017.
“The Paul Menton Centre (PMC) on campus is a great advocacy group there, but students have to advocate as well on campuses,” said Faith Silver, founder of the award. “I think it is important that we all have to be aware of the importance of accessibility, no matter the kind of disability. That’s what this award speaks to.”
The award comes with a prize of just over $5,000, which Carr said will be a great help in paying off her student loans.
Her father, Dan Carr, said this experience was “fundamental” to being able to do the work she does today.
“She sort of found her footing and since then she’s done very well,” he said. “I think she learned from that, to have an appreciation for what other people have been through.”
Initially, law school and advocacy was never part of Carr’s plan. Prior to law school, she had attended OCAD University in Toronto and was in her final year of her program when someone made a comment about her artwork which she said had a big impact on her.
“I’d just been making work that was progressively more political until I was kind of told ‘Why don’t you consider law school?’ as a joke, but it kind of put the idea in my brain,” she said. “I’d never looked into it before and I googled it and saw there was a space there for me to do advocacy work for the same thing I’d been making art about.”
Carr said studying in the legal field has connected her with a lot of role models, which, she said, has helped guide her towards a potential career path.
“Specifically, I’ve grown an interest in labour law, because I think unions hold a really important role in the forefront of the fight for disability rights in Canada,” she said, “so I’m really looking forward to being a human rights lawyer in the workplace context.”
Photo by Bailey Moreton
