Media
Recent news coverage
Shane's legal advocacy & commentary has been featured on:
March 1, 2022 - CBC News - Police ignored Ontario human rights code during migrant worker DNA sweep, lawyer argues
January 16, 2022 - The Palestine Chronicle - Time to Revoke Charitable Status from Canadian Group Funding Israeli Military
November 22, 2021 - CBC News - Human rights hearing on allegations of racial profiling of migrant workers caught in mass DNA sweep begins
July 20, 2020 - Global News - Animal rights activists speak out after truck driver charged in death of protester in Burlington
March 14, 2020 - CTV W5 - Canadian serving life in Florida prison seeks to serve his sentence in Canada
May 13, 2019 - Toronto Sun - Attacker spared conviction for assault on Sun photographer
January 8, 2018 - CTV News - Canadian with 160-year prison sentence in U.S. back in Canada as a free man
December 7, 2017 - CBC News - Long Time Gone: The Derek Twyman Story
November 30, 2017 - VICE News - Human Rights Commission Will Investigate Racial Profiling by Toronto Police
November 1, 2017 - National Post - Florida governor offers no transfer hope for Canadian jailed 31 years
October 17, 2017 - Al Jazeera - Quebec to vote on controversial face veil ban
June 18, 2017 - Hamilton Spectator - Inquest jury urges drug crackdown after Chilean migrant’s death in Milton jail
June 12, 2017 - CHCH News - Coroner’s inquest into the death of a Chilean man, jailed on immigration charges
August 8, 2016 - CBC Metro Morning - Migrant farm workers lose belongings in fire
August 5, 2016 - Jamaica Star - Farm workers lose everything in Canada fire
January 24, 2015 - Toronto Star - Toronto jail inmate says he was sent to solitary for having HIV
July 3, 2014 - Toronto Sun - Conjugal visits 'not an automatic right'
June 24, 2014 - CBC - Inmates continue legal fight to wear upside-down maple leaf t-shirts in prison
May 29, 2014 - Kingston Whig - Inmates' lawsuit over T-shirts not over: lawyer
March 13, 2014 - Jamaica Gleaner - Vybz Kartel Trial: The legal teams
July 29, 2013 - CBC - Migrant worker in Leamington awarded $23K in damages
October 2, 2012 - Toronto Star - Kingston Penitentiary won't deliver Toronto Star letters to inmates
August 30, 2012 - Toronto Star - Canadian inmates sue government over T-shirt ban
Shane Martínez B.A., LL.B, L.E.C.
Barrister & Solicitor
Content copyright 2014. Martínez Law. All rights reserved. Content on website is not legal advice. Contacting the firm does not automatically establish a solicitor-client relationship.
Shane's passion for social justice and human rights originated from his time living in rural eastern Canada and witnessing first-hand how working class and poor people are disproportionately and systematically affected by the criminal law.
During a portion of his legal education Shane worked with one of Toronto's top criminal defence firms. There he assisted on cases that included charges of first degree murder, prohibited firearms, fraud, narcotics, theft, assault and prostitution. The experience solidified his commitment to provide fierce representation for all clients regardless of the allegations.
With the goal of providing his clients with the best defence possible, Shane founded Martínez Law. Today the firm offers its services across Toronto, Oshawa, North York, Scarborough and beyond. Through combining a social justice perspective with innovative legal analysis and tireless dedication, Martínez Law is able to guarantee its clients a loyal and aggressive criminal defence against the charges they are faced with. Shane has also acted as counsel in Coroner's inquests in relation to the deaths of people who have been killed by the police or who have died in jail.
From September 2013 to March 2014 Shane completed a period of academic leave to become qualified to practice law in the Commonwealth Caribbean. During that time he lived in Kingston, Jamaica, and assisted attorney-at-law Michael Lorne as part of the defence team for dancehall artist Shawn Storm, one of the co-accused in the Vybz Kartel murder trial.
Shane regularly writes and lectures about police brutality, racial profiling, the prison industrial complex and transnational labour. He also works closely with Justice 4 Migrant Workers (J4MW) providing legal education and pro bono assistance for Caribbean and Mexican migrant farm workers in southern Ontario.
In addition to operating Martínez Law, Shane serves as the Deputy Legal Director at LiUNA Local 3000, where he helps defend the rights of Ontario's front line healthcare workers. He is also an adjunct professor of Prison Law, Policy and Reform at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School.
Current memberships: