As a licensee of the Law Society of Upper Canada, I / We stand by the following principles:
- A recognition that the Law Society is committed to Inclusive legal workplaces in Ontario, a reduction of barriers created by racism, unconscious bias and discrimination and better representation of Indigenous and racialized licensees in the legal professions in all legal workplaces and at all levels of seniority.
- My special responsibility as a member of the legal profession to protect the dignity of all individuals, and to respect human rights laws in force in Ontario.
- A commitment to advance reconciliation, acknowledging that we are collectively responsible to support improved relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Ontario and Canada; and,
- An acknowledgement of my obligation to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion generally and in my behaviour towards colleagues, employees, clients and the public.
Further I / We stand by the Decisions and Findings of the Supreme Court of Canada and believe:
The fact that a lawyer / paralegal is criticizing a judge, a tenured and independent participant in the justice system, may raise, not lower, the threshold for limiting a lawyer’s / paralegal’s expressive rights under the Charter……..This is not always easy where the lawyer / paralegal feels he or she has been unfairly provoked, But it is precisely when a lawyer’s / paralegal’s equilibrium is unduly tested that he or she is particularly called upon to behave with transcendent civility. On the other hand, lawyers / paralegal’s should not be expected to behave like verbal eunuchs.
They not only have a right to speak their minds freely, they arguably have a duty to do so. But they are constrained by their profession to do so with dignified restraint.