Law Times

Page 16 February 24, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com CCLA GETS NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lawyer Sukanya Pillay is the new general counsel and executive direc- tor of the Canadian Civil Liber- ties Association. Pillay, who was interim general counsel and acting executive direc- tor of the CCLA since August 2013, "brings to the position a tremendous skill set and a breadth of experience in the not-for-profit, academic, and private sectors," the organization said in a press release. Pillay has served as program di- rector of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York and director of the law and human rights program of the Inter- national Television Trust for the Environment. She also taught law at the University of Windsor for five years. "Sukanya has a proven track record of leadership at CCLA and in similar organizations, a thorough understanding of the civil liberties challenges facing Canada today, knowledge of the civil liberties com- munity in Canada and internationally, and a deep commitment to the values, ideals, and objectives of CCLA," the CCLA said. BILL SEEKS HUMAN RIGHTS FOR DOLPHINS BUCHAREST — Should human rights apply to dolphins? A Romanian politician thinks so. Armed with an iPad and a letter of support from an Oscar-winning film director, Remus Cernea is pushing a cause he acknowledges few of his fellow Romanian lawmakers care about: giving dolphins the same rights as humans. According to Reuters, the 39-year-old activ- ist politician introduced a bill in parliament re- cently that would recognize the marine mam- mals as "non-human persons" on account of their highly developed intelligence, personali- ties, and behaviour patterns. e bill would make humans and dolphins equal before the law. Dolphin killers would receive the same sentences as murderers of hu- man beings. e aim of the bill is to help protect Roma- nia's indigenous dolphins in the Black Sea, Cer- nea said. To back his cause, he has received a let- ter of support from Louie Psihoyos, an Ameri- can filmmaker famed for a 2009 documentary, e Cove, about dolphin hunting in Japan. But gathering domestic support may be tough in a year when Romania goes to the polls twice, first in the European elections in May and later to vote for a new president. Animal rights will have to find space alongside issues such as corruption and raising living standards and public services in the European Union's second-poorest country. "At this moment, I have no support," Cernea told Reuters during a visit to the city of Con- stanta on the Black Sea coast. "is law asks you to make a huge step, philosophically speaking, to understand and to accept that somehow there is another species which is quite similar as we are," he added. Cernea's constituency, Constanta, is on a strip of coastline where dolphins get entangled in fishing nets and die in the dozens. e city is also home to the only two dolphins in Romania kept in captivity. At Constanta's dolphinarium recently, the dolphins practised tricks in a green indoor pool such as balancing balls on their noses and prod- ding them through hoops. Each trick earned a reward of fish from a bucket. Cernea likened the pool to a prison, a view that brought a sharp rebuke from the dolphi- narium's scientific director, Nicolae Papadopol, during a discussion with Reuters. "Romanians have something good [here], and you are coming with this initiative to de- stroy it," said Papadopol. JOYRIDING BOY CLAIMS HE'S A DWARF DOKKA, Norway — A Norwegian boy caught joyriding in his parents' car may want to think of a more realistic excuse next time. According to Reuters, the 10-year-old boy told police he was a dwarf who forgot his driv- er's licence aer he drove his parents' car into a snowy ditch. e boy lives near Dokka, a town about 110 kilometres north of Oslo. On a recent morning, he loaded his 18-month old sister into the car and headed for their grandparents' home in Val- dres, about 60 kilometres away, local police said. He drove more than 10 kilometres before he veered off the road. A snowplow driver found him and alerted the police. "e parents woke up and discovered that the children were missing and that someone had taken off with their car," said Baard Chris- tiansen, a spokesman for the Vest Oppland police district. "e boy told the snowplow driver that he was a dwarf and that he had forgotten his driver's licence at home." Police said they'd be filing no charges, Reuters reported. "We have talked to them, and I'm pret- ty sure they're going to pay very close attention both to their children and to their car keys in the future," said Christiansen. LT The title insurer that puts you front row, centre Putting the legal community front and centre has made us the #1 choice with Canadian lawyers for over a decade. Stewart Title does not support programs that reduce or eliminate the lawyer's role in real estate transactions. For more information call (888) 667-5151 or visit www.stewart.ca. Untitled-2 1 7/19/11 12:31:45 PM u Bizarre Briefs By Viola James u The InsIde story EX-HEYDARY LAWYER JOINS NEW FIRM Former Heydary Green PC co-director Michael Cochrane has joined litigation and corpo- rate boutique Brauti orning Zibarras LLP. Cochrane practised family law at Heydary Green prior to the firm's trusteeship by the Law Society of Upper Canada af- ter lawyer Javad Heydary dis- appeared amid questions over missing client funds amounting to $3.6 million. e law society later confirmed Heydary had died. e missing funds related to Heydary Hamilton PC and not the other Heydary firms. Brauti orning Zibarras said Cochrane's practice at the firm would focus on family law, estates, mediation, civil litiga- tion, and public policy matters. LAO LAUNCHES FAMILY MEDIATION PILOT Legal Aid Ontario has launched a pilot project that will make legal assistance available for family law mediation clients. e project will assist unrep- resented parties, who make up about 70 per cent of all family law litigants. Services include advice about the process, assistance in prepar- ing for mediation, and guidance to better understand their op- tions. Lawyers will also be able to assist clients in obtaining a court order or a binding agree- ment to enforce the terms of a mediation agreement. Clients could get up to six hours with a lawyer, LAO noted. e program is available at sev- eral Greater Toronto Area court- houses as well as in Kingston, Sudbury, Simcoe, Owen Sound, Milton, Muskoka, London, Kitchener, and Hamilton, Ont. OSGOODE FACULTY SPEAK OUT ON TWU Osgoode Hall Law School's faculty council has unanimous- ly passed a motion calling on Trinity Western University to remove a clause in its policy dealing with lesbian and gay stu- dents, faculty, and staff. "e Osgoode motion reaf- firms the school's commitment to promoting diversity and equality in the learning envi- ronment and its ongoing efforts to achieve improvements on these goals in the professional community," said Mary Jane Mossman, the professor who moved the motion, in a press release. "In the past, the legal profes- sion has excluded individuals based on gender, race, religion or ableness. In 2014, it would be profoundly regressive to in- stitutionalize such exclusion in a law school's policy." e Osgoode council is one of many organizations that have expressed concern about the language used in the mandate of the Christian university that plans to open a law school in 2016. LT "But is it art?" Sukanya Pillay

• Cover