Bio
Leah West is a CIGI senior fellow, an associate professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and a leading expert in national security law.
Leah has written extensively on the law as it relates to information and intelligence collection, the privacy implications of using new technology to collect personally identifying information, and intelligence policy. She is frequently consulted by government agencies such as Public Safety Canada, the Communications Security Establishment, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on national security law and policy matters, and has testified before the House of Commons, the Senate and the European Parliament. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of National Security Law & Policy and Terrorism and Political Violence.
Additionally, Leah is counsel with Friedman Mansour LLP, supporting the firm’s criminal, quasi-criminal and administrative law practice. She has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court, the Federal Court of Canada, the Security Intelligence Review Committee and the Supreme Court of Canada. Her academic literature has also been cited by the Supreme Court. She previously served as counsel with the Department of Justice National Security Litigation and Advisory Branch. Before being called to the Ontario Bar in 2016, Leah clerked for the Honourable Justice Mosley of the Federal Court of Canada. Prior to attending law school, Leah served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 10 years as an armoured officer and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.
Leah completed her doctorate of juridical science at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation examined the application of constitutional, criminal and international law to online conduct by state intelligence and security agencies, for which she was awarded a Canada Graduate Scholarship to Honour Nelson Mandela. Leah was also the anti-terrorism law fellow at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law from 2015 to 2017 while she completed her master of laws. She also has a master of arts in intelligence studies from American Military University, a juris doctorate from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a B.A. (honours) in politics from the Royal Military College of Canada.