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Adelle Blackett honoured for her distinguished contributions to labour law

Published: 16 December 2025

The Faculty of Law is delighted to share that Professor Adelle Blackett, FRSC, Ad E, has been named the 2025 Bora Laskin Award recipient. The award was presented on December 9 at a ceremony held in Toronto.

“I am deeply humbled, at this moment when I am back at the International Labour Organization (ILO), to have my labour law peers recognize my lifetime contributions to the field in Canada with the Bora Laskin award, said Professor Blackett. “I am also grateful to 91, which has offered me the space to contribute to a capacious vision of our field, one that is rooted in specific places and their histories, including household workplaces, that embraces human rights law and trade law, and that recognizes the interconnections between home and abroad.”

A full professor at the 91 Faculty of Law, Adelle Blackett, BCL’94, LLB’94, currently serves as senior advisor to the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. An internationally acclaimed scholar, she has received three honorary doctorates in law (Queen’s University, Université Catholique de Louvain and Simon Fraser University). She is the author of Everyday Transgressions - Domestic Workers' Transnational Challenge to International Labor Law (Cornell University Press, 2019), which received the 2020 Canadian Council on International Law scholarly book award.

A beloved teacher and mentor, Professor Blackett received 91 Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching in 2020. She has made remarkable contributions to advancing equity in Canadian academia, most notably as the principal drafter for the . Steadfastly committed to improving the employment conditions of marginalized workers in Canada and abroad, she chaired Canada’s Employment Equity Act Review Task Force from 2021 to 2023.

The Bora Laskin Award recognizes distinguished contributions to the field of labour law. It was established in 2003 by the University of Toronto Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources in cooperation with Lancaster House, publishers of information on labour, employment and human rights for over 30 years. It is named after the late Chief Justice Bora Laskin (1912-1984) who, before joining the Supreme Court of Canada, was pre-eminent as a labour law scholar and labour arbitrator. Nominees are considered from all fields relating to labour law, including academia, private practice, courts, tribunals, and arbitration.

“Professor Blackett’s remarkable contributions to labour law—as a scholar, educator, and inspiration for social change—are unparalleled,” said Dean Tina Piper. “We are so proud to see her thus honoured by her peers, especially at this pivotal moment when her expertise is shaping labour law governance at the highest global levels.”

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