Stanley A. Cohen, B.A., LL.B., LL.M., was formerly a Senior General Counsel with the Department of Justice (Canada).  During his career within government he served with both the Policy Sector and the Human Rights Law Section of the Department.   He had a varied career as an advisor to government in the areas of criminal justice, national security policy, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  His duties involved his advising Ministers and senior government officials on legal policy, litigation and issues relative to the Charter and the justice system, and appearing before parliamentary committees on legislative reform.  Mr. Cohen was extensively involved in providing Charter advice pertaining to the policy development process and the drafting of the original Anti-terrorism Act as well as other national security policy development initiatives, including the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, and the replacement of the Official Secrets Act with the Security of Information Act.    Mr. Cohen was the 2006 recipient of the Department of Justice’s John Tait Award, a signal honour recognizing the individual who best exemplifies the highest standards of ethical, professional conduct and competence, and demonstrates the values of service to the Canadian public and government in the discharge of his or her duties.

A member of the Manitoba Bar from 1972 to 2015, he is the author of numerous widely-cited articles on the criminal justice system and human rights, as well as three texts –  Privacy, Crime and Terror: Legal Rights and Security in a Time of Peril; Invasion of Privacy: Wiretapping and Criminal Investigation in Canada; and Due Process of Law: the Canadian System of Criminal Justice.

Mr. Cohen served as an academic and law professor on a full-time basis at the Faculty of Law at McGill University.  Mr. Cohen’s on-going commitment to teaching is also manifest in his over twenty-year involvement as an adjunct professor and lecturer at three Canadian law schools (Manitoba, Toronto and Ottawa).  He has lectured widely on the subject of fundamental freedoms, civil liberties and the criminal justice system before such diverse groups as the National Judicial Institute; the Learned Societies; the Canadian Police College; the Canadian Bar Association; the Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges; the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice; the Canadian Club; the Canadian Council on Social Development; the Canadian Association for the Prevention of Crime; the International Society for the Reform of the Criminal Law; and the Centre for Public Law and Public Policy.

Mr. Cohen previously directed research for nearly a decade at the Law Reform Commission of Canada as the Coordinator of the Commission’s Criminal Procedure Project.  He also served as Secretary to the Commission of Inquiry into the Deployment of Canadian Forces to Somalia between 1995 and 1997.