Outstanding student research paper contributes to timely women’s legal issues

The proverb “the more things change, the more they stay the same” remains true today, even where the Internet is concerned. This year’s winning paper of the Muriel St. John Research Award for Women’s Legal Issues was written for a course titled Law, Technology and the Future, but dealt with the age-old issue of women being sexually exploited non-consensually. For the first time, the former law librarian’s award was presented to a law student identifying as male. Ms. St. John was delighted to present Chad Laferriere-Enns [JD/2024] with her award in-person at The Faculty of Law’s Student Achievement Awards Reception on October 29, 2024.

The Muriel St. John Award for Women’s Legal Issues was first offered in 2011 to a Juris Doctor student at the University of Manitoba who submitted the best research paper of publishable quality, pertaining to women’s legal issues.

“My award has been going on for over ten years and it is the first time that the winner is a man. I welcome him as we need more men to support women’s legal issues,” said St. John.

Laferriere-Enns’s paper, “Decoding Deepfakes: Understanding non-consensual synthetic intimate images on the basis of sexual integrity” was written for Law, Technology and the Future, taught by Dr. Katie Szilagyi, who recommended the paper for the award.

“Chad’s paper was thoroughly researched, exhibiting clarity of thought and strong writing,” Dr. Szilagyi noted. “I was tremendously impressed with his ability to apprehend a complicated technological issue, explain it in a straightforward manner, and then offer meaningful commentary from both legal and societal perspectives.”

Dr. Szilagyi awarded Laferriere-Enns the class’s highest grade for his excellent paper, and given the perfect subject matter fit, thought it also warranted nomination for this prize. “Knowing Chad for the past three years, I was not surprised that he took such a strong feminist point of view in his writing. The work contributes to an ongoing conceptualization of an emerging technology that disproportionately impacts women’s equality rights. I thought it was a perfect candidate for the award.”

The work contributes to an ongoing conceptualization of an emerging technology that disproportionately impacts women’s equality rights. I thought it was a perfect candidate for the award. – Dr. Katie Szilagyi

Laferriere-Enns’s paper stands out for its quality of writing and depth of research, but also for a few other aspects including a statement of positionality of the author, an unusual but thoughtful and practical deviation from a traditional academic paper. Laferriere-Enns opted to include a Positionality Statement after his experience taking the course Race, Racism and the Law with Professor Amar Khoday where students were encouraged to write a bit of themselves into the paper to explain their perspective on a topic that would otherwise seem inappropriate for them to speak on with any authority.

“I am a young, cisgender, straight, white man and have lived a life filled with the privilege. Therefore, I occupy a position in this issue as someone who attempts to listen and learn to the best of my abilities,” Laferriere-Enns wrote in his statement, “I have never experienced the kind of sexualization women are subjected to daily, let alone in the unique forum that is the online world. It is for this reason I have attempted to defer, where possible, to the analysis of women who have spoken on this issue. I hope that in doing so that my own analysis may strike closer to the real heart of this issue, that men feel entitled to make and share intimate images of women.”

In conversation with St. John who makes a practice of meeting personally with recipients of her award, Laferriere-Enns further explained, “I was inspired to write my paper by the women who educated me on the topic in the first place. I had heard of deepfakes before, but it wasn’t until Dr. Katie Szilagyi and a guest speaker, Dalhousie University Assistant Professor Suzie Dunn, taught us about the ways technology is weaponized against women that I felt compelled to learn more. The topic was easy for me to pick up and write about as a man who fears virtually nothing online. It is the women who write on these topics while facing violence daily who are truly deserving of praise.”

The topic was easy for me to pick up and write about as a man who fears virtually nothing online. It is the women who write on these topics while facing violence daily who are truly deserving of praise. – Chad Laferriere-Enns [JD/2024]

Left to right: Dr. Katie Szilagyi, Muriel St. John, Chad Laferriere-Enns. Photo by Christine Mazur.

Laferriere-Enns said his topic was inspired in part by troubling occurrences he has seen arising in current-day social media environments where a popular YouTuber’s image was used without her consent to create “deepfake pornography.” In this case, her face was superimposed over a previously existing pornographic video to create realistic footage constituting what is called “non-consensual synthetic intimate images” (NSII). Laferriere-Enns’ paper explored what laws, if any, protect a woman’s rights not to have her image exploited in this manner, as well as the attitudes that condone or ignore the idea that there might be anything wrong or inappropriate with such activity.

He examined the development of case law over the past 40 years that grew to acknowledge the idea of a person’s sexual integrity and laws around sexual assault, concluding that the law “should prioritize the victim’s interest in protecting their autonomy and sexual integrity over the accused’s liberty of action” (Laferriere-Enns). The issues being encountered with this new technology boils down to an age-old problem, Laferriere-Enns concludes: “In part, men feel entitled to make and share intimate images of women because they do not respect women’s sexual integrity. One step in the right direction will include educating and ingraining an appreciation and reverence for sexual integrity in both law and society.”

St. John, who reads every paper that wins her award, remains on top of current laws affecting women’s rights, long after having retired from her position as Law Librarian at Robson Hall where she worked for 12 years. “Civil society is looking forward to the passing of Bill C-63 Online Harms Act which, according to the Legis info is ‘in progress’ at Second Reading as of September 23, 2024,” she said. “It would create a Digital Safety Commission of Canada, the position of Digital Safety Ombudsperson of Canada and the Digital Safety Office of Canada. This bill identifies and provides definitions for seven types of harmful content including “intent content communicated without consent” of which Chad’s paper is about.”

Story submitted by Faculty of Law.