News/Updates

In a history-making motion by the University of Victoria, Dr. Irehobhude O. Iyioha has received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Law after a unanimous vote by the Reappointment, Promotions and Tenure (RPT) Committee of the Faculty of Law. While professors at the University of Victoria are hired usually for a three-year term—after which they are required to apply for another three-year term before they can apply for tenure and promotion—the RPT Committee voted separately to reappoint, tenure and promote Dr. Iyioha “without any hesitation” on October 1, 2021. Dr. Iyioha’s application for tenure came less than two years after joining UVic Law, with the Committee’s recommendation following shortly thereafter—a historic recognition of her years of service in the Canadian legal academy 

The Law Foundation of British Columbia has awarded $690,000 in funding to the Black Professionals Leadership Program established by Dr. Iyioha at the University of Victoria to support the program's innovative programming for Black law students. Inaugurated in 2021 through a 2-year exploratory grant, the initiative has offered a comprehensive set of programs to enhance learning and promote the wellbeing of Black students on campus...  

Canadians in the fall of 2020 sit uncomfortably in the grip of an unprecedented health crisis while a resounding cry to address systemic racism echoes throughout the globe. At the same time that our health system and the economy are reeling from the extended impact of both an opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Canadians have also experienced a summer marked by popular uprisings against violence inscribed on Black, brown and Indigenous bodies... 

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has announced its longlist for the 2021 Short Story Prize. Iyioha's short story, Take Me Home With You is one of thirty-three entries longlisted for the prize out of almost 3,000 English Language submissions from across Canada. The story imagines the experiences of a Black Métis girl in the 1960s who is taken from her home and placed in a residential school. 

Ireh Iyioha has been shortlisted for the British BPA First Novel Award for her novel, Those Who Come This Way. The six finalists for the prize have emerged from nearly a thousand submissions from across the UK, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. 

Irehobhude (Ireh) Iyioha is a new faculty member at UVic Law whose research interests include health law. Her scholarship and community service have earned her the World Congress on Medical Law Award, the 2016 Canadian Immigrant of Distinction Award, and the 2018 Stars of Alberta Award from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.  

Irehobhude (“Ireh”) Iyioha, a professor of health law, ethics and policy at the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry (FoMD), is tackling issues like discrimination and ineffective laws and policies in health-care systems. A prolific researcher, human rights advocate and public speaker, Iyioha is working to ensure safe and equitable treatment for marginalized groups who are less able to advocate for themselves. 

On International Volunteers Day (December 5, 2018), the Minister of Culture and Tourism, the Honourable Minister Ricardo Miranda, and the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, the Honourable Lois Mitchell, awarded Dr. Ireh Iyioha a Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award. Six people are honoured annually in Alberta for "demonstrating exemplary initiative, leadership and creativity in their service to others and inspiring others to engage in volunteer service, while improving the overall quality of life of fellow Albertans and the community as a whole". Only two individuals are honoured in each of three award categories annually. Dr. Iyioha was one of two in the adult category honoured this year on International Volunteers Day.   

As a child in Nigeria, Irehobhude Iyioha made a list of her dreams and stuck it in a book that included goals like: Become a writer and study law. Iyioha’s mother, Patricia, was a well-known local activist, school principal and restaurateur. “She and my father raised me to never think of my gender as a barrier to success,” Iyioha recalls, “and I was inspired by them to do whatever I wanted.” Her list, therefore, was long. One day, some classmates nabbed the book it was in, and brought it onto the schoolyard, where they read it aloud and laughed. 

On October 28, 2017, Dr. Ireh Iyioha was one of the speakers at the Rising Women Gala, a Canada-150 event to celebrate Canada's most accomplished immigrant women who have distinguished themselves in their careers and service to their communities. Dr. Iyioha, named to this rank, gave a talk on the innovative spirit of immigrant women and on rising above challenges to attain personal goals. The event took place at the Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton.  

When Visiting Assistant Professor Irehobhude Iyioha first joined UAlberta Law last fall, she couldn’t possibly have predicted the amount of professional success she would enjoy in such a short amount of time. ... [Iyioha has been] selected for a 2017 Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) Award – given for a scholarly paper that makes a substantial contribution to legal literature. This makes her the third scholar associated with UAlberta Law (following Vice Dean Yahya in 2007 and Professor Eric Adams in 2014) to be inducted into this distinguished group of scholars. 

