Barbara Betcherman

Barbara Betcherman was born in Toronto, Ontario (ca. 1948). She received degrees in philosophy and later, in law, but before becoming a lawyer, she engaged in many different occupations. She was a nightclub waitress, a bank teller, a professional stage manager, a drama teacher, and encyclopedia salesperson and she also worked at the famous Toronto bookstore, The Book Cellar.

Her law career was no less varied. After topping her class at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto (LL.B. 1974) and winning an Osgoode silver medal, Betcherman became a federal prosecutor and later served on a Royal Commission investigating alleged police brutality. She co-founded the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre, and worked as a director of legal research on the CBC’s Ombudsman television programme.

In 1980, she published her first novel, Suspicions (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), which became an international success. Two other novels, Side Effects (Tudor Publishing, 1988) and Stiletto (Tudor Publishing, 1989) which she was completing at the time of her death, were published posthumously. After the success of Suspicions, she relocated to California and she was killed outside her home in Malibu when a driver went through a red light. She was 35 years of age at the time of her death.

Her friends and family found a way to honour her life and perpetuate her ideals. The Barbara Betcherman Memorial Fund was established at Osgoode in 1985 and over the next 20 years the Fund, through special lectures, sought to develop and promote ideas about women and the law, including sex equality, feminist theory, and applied legal research in areas of law with a significant impact on women. An impressive array of lecturers graced the podium every other year for The Barbara Betcherman Memorial Lecture including such big-name celebrities as Gloria Steinem, Margaret Atwood and Justices Bertha Wilson and Rosalie Abella.

The Memorial Lecture continued until 2005, its 20th anniversary, after which the Betcherman family – Irving and Lita-Rose and their three sons – and friends of the family felt it was time for a change. After a good deal of discussion, including with Osgoode Dean, Patrick Monahan, it was decided that more effective use of the Fund could be made by directing it to a Distinguished Visitorship for the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies. In this way, Osgoode will have a Visitor to the Institute for periods of up to two weeks, during which time the Visitor will deliver a public lecture and also engage in discussions with students and faculty.