Bio

Samuel Singer is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. He has a passion for all aspects of tax law and policy. Professor Singer’s current research interests in tax focus on tax dispute resolution and the regulation of non-profit organizations and charities. He greatly enjoys sharing his enthusiasm for law and policy through teaching. Professor Singer is also a long-time advocate for trans people. He frequently presents his research on trans legal issues to members of the legal profession.

Professor Singer is currently studying taxpayer remedies in the Canadian tax system. He is also researching the modernization of non-profit law in Canada and its relationship to the charity law regulatory framework. Professor Singer’s previous tax research includes a study of remission orders for tax debt relief, a critical assessment of the limits of evidentiary privilege for tax professionals, an analysis of the tax treatment of trans medical expenses, and a history of charity law reform in Canada. He is a contributing editor of the Taxation of Corporate Reorganizations.

A long-time advocate for trans people, Professor Singer’s other main area of research focuses on trans legal issues. He was the guest editor (with Ido Katri) of a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Law and Society on the theme, On the Margins of Trans Legal Change published in 2020. Professor Singer’s article “Trans Rights Are Not Just Human Rights: Legal Strategies for Trans Justice” was awarded the Canadian Law and Society Association (CLSA) English Article Prize in 2021.

Professor Singer is researching the ethics of trans competent lawyering and judging, funded by the OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Research. He is also studying trans legal needs in British Columbia, funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia. In 2020, he completed a report for the Canadian Human Rights Commission on trans case law and legal scholarship in Canada from 1973 to 2019, building on
his earlier report on trans rights completed for the Commission in 2017. Before law school,

Professor Singer worked at the trans advocacy group, Action Santé Travesti(e)s et Transexuelles du Québec (ASTTeQ). He later founded and supervised a Trans Legal Clinic in Montreal from 2014 to 2017.

Before academia, Professor Singer worked as the Legal Information Coordinator at the Centre for Community Organizations in Montreal. He articled with the National Judicial Institute in Ottawa. After articling, Professor Singer clerked at the Tax Court of Canada. He then practiced as a tax lawyer with Stikeman Elliott LLP in Montreal. Professor Singer went on to establish his own law practice, working in tax law, charity and non-profit law, and trans law. He is a member of both the Québec and Ontario Bars.

Professor Singer received the Ian Kerr Award for Excellence in Teaching for the English Language Program for the 2020-2021 academic year. He was also a recipient of a 2021 teaching award from the Association étudiante de Common Law Student Society (AÉCLSS).

Prior to joining the University of Ottawa, Professor Singer was a member of the Faculty of Law at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, where he received the Teaching Excellence Award for Upper Year Teaching from the TRU Student Society of Law Students for both the 2017–2018 and 2019–2020 academic years.

Professor Singer is teaching Basic Tax Law, Droit fiscal, and Business Organizations in the 2021–2022 academic year.

Publications

Journal Articles

Chapters

Loose-leaf Services

  • Samuel Singer, Taxation of Corporate Reorganizations (Toronto: Thomson Reuters) (Contributing co-editor, with Monica Cheng, Colin Jackson, Geoffrey Loomer, and Carl MacArthur).

Reports

  • Samuel Singer, “Trans Rights in Canada: Canadian Case Law and Legal Scholarship from 1973 to 2019”, (Commissioned by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, 2020).
  • Samuel Singer, “Trans Rights, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression in Canada”, (Commissioned by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, 2017).

Other Articles

Grants
  • Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC): “Taxpayer Remedies in Canada” (2021-2023) ($71,088).
  • BC Legal Research Fund, The Law Foundation of British Columbia: “Mapping Trans Legal Needs in British Columbia” (2020) ($17,000).
  • Undergraduate Student Research Apprenticeship Award, Thompson Rivers University, “Canadian Taxpayer Remedies: Evaluating Appeal and Relief Mechanisms” (2019–2020) ($6,000).
  • The OBA Foundation Chief Justice of Ontario Fellowship in Legal Ethics and Professionalism Research, Ontario Bar Association Foundation: “The Ethics of Trans Competent Lawyering and Judging” (2019–2020) ($15,000).
  • BC Legal Research Fund, The Law Foundation of British Columbia: “Navigating Non-Profit and Charity Law: Charting the Regulatory Landscape” (2019) ($17,000).
  • Connection Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC): “On the Margins of Trans Legal Change” (2019) ($18,628) (As co-applicant, with Dean Robert Leckey, Faculty of Law, McGill University as principal applicant).
  • Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Award, Thompson Rivers University: “Reforming Charity Law in Canada” (2018–2019) ($4,000)
  • Internal Research Award, Thompson Rivers University: “Remission Orders as a Canadian Tax Debt Relief Vehicle” (2018) ($5,000).