Amna Qureshi inspires and empowers students to be mental health advocates

Amna Qureshi. Photo credit: Faisa Omer

In the courtroom and the classroom, sessional instructor Amna Qureshi has been a champion for mental health rights, inspiring students to advocate for those who need it most.

For her work teaching the Mental Health and the Law course, Qureshi has been recognized with the 2023 Pringle/Royal Sessional Teaching Excellence Award. 

Students have described the course as a transformational and life-changing experience.

“Through the year-long course, I have seen many of my students go from feeling lost in law to finding their voice and feeling empowered to make their mark in the profession,” says Qureshi.

"On behalf of the Faculty of Law, I extend warm congratulations to Amna Qureshi on being named this year's recipient of the Pringle / Royal Sessional Teaching Excellence Award,” says Dean Barbara Billingsley. “Through her contributions as an instructor of the Mental Health and the Law course, our students have not only learned essential information about this area of law, they have been inspired to think more deeply about how justice is and ought to be administered in our society."

The course delves into the complexities of mental health law and has a significant experiential component; students attend and participate in Edmonton’s Mental Health Court, assisting people who access the specialized criminal docket court under the supervision and direction of Legal Aid Alberta staff lawyers.

“I think giving law students firsthand experience in a supported learning environment empowers them to utilize their own experiences and skills, demystifies the court experience and shows them what a difference they can make,” says Qureshi.

The course was established by Qureshi’s co-instructor, Judge Renée Cochard of the Provincial Court of Alberta, in 2018, concurrent with the opening of the Edmonton Mental Health Court.

The EMHC, the first and only of its kind in Alberta, attempts to address the over-representation of people with mental illness in the justice system and takes a collaborative approach to helping those accused with a criminal offense navigate the system. The court includes a mental health worker, a social worker and a psychiatrist who is in regular attendance.

Qureshi is grateful for both Cochard’s groundbreaking work and for the stakeholders and individuals who make the EMHC possible, including Alberta Health Services, Legal Aid Alberta, the Crown and the Courts.

Qureshi has earned a reputation among students for her compassionate and empathetic approach towards teaching. Her students have consistently praised her for creating a safe and inclusive learning environment that encourages open and honest discussions.

Qureshi strongly believes in including voices and sources that are not normally included in legal education — the real people behind the cases.

“I work hard to deliver a progressive, trauma-informed, interdisciplinary and holistic understanding of law with particular attention to the impact of policy and systemic issues on the most vulnerable and who the law tends to leave behind,” says Qureshi.

“The feedback from my students and this award tells me that there is a hunger for reform in the ways we deliver legal education and practice law, and I am grateful and privileged to be a part of that push.”

The last year has been particularly challenging for the community, says Qureshi, noting that the pandemic, unprecedented homelessness and frostbite amputations, the drug poisoning crisis, a Legal Aid job action, and resource limitations have all impacted those navigating the EMHC.

For Qureshi, it has been deeply rewarding to watch students assist those hardest hit by the past year. She has been particularly impressed by the empathy and creative problem solving the students have used to increase access to justice.

“When the students saw people showing up to court without proper winter clothing they took it upon themselves to set up a clothing drive to collect warm clothes for them, understanding that you cannot expect people to make complex legal decisions when their basic needs are not met.”

The Pringle/Royal teaching excellence award is named in honour of Peter Royal, KC, and the late Alex Pringle, QC, each who were instructors at the Faculty. It recognizes the exceptional contributions of a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Law.