Speakers and discussants at our 40th Anniversary symposium

The following are brief biographies of the speakers and discussants at NLS's 40th Anniversary Symposium:

Mary Jane Mossman
Professor Mary Jane Mossman has taught at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1977, after several years as a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, and has served as Associate Dean, Assistant Dean, Chair of Faculty Council, and now Director of the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies. Her research interests include women and the law/legal professions; family law, social assistance, and economic dependency; property law, including trusts and pensions; access to justice and legal aid. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Medal of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Award of Excellence of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers, a Canadian Bar Association (Ontario) Distinguished Service Award, and the annual award of the Advocacy Resource Centre for the Handicapped. In 1995, she held the Gordon F. Henderson Chair in Human Rights at the University of Ottawa, and was awarded the Walter L. Gordon Fellowship at York University in 2004. In 2007, she received the Bora Laskin Fellowship in Human Rights as well as the Ontario Government's Leadership in Faculty Teaching award, and she was also appointed University Professor at York. She has also been a Visiting Professor at a number of other law schools. Professor Mossman has been involved, both in her legal scholarship and her community activities, in a variety of issues relating to legal aid and access to justice. She was the first Clinic Funding Manager of the Ontario Legal Aid Plan, with responsibility for community legal clinics from 1979 to 1982, and currently serves as Chair of the Administrative Committee of the CAW Legal Services Plan. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles, as well as reports for government and other organizations.  In 2004, she published Families and the Law in Canada: Cases and Commentary (Toronto: Emond-Montgomery, 2004); and co-authored a second edition of Property Law: Cases and Commentary (Toronto: Emond-Montgomery, 2004). Her most recent book is The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2006).

Ed Montigny
Ed Montigny has been a staff lawyer at ARCH Disability Law Centre since 2009. He completed a Ph.D in Canadian History in 1994 studying social policy affecting family care for elderly persons with disabilities in 19th century Ontario. He taught courses on poverty, equality and human rights at various Ontario Universities. In 1993 he joined the Board of Directors at Neighbourhood Legal Services. Inspired by the work of the clinic, he decided to attend law school. Between 2005 and 2009 Ed operated his own, largely legal aid focused, practice serving clients with disabilities and special needs and taught part-time in Humber College’s Tribunal Agent and Paralegal Program. He is currently Chair of the OBA Equality Committee, past-chair of SOGIC National (the sexual orientation and gender identity conference of the CBA) and co-chair of the SOGIC Survey advisory committee with Kathy Lahey.

Doug Ewart
Doug Ewart has held a wide range of senior policy, legal, management and strategic advisory positions with the Ontario AG as well as serving as Senior General Counsel/Senior Advisor to the Deputy Minister of Justice for Canada, and later as Senior Advisor to DMs at PCO and Indian Residential Schools Resolutions Canada. More recently, he served as Special Advisor to the Hon. R. Roy McMurtry and Dr. Alvin Curling on the Review of the Roots of Youth Violence.  His experience includes the design and implementation of tribunal and other out-of-court dispute resolution processes as well as law reform and advisory work in fields including administrative tribunals, civil and family law, criminal procedure, anti-racism, human rights, equality and Charter rights, criminal procedure, legal aid, access to justice, judicial administration and aboriginal justice. He has published legal texts and articles and holds an LL.B. and an LL.M.

His involvement with Ontario’s community clinics dates to the establishment of Parkdale Community Legal Services in 1971 and includes service on the Clinic Funding Committee as well as leading the Ontario AG’s policy and budget responsibilities for the Ontario Legal Aid Plan for a number of years.

Robert (Bob) Ward
Bob Ward is the President & CEO of Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). Bob joined LAO, in 2006, following a 31 year career with the federal government and has held positions in the Privy Council Office, Revenue Canada, Department of Justice, Treasury Board Secretariat, Public Service Commission and Natural Resources Canada.  During his career with the federal government, Bob specialized in various aspects of corporate development including corporate design, human resources, business improvement, policy, planning, coordination and communications.  He has also worked in public policy areas pertaining to the improvement of disadvantaged communities, human rights and regional economic development.

Prior to joining LAO, Bob was the Secretary General of the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa.

Over the past several years, LAO has been implementing a modernization process of its programs and processes. The modernization initiative is based on the principles of more tailored client services, less costly infrastructure and greater oversight of and support for service providers. 

Bob has an MBA from the University of Ottawa and holds a BA in Political Science and History from York University.

Patricia Hughes
Patricia Hughes has been the Executive Director of the Law Commission of Ontario since its inception in 2007. She received her BA and MA in Political Science from McMaster University, her doctorate in Political Economy from the University of Toronto and her LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is a member of the Ontario and Alberta bars. She began her legal career with the Ministry of the Attorney General in the Policy Development Division and subsequently served as a vice-chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board and alternate chair of the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal. She was appointed as Chair in Women and Law in the Faculty of Law at the University of New Brunswick and dean of law at the University of Calgary.

She has taught constitutional law, feminist legal theories, dispute resolution and law reform and has spoken and written in those areas, as well as judicial independence and issues of substantive equality. As a law student, she undertook research into legal clinics for Professor Fred Zemans at Osgoode and has written on legal aid and more recently has presented on occasion at ACLCO’s annual meeting. She is a member of the Friends of the Community Clinics.

