Professors Stefanie Carsley and Samuel Singer have both received Insight Development Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for projects that propose to fill significant gaps in our current understanding of both Canadian surrogacy laws and Canadian taxpayer remedies.
Professor Carsley earned her grant for a project entitled “Surrogacy Laws in Canada: Exploring Intended Parents' Experiences and Perspectives”. Professor Carsley will seek to interview intended parents about their experiences building their families with the assistance of a surrogate mother. Her project will examine how federal and provincial laws are affecting intended parents' decisions and behaviour, and will also explore the informal norms and rules that govern and shape surrogacy arrangements. Her project will build upon a small body of empirical research on surrogacy in Canada and will seek to provide lawmakers and scholars with new data that can inform future legislative, regulatory and policy decisions.
Professor Samuel Singer, meanwhile, has received funding from the Insight Development Grant program for a project entitled “Taxpayer Remedies in Canada”. Currently, taxpayers who seek to contest a tax assessment or obtain financial relief from a tax debt confront a patchwork of legal mechanisms. Few can afford to consult tax specialists, and many appellants in cases before the Tax Court of Canada are selfrepresented. This project will create a taxonomy of legal remedies for Canadians contesting a tax assessment or seeking financial relief from a tax debt. It will then advance a novel theoretical framework of taxpayer remedies in Canada -- the first of its kind in Canada to study our ecosystem of taxpayer remedies as a whole. Finally, the project will evaluate the equity, efficiency, and administration of taxpayer remedies in Canada and provide recommendations for law reform.
SSHRC Insight Development Grants support research in its initial stages, enabling the development of new research questions, as well as experimentation with new methods, theoretical approaches and ideas.
Congratulations to Professors Carsley and Singer!