Brandon Trask

Brandon Trask is an assistant professor of law at the University of Manitoba and an adjunct fellow at St. John’s College. He is a clinical professor at the Faculty of Law. He founded the Rights Clinic at Robson Hall in 2022 and continues to be a co-supervisor of the Rights Clinic’s project work.

Professor Trask’s research focuses primarily on the areas of criminal law and evidence, constitutional law (with an emphasis on the Charter), and disability and the law (with a particular focus on mental health and criminal law), as well as areas related to progressive law and economics.

Professor Trask is originally from Winnipeg. He worked for the Government of Manitoba as a research and policy analyst in the Office of Canada-US and International Relations while he was an undergraduate student in the University of Manitoba’s Global Political Economy Program. After two years of undergraduate studies, Professor Trask was admitted to Robson Hall in 2009. He graduated with his Juris Doctor (JD) in 2012, after gaining litigation experience through his time as a volunteer with the University Law Centre and through his work as a summer student with Thompson Dorfman Sweatman LLP.

Professor Trask then completed his Master of Laws (LLM) at the University of Toronto during 2012-13 under the supervision of Professor Michael Trebilcock, specializing in the area of law and economics.

After articling with the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Prosecutions Division and receiving his first call to the Bar in 2014, Professor Trask worked as a Crown prosecutor in Newfoundland and Labrador and later in Nova Scotia, most recently with the Appeals and Special Prosecutions Section of the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service. While in practice as a Crown prosecutor, Professor Trask was involved with hundreds of cases across two levels of court in Newfoundland and Labrador and three levels of court in Nova Scotia. He also regularly appeared on behalf of the Crown at the Criminal Code Review Board in Nova Scotia.

Prior to joining the Faculty of Law, Professor Trask taught (via distance) as a course instructor with Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Law and Society Program, teaching over 1,100 undergraduate students between 2015 and 2020.

Additionally, Professor Trask was formerly a biweekly newspaper columnist. He has repeatedly been a radio panelist and guest and has also been interviewed for national and local television. Professor Trask has written op-ed pieces for a variety of newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The Ottawa Citizen, and has also been interviewed for many newspaper articles and online news pieces.

• Richard Jochelson, Brandon Trask, Michelle Bertrand, David Ireland & Krishna Nair, "Virtually Similar? Considering the potential for virtual jury trials in Canada during and after the pandemic" (2024) 46:3 Manitoba Law Journal.
• Brandon Trask, “Call It Democracy: The slippage amongst rights, laws, and values in Canada during the pandemic era” in James Gacek & Richard Jochelson, eds, Justice in the Age of Agnosis: Socio-Legal Explorations of Denial, Deception, and Doubt (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) 235-267.
• Shawn Singh & Brandon Trask, “Faded By Design: Manufacturing Agnosis of Settler-Colonialism in an Era of Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation in Canada” in James Gacek & Richard Jochelson, eds, Justice in the Age of Agnosis: Socio-Legal Explorations of Denial, Deception, and Doubt (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) 149-171.
• Senator Kim Pate, Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, Michele Jules, & Brandon Trask – “Bill C-40” (Panel at the Manitoba Bar Association Mid-Winter Conference, Fairmont Winnipeg, 19 January 2024)
• Claudio Colaguori, Juliette Jarvis, Jennifer Kusz, Richard Jochelson, David Ireland, Maggie Quirt & Brandon Trask, “Moral Regulation, Vice Crimes, and Social Control” in Claudio Colaguori, Crime, Deviance, and Social Control in the 21st Century: A Justice and Rights Perspective (Toronto: Canadian Scholars, 2023) 153-192.
• Shawn Singh & Brandon Trask, “Drawing the Curtains in the House of Justice: Analyzing the Impact of Pandemic Measures within Manitoba Courts on the Open Court Principle, Access to Justice, and Charter Rights” (2022) 45:5 Manitoba Law Journal 215.
• Shawn Singh & Brandon Trask, “Setting the Stage: Recognizing the Importance of the Open Court Principle and Access to Justice in Manitoba during the COVID-19 Pandemic” (2022) 45:5 Manitoba Law Journal 171.
• Brandon Trask, “Standard Concerns: An examination of public-interest considerations with respect to prosecutions of environmental advocates and Indigenous land defenders” in James Gacek & Richard Jochelson, eds, Green Criminology and the Law (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) 19-38.
• Brandon Trask & Evan Podaima, “Blurred Lines: A Critical Examination of the Use of Police Officers and Police Employees as Expert Witnesses in Criminal Trials” (2021) 44:6 Manitoba Law Journal 48 (cited by Lauwers JA in Ontario (Natural Resources and Forestry) v South Bruce Peninsula (Town), 2022 ONCA 315).
• Peter Dostal, Brandon Trask & Greg Bembridge, “Technology in Prosecutions” (Presentation delivered at the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service Fall Conference, 26 September 2018)
• Brandon Trask & Ginger Holmes, “Defending Against Boilerplate Charter Applications” (Presentation delivered at the AGM of the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Prosecutions Division, 16 October 2014)
• Brandon Trask, “Terminal STIs and the Law: Aggravated Sexual Assaults vs. Homicides” (Presentation delivered at the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Homicide Course, 25 February 2014)
• Brandon Trask, “The Economics of Life and Death: Morals and Ethics in an Environment of Medical-Resource Scarcity” (2013) 37:1 Manitoba Law Journal 233

Professor Trask has an extensive history of community involvement, including:

• Founder and Co-Supervisor, Rights Clinic at Robson Hall (2022-present)

• Co-Editor, Robson Crim (2021-present)

• Halifax Representative, Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association (2017-19)

• Graduate Students’ Union Representative, University of Toronto Graduate Law Students’ Association (2015-16)

• Eastern Region Representative, Newfoundland and Labrador Crown Attorneys’ Association (2014-15)

• Honorary Board Member, Westland Foundation (2011-19)

• Executive Director, Manitoba Law Students’ Association (2011-12)

• Member of Board of Governors, St. John’s-Ravenscourt (2010-12)

• President, St. John’s-Ravenscourt Alumni Association (2010-12)

• Executive Council Member, Winnipeg High School Hockey League (2005-13)

• 2024 Students' Teacher Recognition Reception
  Presented by Seth Lozinski
• 2022 Students' Teacher Recognition Reception
  Presented by Shawn Singh