Marion Sandilands
At the convergence of law, policy and politics, Marion can be found advising, advocating and navigating. She provides timely, thoughtful, and on-point advice, and the highest quality advocacy in any forum.
Bio
Marion acts for civil society organizations, legislative officers, industry associations, parliamentarians, businesses, and Indigenous clients. She serves clients in both English and French.
Working at the intersection of law, policy and politics, Marion is equally comfortable advocating for clients in the courtroom, conference room, or Parliamentary committee. Based in Ottawa, she has a varied national practice. She has appeared before the Federal Court, four superior courts (Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nunavut), three courts of appeal (Quebec, New Brunswick, and the Federal Court of Appeal) and the Supreme Court of Canada. She has also appeared before committees of the House of Commons, Senate, and Quebec’s National Assembly.
Marion is knowledgeable in constitutional law, administrative law, and language rights. She publishes and frequently speaks on these topics. She currently teaches Public and Constitutional Law at the University of Ottawa, and has taught the Legislative Process at McGill’s Faculty of Law. She is a part-time member of the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal.
Marion takes on work such as:
- Advising and representing clients on appeals and judicial reviews
- Intervening at Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court on behalf of civil society organizations or industry associations
- Advising public organizations (including statutory officers) on their statutory powers and representing them in litigation
- Advising clients on legislation and the Parliamentary process—including detailed bill analysis, political strategy, and appearances at legislative committees
- Acting as agent at the Supreme Court of Canada, including strategic advice on written submissions
Marion joined Conway in 2019 after serving as Counsel to the Chief Justice of the Federal Court. She also previously served as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court.
Prior to her career in law, Marion worked in the field of international development where she helped manage overseas projects ranging from rural livelihoods to economic research. This work took her to Kenya, Vietnam, Senegal, and Mexico.
When Marion isn’t wrestling with legal matters or with her two beautiful children, she can be found teaching, mentoring, singing, and curling
Affiliations
- County of Carleton Law Association
- The Advocates Society
Community Involvement
- 2023-Present | Senior Fellow—Constitutional Law, Section 1
- 2023-Present | Board Member, International Commission of Jurists Canada
- 2023-Present | Member, Legal Ethics and Practice Committee, Law Society of Nunavut
- 2023-Present | Member, Federation of Law Societies Model Code Liaison Committee
- 2022-2024 | Management Board Member, Belong Ottawa
- 2022-2023 | Member, Administrative Law Section, Ontario Bar Association
- 2020-2023 | Member, Constitutional and Human Rights Section Executive, Canadian Bar Association
- 2020-2022 | Federal Courts Bench & Bar Liaison Committee, Canadian Bar Association
- 2020-2022 | External Relations Committee, County of Carleton Law Association
- 2020-2022 | Steering Committee Member, Access to Justice in English-Speaking Quebec Project
- 2019-Present | Part-time Professor, University of Ottawa
- 2017-2021 | Board Member, Bytown Museum
- 2018 | Maître de stage, French-language Law Practice Program
Publications
Publications and Selected Conference Presentations
| 2025 | “An ‘Expedient’ Union – Federal Leadership and the Imperative of Internal Trade”, Institute for Research on Public Policy special series on internal trade (forthcoming). |
| 2025 | "Out of the Shadows: Responsive Judicial Review and the Resurgence of the Notwithstanding Clause” 34:1 Constitutional forum constitutionnel (special issue). |
