Law Times

Page 4 SePtember 8, 2014 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Sahlemariam. A concerned professor hid Sahlemariam and his friend in his car and took them to the outskirts of the city. "I heard the next day that things were out of control, people were killed. So I went to the rural area to my fa- ther's birthplace," Sahlemariam continues. Days went by, but "things weren't becoming calm and I feared for my life," he says. But Sahlemariam says he didn't fully appreciate the grav- ity of the situation until police surrounded his mother's house in his hometown and arrested her and his brother. "[The authorities] asked for me, but my family didn't know where I was and they told them that but then they insisted they knew where I was." Police later released his family, but to Sahlemariam, their arrest was a sign of greater danger to come. "Before that, I didn't notice how serious the crackdown was," he says. "I decided to f lee." With the help of smugglers, he headed south to Moyale, a border town between Ethiopia and Kenya. He would end up in a refugee camp and stay in Kenya for four years. In April 2005, the Dunbar Heights United Church in Van- couver sponsored Sahlemariam to come to Canada. With no credit for his time at the Ethio- pian university, he had to start from scratch. While attending university, he worked as a jani- tor and later as a security guard. He completed his bachelor of arts degree at Royal Roads Uni- versity in British Columbia and later attended the University of British Columbia's law school. For a year and a half, he volunteered for the Ethiopian Satellite Televi- sion Service in Washington. Sahlemariam, 37, has since obtained a master of laws de- gree from the University of Ot- tawa and, after completing his articles with a law firm in Mis- sissauga, Ont., he's now closing in on a dream he has had since high school. Two of the members of the Vancouver church that sponsored Sahlemariam — he calls them "my Canadian mothers" — will travel to Toronto to attend his call to the bar ceremony on Sept. 19. Advocacy may have gotten him in much trouble, but for Sahlemariam, advocacy through the law is "the best remedy to the wrong you see in the world." Sahlemariam's articling prin- cipal, Jaswant Mangat of Mangat Law PC, says he was impressed by his student's commitment to the legal profession despite the many hurdles he has faced. "He realized at some stage in life that there was some important role he can play to improve condi- tions for himself and the people around him and that led to a commitment to improve him- self, though gradually," he says. "He was able to overcome insurmountable hurdles in his path and, eventually, he has achieved his goal." Lawyer Peter Smilsky, who worked alongside Sahlemariam during his articles, describes him as someone with "a very strong sense of right and wrong." "He's extremely hardwork- ing, very enthusiastic," says Sm- ilsky, adding Sahlemariam also knows how to crack a good joke. "It's not only a pleasure to work with him because of his intel- ligence and his integrity, but he's fun to be around as well," he says. He was struck by Sahlemar- iam's story. "He told me all about his four years in Kenya, and sharing a room with others and running a pool table in the street," he says. Now that he's about to join the bar, Sahlemariam says he's mostly grateful he doesn't have to say he's a student anymore. There's a "so- cial recognition" that comes with calling yourself a lawyer, he says. "Money-making isn't my main concern. It's more the so- cial recognition." Once he joins the bar, Sahlemariam says he wants to practise in the areas of fam- ily law, human rights, immigra- tion, and criminal matters. "What I noticed is that there are so many domestic violence cases in our community and al- most all of the people I help do not know their rights," he says. In the future, he hopes to spe- cialize in international criminal law with a mission rooted in his experiences back home. "There are many people who commit crimes against human- ity in Ethiopia. But again, they [themselves] become refugees. They come here and try to use the system, which was designed to protect their victims. The cul- prits are coming here and get- ting shelter, getting a sanctuary; they are living here with us and I want to hunt down those kinds of people." LT NEWS Residential Tenancies, 10th Edition provides expert guidance on the rights, obligations, and remedies of landlords and tenants. Save valuable research time with immediate access to commentary on specific issues in landlord and tenant law, and summaries of relevant case law. 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Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. 00220MR-A46556 Includes CD-ROM of Landlord Tenant Board forms Available risk-free for 30 days Order online: www.carswell.com Call toll-free: 1-800-387-5164 In Toronto: 416-609-3800 Some criminal lawyers see the measure as a sign of budgetary constraints at LAO and say legal advice by paralegals, even under the supervision of lawyers, isn't ideal. "Obviously, lawyers have more training, have been supervised and mentored, and are in a better position in my opinion to offer legal advice on any issue of any complexity," says Toronto criminal lawyer Adam Weisberg. "Personally, I'd prefer if it was only lawyers giving legal ad- vice on criminal matters. This is likely a fact of a constrained budget that legal aid is dealing with because this can't be the best option. The best option is to have lawyers giving people legal ad- vice on criminal matters." Another issue is whether the public will be aware it's dealing with paralegals, says Weisberg. But according to Gilding, para- legals will always identify themselves as such while interacting with clients and a duty counsel will be available if a client "in- sists on a duty counsel lawyer and if that is appropriate." David McKillop, LAO's vice president of policy, research, and external relations, has previously spoken about the organization's venture to boost the role of paralegals in its service delivery. "When I have a capped budget, in order to serve as many people as pos- sible, I have to look for service alternatives beyond the certificate program, which is an extremely expensive service. So yes, Legal Aid Ontario is looking to utilize paralegals in the delivery of services," he said during a question-and-answer session at the County & Dis- trict Law Presidents' Association plenary in May. "There's only so much paralegals are going to be able to do for le- gal aid clients because of their limited scope of authority," he added. "They can only work on summary matters, up to six months in jail, work before administrative tribunals, and provincial of- fences. Legal aid does virtually no work in provincial offences. But there are some opportunities probably in the summary side and the administrative tribunal side." The Criminal Lawyers' Association declined to comment on the expansion of paralegals' role at LAO. At the CDLPA meeting, McKillop said LAO has about 20 paralegal staff members. Any extension of the role of paralegals would apply only to those on staff and won't include those in independent practice, he said. "The legislation, the Legal Aid Services Act, does not permit me to issue a certificate to a paralegal, an independent paralegal, one that's effectively in private practice. So whatever opportu- nities there may be for looking at that mixed model that might include paralegals will be probably on the staff side as opposed to the independent paralegal side." Should the law society expand the scope of paralegals' role in the future, "then I will potentially be using them in that scope," he added. "But for the limited role they have now, I don't see a huge role for paralegals but I think there is a role they can play." LAO has recently been exploring a slew of other reforms, in- cluding a complete overhaul of its clinic system and an expan- sion of the ranks and role of duty counsel in the court system. Most recently, the organization announced it would provide more than $2 million over three years to six university-operated legal clinics to provide family law services. The universities will use summer and in-term students as well as staff lawyers to provide the services, according to LAO, which noted the funding stems from the $30 million in addi- tional funding over four years the Ontario government an- nounced in its May 2013 budget. LT New lawyer has 'overcome insurmountable hurdles' Paralegals among slew of LAO changes Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1

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