Naomi Sayers is a special guest “expert” in this issue’s “Ask the Experts” column.

Naomi is a lawyer and Indigenous feminist, called to the Ontario (2018) and Alberta (2020) bars with nearly a decade of consulting experience. She worked in-house at one of Canada’s largest electricity providers. She has appeared at all levels of court in Ontario; federal court – trial and appeals; Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench; and various tribunal throughout Ontario.

Naomi represented Work Safe Twerk Safe, the first and only federally incorporated non-profit advocacy group dedicated to strippers' rights to work safely in Canada. Her advocacy on their behalf resulted in a precedent setting decision resulting in the Court recognizing the harms that sex workers experience in trying to access justice. That decision was also cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, affirming stigmatized groups’ right to privacy in litigation processes.

Naomi is a member of the Women in Canadian Criminal Defence; Criminal Lawyers’ Association and its Indigenous Committee; Canadian Bar Association and its Aboriginal Law section executive; the Law and Mental Disorder Association; the Ontario Bar Association’s Constitutional and Human Rights section executive, the Aboriginal Law section executive and the Women’s Lawyer Forum section executive.

All photo credits to Jessica Blaine Smith.