Drafting, Interpreting, and Applying Legislation

John Mark Keyes is a sessional professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, and an instructor in the Legislative Drafting Program of Athabasca University. He has an LLB from the University of Toronto and a Diploma in Legislative Drafting and an LLM from the University of Ottawa.
Professor Keyes was previously legislative counsel in the Department of Justice (Canada) drafting regulations and government bills. He later occupied various managerial positions and was the Chief Legislative Counsel from 2005 until 2013. He has also written many academic articles and a monograph, Executive Legislation, the third edition of which was published by Lexis Nexis in 2021.

Wendy Gordon holds a BA Hons in English literature from Western University and an LLB from Queen’s University. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1987. Wendy was legislative counsel at the Department of Justice for nineteen years and at the House of Commons in the Office of the Law Clerk for ten years, culminating in the position of Deputy Law Clerk, Legislation Services. As legislative counsel, Wendy advised on complex federal statutes and regulations, drafted bills and amendments for Members of Parliament, and provided advice on diverse legislative matters falling under federal jurisdiction. Wendy developed and piloted plain language regulatory initiatives at the Department of Justice, developed and taught courses at the Canada School of Public Service, and has been a frequent guest lecturer at the law schools of McGill University and the University of Ottawa.

Wendy is a member of the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice and the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel (CALC). Within CALC, Wendy held the position of regional representative for the Americas and is on the editorial board of The Loophole, the CALC journal about the preparation and enactment of legislation.