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Email: Admin@Progressive.Law
Progressive Barristers is a law firm deeply committed to access to justice and to obtaining outstanding results for our clients without compromise. We provide exceptional legal services customized to meet clients’ needs and budget.
The Law Society of Ontario (“LSO”) is responsible for regulating lawyers and paralegals in the province. In 2016, the LSO adopted the unanimous final report of the Challenges Facing Racialized Licensees Working Group, which arose from consultations with more than 1,000 racialized and non-racialized lawyers, paralegals, law students, articling students and members of the public throughout Ontario.
The Working Group’s report contains 13 recommendations to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. These recommendations included a requirement that every lawyer and paralegal adopt a Statement of Principles (“SOP”) “acknowledging their obligation to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion generally, and in their behavior towards colleagues, employees, clients and the public.”
The SOP became a flash-point of controversy within the legal profession, with some lawyers arguing that it constituted “compelled speech” and was therefore a violation of their freedom of expression. In 2019, a slate of Benchers (the directors of the LSO) was elected on a promise to repeal the SOP requirement. A proposal to make the SOP voluntary—an approach that seemed to be a complete answer to any concerns about “compelled speech”—was rejected by a majority of Benchers and, on September 11, 2019, Convocation voted to eliminate the SOP altogether.
We were profoundly disappointed by the LSO’s decision to repeal the SOP. We echo the sentiments expressed by the Supreme Court of Canada in Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada, 2018 SCC 33: “As a public actor, the [LSO] has an overarching interest in protecting the values of equality and human rights … Access to justice is facilitated where clients seeking legal services are able to access a legal profession that is reflective of a diverse population and responsive to its diverse needs.” The SOP represented a modest step toward this important goal.
It was never a requirement for lawyers to share their SOP, even with the LSO itself; they were merely asked to confirm annually that they had produced and maintained such a statement. Nevertheless, in the interest of transparency and as an expression of our support for a more equitable, diverse and inclusive bar, we believe our clients are entitled to know where we stand. Accordingly, we confirm our belief in and commitment to the overarching principles set out below.
1. We believe that necessary legal services should be available to all Canadians regardless of their ability to pay. We deplore the recent cuts to Ontario’s already under-resourced legal aid program, which should be immediately reversed.
2. At an individual level, we will work creatively with clients and prospective clients to find affordable ways for them to access the legal tools they need to solve their problems.
3. We acknowledge our special responsibility under the Rules of Professional Conduct to respect and follow human rights laws in force in Ontario and, specifically, to honour the obligation not to discriminate on the grounds of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences (as defined in the Ontario Human Rights Code), marital status, family status, or disability with respect to our clients, the professional employment of other lawyers, articled students, or any other person, or in professional dealings with other licensees or any other person.
4. Traditional understandings of human rights are insufficient, and we commit to pursue a more robust conception of justice that includes the equitable redistribution of social and economic power.
5. We recognize that Anglo-Canadian common law is highly problematic in its assumptions, structures, and priorities. As he has been traditionally conceived in the imagination of wealthy, white, cis-male, able-bodied jurists, the man on the Clapham omnibus does not look, sound, think, or have the same interests as the woman on the Spadina streetcar. The law is an imperfect tool that must be deployed cautiously and creatively by the progressive lawyer.
6. We recognize that our racialized, Indigenous, LGBTQ2+, and disabled colleagues at bar sometimes encounter barriers in their careers and feel unwelcome in the profession. We will look for opportunities to mentor and support those who struggle to live authentically in the law, including through our approach to recruitment and hiring.
7. We recognize that the culture of the legal profession is patriarchal in ways both small and large. We support efforts to change this. For men, we recognize that being an ally probably means saying less and listening more.
8. Our office is a place of safety. We commit to a zero-tolerance policy respecting harassment and violence in the workplace. Harassment is a course of conduct that is known or should be known to be “unwelcome”. Consent may be communicated in certain circumstances, but the conduct may still be unwelcome and harassing because the power dynamics inherent in a situation can make it harder for some to say no or to rebuff certain behaviours and comments. Our policy respecting harassment and violence in the workplace policy views consent and unwelcome behaviour in this broader context.
9. We recognize and commit to combat the myths that inform how police, lawyers, and legal decision-makers sometimes perceive those who have experienced trauma, including survivors of sexual assault and intimate partner violence.
10. We acknowledge the land on which we live and work. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. We benefit personally and professionally from living and working on this land.
11. We recognize our special responsibilities to support the project of social and legal reconciliation between Indigenous and settler Canadians. This obligation is both a matter of collective values and a special, heightened duty of legal practitioners.
12. Wherever possible, we will endeavour to act in furtherance of the Calls to Action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Consistent with the first of these Calls to Action, as participants in the family justice and child welfare systems, we commit to work toward a reduction in the number of Indigenous children in state care.
13. We recognize that the principles set out herein are aspirational. We will not be able to achieve these goals every day or in every case. But we believe that practicing in a manner consistent with these principles is good for our clients, our community, and ourselves—and we commit to do our best.
