Law Times

Page 4 May 11, 2015 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com towns to compete with such people without spending a lot of money, says Lem. Prominent and vocal figures like Joe Groia and Rocco Galati made it to the winning list of candidates without the help of highly visible advertising, ac- cording to Lem. "I don't think Groia spent more than a few thousand max," he says. "If you put a spending limit on it, how would a decent, hardwork- ing guy from Peterborough ever compete? It would be all the Gala- tis and the Groias only." But University of Ottawa Faculty of Law Prof. Joanne St. Lewis, one of the winners in the April 30 bencher election, says a spending cap is the next logical step after term limits to encour- age young lawyers to run. "If we really want young lawyers to have a fair shot, then it's not going to be possible for them to do those hard cardboard stock brochures and to buy the mailing lists, so they'll be at an economic disadvantage. If we want their voices, then we're going to, I think, really have to think at the next level," she says. "Now we have space because we have term limits," she adds. "The next step after term limits is to really encourage people to run and make the opportunity to run economically not a penalty." St. Lewis, who's returning to Convocation after serving as a bencher from 2001-09, says this election was different in that can- didates felt the need to have a posi- tion on diversity issues. "That was a marked difference from before," she says. "[Before], it was almost like you owned diversity because in a sense it was part of your own ex- perience. But now, many people believe and accept that they have a responsibility and diversity mat- ters to them. And I think they're genuine about it." According to Lem, the new face of Convocation itself means diversity on the law society's gov- erning body has become reality. "We are now diverse. It is now a fait accompli. We are not sitting around going, 'Woe is us. This is horrible.' No. We are it now." Among the newly elected benchers is Dianne Corbiere, a past president of the Indigenous Bar Association. The list also includes Brampton, Ont., sole practitioner Raj Sharda and Anne Vespry, an Ottawa family lawyer. Incumbents Avvy Yao-Yao Go, Raj Anand, Jack Braithwaite, and Julian Falconer will also be re- turning to Convocation. In total, lawyers elected 16 women. They include first-time benchers Sandra Nishikawa, Ja- nis Criger, Teresa Donnelly, and Gina Papageorgiou. Nishikawa, a Crown counsel who campaigned on a platform centred on a more diverse profes- sion as well as access to justice, says she's happy with the results. The diversity she advocated for "is ref lected in the results of this election," she says. "There's a pretty strong representation of racialized lawyers . . . and women as well." Vocal proponents of alterative business structures, such as law- yers Mitch Kowalski and Colin Lachance, failed to win enough votes to sit at Convocation. While it's hard to predict how a vote on alternative business structures would go, benchers like St. Lewis say they have many questions and that, without suf- ficient answers, they'd likely vote against the idea. St. Lewis says there's something "instinc- tively" concerning about lawyers working for big corporations that traditionally have a differ- ent set of values, something she suggests "could result in funda- mental distortions of who we are and what we are and the ac- countability." LT marriage.Hamdani says the ar- ticle was encouraging Muslim students to participate in cam- pus politics and notes he has since abandoned those views on same-sex marriage. "To that one, the only thing I'll say is that I've matured and grown in the last 20 years from when I was 22," says Hamdani. "That posi- tion of mine has changed." Hamdani is also facing an ac- cusation of donating to IRFAN- Canada, an organization that provided aid to Palestinian chil- dren but lost its charitable status last year. The federal government has deemed it a terrorist group with ties to Hamas. Hamdani says he donated to IRFAN-Canada in 2005. "The point is that it was a char- ity in 2005. They were collect- ing money from Canadians all across [the country]," he says. "It was a registered charity." Hamdani notes the RCMP and the Canadian Security In- telligence Service have already vetted his background and calls his suspension "a scheme of pol- itics" driven by his vocal support for the Liberals. "There's Facebook pictures of me with Justin Trudeau," he says. "I think the government said, 'You know what, this guy, we don't like him anymore. He's not one of us.'" Hamdani also suggests his stance on the anti-terror bill may be a factor as well. "The government knew that this guy [Lebuis] was out there saying all this crap about people. They just decided to react to it last week because I've come out support- ing the Liberals and I've been critical of bill C-51," he says. "So it's very politically mo- tivated," he adds, noting he's looking into suing the blogger for defamation. Last summer, the parents of Mohamud Mohamed Moham- ud reached out to Hamdani to help them stop their son after tracking his cellphone in Tur- key. They suspected he was on his way to Syria to join the Islamic State group. In that case, it was too late. But Hamdani says he has dealt with about a dozen cases of young men who wanted to join a terrorist group. In light of his suspension from the roundtable, lawyers who know Hamdani have rushed to his defence, calling the government's actions unfair. "He's not a terrorist. I've been to their law firm. . . . You think these guys are making bombs in the kitchen? No, they're not," says Burlington, Ont., lawyer Peter Cass. "You have this thing where people assume anything related to Islam is dangerous. I don't agree with that. . . . People feed into these stereotypes and they shouldn't." The allegations are danger- ous to Hamdani's reputation as a lawyer, according to Cass. "He's a lawyer. All he's got is his reputation," he says. "Nothing they've said about him even merits suspicion," he adds. "There's no fire, there's no smoke." LT NEWS Order # 804218-65203 $426 2 volume looseleaf supplemented book Anticipated upkeep cost – $319 per supplement 4-6 supplements per year Supplements invoiced separately 0-88804-218-3 Shipping and handling are extra. Price(s) subject to change without notice and subject to applicable taxes. 00227VI-A48891 Cited by the supreme court of Canada Canadian Employment Law Stacey Reginald Ball "The most comprehensive text on employment law in Canada. It is carefully constructed and accurate." 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