This event was presented by UBC Connects at Robson Square in March 2025 in partnership with the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies and UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law
Canadian families are evolving rapidly in the 21st century—and fertility law sits at the centre of these changes.
On March 10, 2025, UBC Connects at Robson Square, in partnership with the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies and Peter A. Allard School of Law, hosted Exploring 21st Century Fertility Law—a timely conversation about how contemporary family law shapes, supports, and sometimes constrains the ways Canadians create and grow their families today.
Throughout the evening, a clear message emerged: Canada’s parentage laws must keep evolving to meet the realities of modern family-making. An esteemed group of panelists welcomed to share their insights and experience in law and medicine called for legal frameworks and practices to continue to change and grow with the full diversity of parents and parenting relationships that exist today. As our understanding of family continues to expand, so too must our laws — and, interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to building systems that are inclusive, equitable, and ready for the future.
Don’t miss news about upcoming UBC Connects at Robson Square events!
This unique public conversation shed light on the complexity of extending legal parentage and other challenges to existing family law, and on gaps between Canadians’ lived experiences and the legal realities that shape how families grow.
Moderated by Dr. Régine Tremblay, Associate Professor at the Allard School of Law and Director of the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies, the panel included family law scholar Dr. Erez Aloni, fertility lawyer and mediator Catherine Wong, and co-founder and co-director of Olive Fertility Clinic Dr. Beth Taylor. Their enlightening discussion touched on the real-world implications of new forms of assisted reproduction, the rise of non-traditional families, and the increasing demand for fertility treatment, and how these intersect in novel ways with broader social change in Canada.
Each panelist contributed their own unique perspective on the intricate relationship between emerging reproductive technologies, the transformation of family structures, and the capacity of current legal frameworks and practitioners to respond equitably and reasonably to developments in these areas.
Professor Tremblay opened the discussion by inviting the audience to consider how the law shapes—and sometimes constrains—who gets recognized as a parent and how families can come together, especially in an era where technology is expanding access to reproduction like never before.
She invited Dr. Erez Aloni to explore how legal frameworks governing marriage, reproduction, and parentage often fail to address the needs of families created through assisted reproduction. Through real-world examples, he demonstrated how these gaps can perpetuate inequalities—most notably for queer and non-traditional families facing ambiguous or outdated laws.
Catherine Wong, a practicing fertility lawyer and mediator, followed with a practical perspective, highlighting the everyday challenges her clients face when building families through surrogacy, sperm or egg donation, or co-parenting arrangements—particularly when these families involve multiple parents or don’t fit traditional legal definitions. She emphasized the need for clear agreements and robust legal protections to ensure that all parties, including donors and intended parents, are properly recognized and safeguarded. Wong also spoke about her advocacy for parentage law reform in BC to better reflect the diverse ways families are created today.
Adding a medical perspective to the conversation, Dr. Beth Taylor spoke about how recent advances in reproductive technologies—such as in vitro fertilization (IVF)—are transforming the landscape of fertility care and raising new legal and ethical questions. She highlighted the growing demand for fertility services and the complex considerations that come with expanding what’s medically possible. Dr. Taylor emphasized that close collaboration between medical professionals, policymakers, and legal experts is essential to ensure that patients receive care that is not only effective but also legally and ethically sound.
Event Contributors
PANELISTS
Erez Aloni
LLM, SJD
Associate Professor, Peter A. Allard School of Law
Erez Aloni is an Associate Professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, where he researches and teaches in the areas of family law, contracts, and law and sexuality. His scholarship examines how legal regimes governing marriage, cohabitation, reproduction, and parentage function collectively to shape family life, often reinforcing inequality. He explores how these legal structures allocate rights and responsibilities in intimate relationships and produce broader social and economic consequences.
Before joining Allard Law, Aloni was an academic fellow in a joint program at Columbia Law School and the Center for Reproductive Rights. He later taught as an assistant professor at Whittier Law School in California. He has held visiting positions at institutions including National Taiwan University, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals and with major publishers across North America, Europe, and Asia, and his commentary has been published in The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, among others. He serves on the Executive Board of the International Society of Family Law and has been the Faculty Co-Editor of the Canadian Journal of Family Law since 2017. His work has been recognized with the George Curtis Memorial Award for teaching excellence and the Killam Faculty Research Fellowship.
Catherine Wong
LLB’07
Family and Fertility Law Lawyer and Mediator, Saltwater Law
Catherine J. Wong is a family and fertility law lawyer and mediator at Saltwater Law. Catherine offers comprehensive family law and mediation services, with a particular focus on fertility law, working with the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, and also with polyamorous and multiparent families. In addition to acting on matters related to fertility law and how the law intersects with non-traditional families, Catherine often presents on family and fertility law matters, and is consulted on fertility law matters by other family law lawyers in the context of cohabitation, marriage, and separation. Catherine is an active member of her communities and has served on a number of boards and organizations including the City of Vancouver 2SLGBTQ+ Advisory Committee and was the former board chair of Out on Screen. Catherine is a member of Fertility Law BC, the CBA, and the TLABC. She recently served on the Parentage Law Reform Committee through the BC Law Institute.
Dr. Beth Taylor
MD, FRSCS
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Olive Fertility Centre
Dr. Taylor is an infertility specialist. She is a co-founder and co-director of Olive Fertility Centre. After completing her medical degree at Dalhousie University in 1998, Dr. Taylor moved to British Columbia to do her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She subsequently completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. She is a Clinical Professor at UBC. She is also an active staff member at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Taylor has also published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, written national guidelines and has written three book chapters. Dr. Taylor is an IVF specialist and leads Olive’s surrogacy and donor gamete program.
MODERATOR
Regine Tremblay
BCL, LLB, LLM, SJD
Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Feminist Legal Studies, Peter A. Allard School of Law
Régine Tremblay’s is an Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Feminist Legal Studies at the Allard School of Law. Her areas of expertise include family law, matrimonial property law, private law, comparative law, family mediation, reproduction and law, and critical theories, including feminism and queer theories.
She holds a BCL and an LLB from the Faculty of Law at McGill University and an LLM and an SJD from the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Barreau du Québec since 2011 and a member of its Comité consultatif en droit de la famille since 2018. She received the Mérite Christine-Tourigny in 2024. Professor Tremblay is the co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Family Law (alongside Professor Erez Aloni) and House Rules: Changing Families, Evolving Norms, and the Role of Law (UBC Press). She coauthored the Private Law Dictionary of the Family, 2nd edition, and the Dictionnaire de droit privé: Les familles, 2ème édition.
Sponsored by:
Have an Idea for a Future Event?
We want to hear from you! Share your event idea through the link below, and let’s work together to bring it to life via UBC Connects at Robson Square.