On March 7, UAlberta Law Visiting Assistant Professor Ireh Iyioha was one of four panellists who participated in Gender in the Workplace, an on-campus speaker series organized by the University of Alberta Career Centre intended to teach students and alumni about the complex relationship between gender and career. ... Though each panelist brought a unique background and diverse perspective to the event, some major themes arose during the conversation, including: mentorship, advocacy in the workplace, work-life balance, knowing one’s values, and finally, the belief that change in regards to gender equity can start with just one person. 

Scholars from around the world, including UAlberta Law Visiting Assistant Professor Ireh Iyioha, gathered on December 8-10, 2016 at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto for a conference on Canadian/Anglophone African Human Rights Engagements: A Critical Assessment of the Literature and a Research Agenda. The objective for the conference was to connect Canadian and Anglophone African scholars, students, and practitioners whose work focuses on understanding the various elements of Canadian/Anglophone African human rights engagements to begin to close a gap in scholarly and policy knowledge on the subject. Iyioha is a member of a select team of 25 local and international scholars invited to work on closing this gap. 

Iyioha is the 2016 winner of the ISC Immigrants of Distinction Award for Outstanding Achievement in Professional and Service Capacities (Under 35-Category). 

We are a country of immigrants. Some recent. Some not. It is our diversity that makes us strong, especially when we celebrate same. And celebrating diversity and multiculturalism is what the annual Immigrants of Distinction Awards (IDA) is all about. More than 600 guests gathered at The Westin March 11 for the 20th annual awards gala. Themed ‘Fostering a Legacy of Excellence,” the gala paid homage to the outstanding contributions that immigrants and refugees have made to the Calgary community. Whether enriching arts and culture, business, community service or professional activities, the immigrants saluted at the event have enriched our society through their dedication, commitment and excellence. Kudos to all the nominees and heartfelt congratulations to the following winners: Dr. Irehobhude O. Iyioha, Achievement Under 35... 

The Immigrants of Distinction Awards are the first commemoration of its kind in Canada according to Peter Wong, former chair of the board of directors at ISC. Wong envisioned the award in 1997 to highlight the contributions of immigrants in the community. He said that celebrating diversity in the workplace and government recognition of immigrants wasn’t popular at that time. “It wasn’t seen as a critical aspect of society.” However, Wong says this has changed. “What I see today is multiculturalism has become part of mainstream.”  

Alberta has a child-care crisis affecting the health and wellbeing of women, children living with a disability and the safety of children in general, and it is crucial to brief politicians on this. The crisis is caused by the limited availability of child-care services resulting in long wait-lists; high costs which limit access to poor and middleincome families; privatization of child-care services, leaving the services to the dictates of the market; continuous rise of unregulated centres, which can endanger children’s health and safety as we have seen recently in Alberta; and the subtle discrimination against, and expulsion of, children with disability or special needs in some centres. 

Alberta has a child-care crisis affecting the health and well-being of women, children living with a disability and the safety of children in general, and it is crucial to brief politicians on this. The crisis is caused by the limited availability of child-care services resulting in long wait-lists; high costs which limit access to poor and middle-income families; privatization of child-care services, leaving the services to the dictates of the market; continuous rise of unregulated centres, which can endanger children’s health and safety as we have seen recently in Alberta; and the subtle discrimination against, and expulsion of, children with disability or special needs in some centres... 

The recent debate triggered by Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) on the legality of organ donation and transplantation in Nigeria has arisen in the wake of both the promulgation of the National Health Bill, 2014 into law by President Jonathan and the publication of our new book on health and medical law in Nigeria... While some of the views canvassed in the debate simply trench on the novelty of medical law in Nigeria, it is not altogether surprising that the first statutory and comprehensive legislation in the country to regulate and legitimate a medical procedure that is absolutely extraordinary should elicit mixed reactions from Nigerians, of relief and gratitude in some, and the polar responses of outright jubilation or condemnation by others. Developed countries like the United Kingdom and the USA, where organ donation and transplantation have become routine, passed through a similar phase about 60 years ago when organ donation and transplantation were still rudimentary in those countries, and their lawyers equally struggled to account for the legality of the procedure...  

The debate over healthcare never strays too far from the front page, especially when it comes to discussion around budget and patient (dis)satisfaction. The one topic we rarely read about, however, is the impact of criminal law on the protection of public health. Thanks to the efforts of a UBC Law doctoral candidate, that might soon change. For the past several years Ireh Iyioha has investigated ways of reducing healthcare disparities and inequities in underserved populations via innovative legal approaches to health systems' management...