Dahlia Alexandra Hudson Shuhaibar

Dahlia practices public law and civil litigation in Ontario and British Columbia. She acts in judicial reviews of administrative actions, appeals, regulatory proceedings, and matters with an international law dimension. She also acts in a variety of private law matters. Dahlia is a member of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer’s personal rights panel, representing child clients in matters involving the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. She is also an experienced Supreme Court of Canada agent, providing both technical assistance and substantive advice. Dahlia joined Olthuis van Ert after clerking at the Supreme Court of Canada and the Federal Court.

Dahlia has experience working on various public law matters including constitutional challenges, judicial reviews of administrative action, statutory appeals, and commissions of inquiry. She is also interested in judicial conduct and has published articles on conduct of judges off the bench. Dahlia has previously taught Canadian Federalism Law at the University of Ottawa Civil Law Faculty.

Sharif v Canada (Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness) , 2025 ONSC 5221, 2026 ONCA 476: as junior counsel to Gib van Ert KC, Dahlia argued that the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness acted unreasonably in refusing to accede to a request from the UN Human Rights Committee to pause Mr. Sharif’s deportation while it considered his allegation of refoulement (i.e., deportation in circumstances involving grave human rights violations). Both courts accepted Mr. Sharif’s submissions that the Ontario courts have jurisdiction to consider the case and that they could review the case—two points that the Minister strongly opposed. However, the courts concluded the Minister’s decision was reasonable. Mr. Sharif is seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.