| 2025 | “Writing as Forgetting: What Plato’s Phaedrus Can Tell Us About Unwritten Constitutionalism in Canada”, Unwritten Constitutionalism Symposium, Centre for Constitutional Studies at University of Alberta, Edmonton, September 19, 2025. |
| 2025 | Trudeau Foundation colloquium, The Canadian Charter: History-Impact-Future, Panelist, “The Notwithstanding Clause”, June 13, 2025. |
| 2025 | “Section 23, language and Canadianness”, Quebec English-Speaking Communities Research Network (QUESCREN) Colloquium, “Section 23 and the Legal Challenges Concerning English-Language Education in Quebec”, 92nd annual Congrès ACFAS, Montreal, May 9, 2025. |
| 2025 | “Section 33: The Charter’s Excalibur or Achilles Heel?” in Mendes and Beaulac, eds., The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 6th ed., LexisNexis, 2025. |
| 2024 | Ontario Bar Association, The Notwithstanding Clause Education and Policy Summit, Toronto, Panelist, “Current Trends in the Use of the Notwithstanding Clause”, December 9, 2024. |
| 2024 | ICJ Canada, Université de Montréal, Centre for Constitutional Studies (University of Alberta), Fundamental Rights and the Notwithstanding Clause, Organizer and panelist, November 29, 2024. |
| 2024 | “Looking for Rights in All the Wrong Places” (with Mohammed Elshafie), Conference presentation at international Public Law Conference, Ottawa, July 2024. |
| 2024 | “Litigating Equality in Ottawa’s Tax Industry: Metro Taxi v City of Ottawa” (with Thomas Conway, Abdalla Barqawi, Joseph Rucci, Sarah Nixon), 2023 114 SCLR (2d) 255. |
| 2024 | “Quebec’s Bill 21 and 96: An Underwater Eruption”, in The Notwithstanding Clause and the Canadian Charter: Rights, Reforms and Disagreements, ed. Peter Biro, McGill-Queen’s University Press |
| 2023 | “In the Eye of the Storm: Constitutional Interpretation in the Second Age of the Notwithstanding Clause” – paper presented at conference Evolving Approaches to Constitutional Interpretation in Canada, University of Ottawa, organized by uOttawa Public Law Centre, the University of Alberta Faculty of Law, and the York Research Chair in Pluralism and Public Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, November 9, 2023. |
| 2023 | CCLA Civil Litigation conference, “SLAPP-stick and Carrott: Recent Costs Decisions”, Mont Tremblant, November 4. |
2022 | The Charter’s Federal Spine: Why are Certain Charter Rights Immune from the Notwithstanding Clause? 43 National Journal of Constitutional Law 169, September 2022 (with Danielle Bennett) |
| 2021 | If We Do it Right, it Will Hurt: The Official Languages Act, Nation-building, and English-speaking Quebec, 17 Minorités Linguistiques et Société / Linguistic Minorities and Society 76 |
| 2020 | Federal Court of Appeal Rules that Lobbying Commissioner has No Duty to Investigate Complaints from the Public, Canadian Bar Association, Administrative Law Section |
Media and Podcasts
January 30, 2025, Canadian Bar Association, “Modern Law” podcast series “Verdicts and Voices: The notwithstanding clause, Gold Seal v. Alberta and a conversation with Chief Justice Richard Wagner”
May 28, 2024 McGill Law Journal Podcast, “The New Era of the Notwithstanding Clause”
March 11, 2024 – Law360, “Notwithstanding clause centre stage in Quebec Appeal Court ruling over controversial secularism law”
November 26, 2023 – Global News (national), “Alberta to invoke Sovereignty Act against Ottawa’s Clean Energy Regulations”
October 2022 – Centre for Constitutional Studies, “Alberta Sovereignty Act” – featured in interview by Richard Mailey, Director.
October 25, 2022: Susan Delacourt “How Canada opened the door 30 years ago to the dissent that threatens the nation today” Toronto Star (quoted)
October 11, 2022 Susan Delacourt: Are new provincial demands for power just the same old Ottawa-bashing — or something darker? Toronto Star (quoted)
October 7, 2022 – What if we’re having a constitutional crisis and no-one is noticing? Althia Raj, It’s Political (feature in podcast)
September 2022 – Asper Centre Charter: A Course podcast, “Section 33 of the Charter – The Notwithstanding Clause”, panelist