Sheena Weir
Sheena Weir is the Director of Public Relations at the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Jehad Aliweiwi
Jehad Aliweiwi is the Executive Director of the Laidlaw Foundation. Most recently he was the executive director of the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, and in the past he has been the regional director at Catholic Cross-Cultural Services and executive director at the Canadian Arab Federation. He is a member of DiverseCity Steering Committee and a board member for The Ontario Science Centre, Housing Connections, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and Fred Victor. In 2010 he was the recipient of the Canadian Urban Institute's Local Hero Award.

JoAnne Doyle
JoAnne Doyle joined United Way Toronto in September 2011. As Senior Vice President, Community Impact, JoAnne provides leadership on United Way Toronto’s strategic initiatives, community investment and partnership building, research, evaluation, and capacity building. She also works closely with our Board Committees, such as the Community Impact Committee; Research, Policy and Priorities Committee; and Allocations and Agency Services Committee.

JoAnne first joined United Way Toronto on an interim basis in February 2011, when she led and shaped a streamlined, community-facing department. She also acted as our Interim Director of Organizational Development from 2004 to 2005. She has deep roots in the social services sector with a focus of expertise on community health. Through her independent consulting practice, JoAnne has helped numerous organizations in areas such as capacity building, strategic planning, governance, and operations. A dedicated volunteer, she has held Board and Executive Committee positions for the Welcome Inn Centre. Her previous roles include Executive Director at the Guelph Community Health Centre and the North Hamilton Community Health Centre.

JoAnne holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration from McMaster University.

Kathy Laird
Kathy Laird is the Executive Director of Ontario’s Human Rights Legal Support Centre.
Kathy has been a lawyer at several community legal clinics in Toronto, including
Neighbourhood Legal Services and Metro Tenants Legal Services. In the 1980s, Kathy was part
of a team that established Keewaytinok Native Legal Services, serving the James Bay First
Nation communities of Moosonee, Moose Factory, Kashechewan, Fort Albany, Winisk and
Attapatiskat. From 2001 to 2006, she was the Legal Director of the Advocacy Centre for Tenants
Ontario.

Kathy served for a number of years as a Vice Chair at the previous Human Rights Board of
Inquiry and at the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal. In 2007/08, and from 1990 to 1994, Kathy was Counsel to the Chair of Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (formerly the Board of Inquiry). Kathy is a recipient of the medal of the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators for outstanding contribution to Ontario’s administrative justice system.

Angela Robertson
Angela Robertson is the Executive Director of Central Toronto Community Health Centres.  She is past Director of Equity and Community Engagement at Women’s College Hospital and Sistering:  A Woman’s Place, a multi-service centre for homeless and low-income women.  Angela is also an activist in the black, women’s and LGBTQ communities and is the past Board Chair for the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention, and a current member of the Houselink Community Homes Board of Directors.  Angela is co-editor with Ena Dua of the book Scratching the Surface:  Canadian Anti-Racist Feminist Thought, published by Women’s Educational Press, and Coordinator of Sistering’s community-based research report Common Occurrence:  The Impact of Homelessness on Women’s Health.  Angela has been recognized for her social change and justice work by the YWCA, Fred Victor Centre, Urban Alliance on Race Relations and NOW magazine.

Nav Persaud
Nav Persaud is a family physician at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael's Hospital. He is also an Associate Scientist in the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, and a Lecturer at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is working with colleagues to establish and test the efficacy of a general medico-legal within the family health team at St Michael's Hospital.

Nav's educational background includes degrees in Psychology, Philosophy, Physiology and Medicine from the University of Oxford (UK) and the University of Toronto. He completed his postgraduate training in Family Medicine at St Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto. His research interests include health promotional interventions and educational interventions for primary care providers.

Haweiya Egeh
Haweiya Egeh received her Honours Bachelors of Arts (HBA) degree in Sociology from the University of Toronto (Victoria College) and her Masters degree in Immigration and Settlement Studies from Ryerson University.  In the past she has worked as a Settlement Officer with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and as a research consultant for the Toronto Neighbourhood Centres (TNC), an umbrella agency for multi-service organizations.  She currently works as the Service Collaboration Coordinator for the Toronto South Local Immigration Partnership, a partnership of organizations from various sectors that serve newcomer populations.

Jack de Klerk
Jack de Klerk is the Director of Legal Services at Neighbourhood Legal Services. He first started working in a legal clinic in 1976 just after he and others in the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations formed and got funding for Metro Tenants Legal Services from the Ontario Legal Aid Program. Since then he has gone to law school, made an unsuccessful run at municipal politics, worked in various clinics, developed housing co-operatives by helping tenants buy their apartment buildings, practiced law as a sole practitioner, and come back to working in the clinic system. He has been at Neighbourhood Legal Services since 1998.

Jack has served on the executive of the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario and is currently chairperson of the Toronto Legal Clinics Management Group (TLCMG). In 2013 he played a key role in bringing forward to the TLCMG the proposal to undertake the GTA Clinic Transformation Project. He and Marjorie Hiley the ED of the Flemingdon clinic are now the project co-leads.