About Barbara

Barbara Jackman is a leading Canadian lawyer specializing in immigration and refugee law, with particular focus on appeals and judicial review applications and cases involving security, medical, and criminality issues. She graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1976 and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1978. She has argued numerous precedent-setting cases before the Supreme Court of Canada concerning the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and immigration and refugee law, including two successful appeals in 2018 on immigration detainee rights and the standard of judicial review. She has provided testimony before parliamentary and Senate committees on citizenship and immigration issues and has taught at several Ontario law schools, including Queen's University, the University of Toronto, and Osgoode Hall Law School. She was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2019 for her work championing the rights of immigrants and refugees, and holds honorary doctorates of law from the Law Society of Upper Canada, the University of Windsor, and the University of Ottawa. She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and the Canadian Bar Association, and speaks English and Spanish.

Practice areas

Immigration Law

Education & credentials

Law school
University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Other degrees
LL.D. (Honorary), Law Society of Upper Canada (2007)
LL.D. (Honorary), University of Windsor (2010)
LL.D. (Honorary), University of Ottawa (2016)

Listing compiled from public sources in August 2026. Confirm Barbara Jackman’s licence and standing in the Law Society of Ontario directory ↗