Danielle Bisnar

Danielle is a partner with Cavalluzzo LLP practising in the areas of workers’ and Indigenous rights, equality, health and Aboriginal law. She is also the Chair of the firm’s Student Committee. She represents unions and associations, regulated professionals including nurses and midwives, and First Nations in diverse contexts including labour disputes, government relations, human rights and constitutional law, health equity, pay equity, professional regulation, judicial reviews and appeals. She has particular expertise in the health care, policing and public sectors.

She has extensive experience litigating complex systemic discrimination claims including leading equality cases on behalf of women, racialized and disabled workers. She has twice represented the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) as an intervener in appeals relating to workplace gender discrimination, first in Canada v. Johnstone, a leading case on family status discrimination, and second in Fraser v. Canada, a Supreme Court of Canada case on adverse effect discrimination and pension equality for women with caregiving responsibilities.

Danielle is regularly invited to present to academic and professional audiences in the areas of labour, administrative, equality and health law and advocacy, as well as diversity in the legal profession. She holds a JD from Osgoode Hall Law School, where she received several academic awards including the Hallett Entrance Scholarship, which she maintained throughout law school. Prior to law, Danielle earned graduate degrees in Social and Political Thought and English Literature.

Danielle brings feminist, anti-racist and decolonial approaches to her legal practice and is committed to using law to empower clients and support the aims of labour and social movements. Her commitment to law as a tool for achieving justice at work flows from her experiences as a union member and community organizer with Filipinx migrant workers and their families. In her non-lawyering life, Danielle is a mother and student of two chaotic beings who do not quit and a member of the Board of Directors of Parkdale Community Legal Services.