OSGOODE HALL LAW SCHOOL OF YORK UNIVERSITY ALUMNI MAGAZINE • Bursting with Pride • Osgoode and WINTER 2012 the Community • Osgoode Catalysts • Mental Health, Disability, Law & Justice CONTINUUM The New Osgoode Continuum Osgoode Hall Law School Alumni Magazine Volume 36 EDITOR 08 Bursting with Pride Anita Herrmann It was billed as the Osgoode Building Director, Office of Advancement Celebration, but Sunday, October 16, 2011, 416-736-5364 [email protected] was really all about “community” and the CONTRIBUTING EDITORS coming together of those who share an Virginia Corner enduring common bond. Communications Manager Smriti Kapoor Manager, Office of Advancement 14 Osgoode and the WRITERS Community Virginia Corner Laurie de Fleuriot de la Coliniere Engagement with the community continues to Nathalie Kalina be one of Osgoode’s central priorities, which is Anita Herrmann why the Law School is committed to enhancing Smriti Kapoor experiential learning opportunities for students. Lorne Sossin Christine Ward PHOTOGRAPHY 18 Osgoode Catalysts AKA Photography Inspiring Osgoode alumni who overcame Gary Beechey Horst Herget Photography barriers in the legal community and paved the Clifton Li Photography way for others are showcased in The Catalysts DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Project, part of a dynamic new physical and Fish Out of Water Design Inc. digital history exhibit in Gowlings Hall called WINTER 2012 PRINTING “Osgoode: Then and Now.” Colour Innovations Continuum is published once a year by Osgoode Hall Law School of York University for alumni and 22 Mental Health, Disability, friends. Ideas and opinions expressed in Continuum do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, Law & Justice Osgoode Hall Law School or York University. Osgoode is taking a leadership role among We invite your letters and comments, and hope that you will keep us posted on where you are and what law schools in raising awareness, creating you are doing. Please send correspondence to: innovative research and teaching programs, Continuum Advancement Office and pursuing law reform in the area of mental Osgoode Hall Law School health and justice. York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Telephone: 416-736-5638 Fax: 416-736-5629 02 Message from the Dean Email: [email protected] Web site: www.osgoodealumni.ca 04 In Brief Follow @osgoodealumni 24 Osgoode Knowledge Connect Osgoode Alumni Printed in Canada 26 Faculty News ISSN 0318-1295 28 Class Notes FSC Information Goes Here 31 In Memoriam 32 The Way Things Were COVER Photo: Horst Herget Photography WINTER 2012 1 We’re seeing beyond our walls. Photo: Horst Herget Photography Message from the Dean What an amazing time to be at Osgoode. Looking out at an overflowing Moot Court Room at our Building Celebration on October 16, 2011, was a Our theme for the year of building launch is New Windows on Justice thrilling moment. It was and the Building Celebration featured a panel on this idea with Justice a privilege to greet so Rosalie Abella, former Dean Peter Hogg, former Attorney General and my many luminaries – from our classmate, Michael Bryant ’92 and John Tory ’78. The idea of New Windows Alumni Award of Excellence on Justice captures compelling new perspectives on the future of Canada’s honourees, former Supreme justice system as well as Osgoode’s goal of engagement, making a difference Court Justice Peter Cory in the community and investigating law in action. and former Superior Court These ideas are featured in Osgoode’s new 2011–2015 Strategic Plan, which Justice George Carter, to reflects our commitment to experiential education, research intensification, the award presenters Chief collaboration with partners in the community and finding new ways to tell our story. In 2012, Osgoode will become the first Law School in Canada to Justice Beverley McLachlin include a universal experiential component, which will provide every JD and former Chief Justice, student a clinical, intensive or simulated learning experience as part of Attorney General and their degree. current Chancellor of York Following through on our commitment to pursue partnerships, Osgoode University, Roy McMurtry, is embarking on ambitious collaborations with a range of organizations, from former Deans, to the including the Human Rights Legal Support Centre, the Office of the donors who made the Judge Advocate General, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the building project possible, Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, the United Nations Office of Staff Legal Assistance and the Society of Adjudicators and Regulators of including the Kaneff family, Ontario, just to name a few. and to so many alumni, This issue of Continuum focuses on how these dynamics come together. former faculty and staff These stories truly represent new windows on justice. returning to Osgoode to Finally, as you may have noticed, Continuum has a new look, with the join us in ushering in a windows of the Ignat Kaneff building on the masthead. The new design new era. provides a visual counterpart to the fresh and forward looking content of Continuum. For more perspectives on all things Osgoode, check out my blog at: http://deansblog.osgoode.yorku.ca/ or follow me at @DeanSossin on Twitter. Lorne Sossin ’92 Dean WINTER 2012 3 IN BRIEF Top OSC Spot for Professor Mary Condon Professor Mary Condon prior to being appointed bring all this experience has been appointed a June 1, 2011, for a two-year back to the classroom at Vice-Chair to the Ontario term as one of the OSC’s Osgoode when my term at Securities Commission three full-time Vice-Chairs. the OSC expires.” (OSC), the regulatory “At the OSC I have the Condon, who is a member body responsible for opportunity to be closely of the Board of Trustees of overseeing the capital involved in emerging the York University Pension markets in Ontario. policymaking on issues of Fund and a member of the A leading academic in the fundamental importance to Investor Education Fund area of securities law, our capital markets, as well board of directors, is on Condon served as a part- as to sit on hearing panels a leave of absence from hotography time OSC Commissioner dealing with novel and the Law School while she : AKA P for more than three years complex matters. I hope to serves as OSC Vice-Chair. hoto P Canada, she worked for the Centre for Internship Refugee Studies at York University and Precedent magazine, which led to an internship at the United Nations High Offers Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia. She was subsequently accepted into the Great Canadian Bar Association Young Lawyers International Program and now works for Opportunity the Law Society of Kenya. In her spare time, Thomas is learning Swahili and mountain climbing. She is an inspiring Chelsea Thomas ’08 came to Osgoode example of someone who followed her with the desire to make a real, practical dream, took the risks to reach it, and difference in peoples’ lives. Instead now realizes the unsurpassed benefits of walking the traditional path after of her choices and the incredibly rich completing her articles, Thomas booked experiences they have revealed. Thomas a one-way ticket and flew to Thailand. hopes that other alumni will consider the She witnessed the devastating effects of CBA program and take the opportunity to human rights abuses on refugees and discover more about other countries and became inspired to pursue international more about themselves. refugee law. When she returned to 4 WINTER 2012 Heraldry in Gowlings Hall Artist Donald Black, A 75-year-old retired lawyer and member Of the Royal Heraldry Society Of Canada, created A magnificent three- dimensional carving Of the Osgoode Hall Law School coat Of arms that now hangs in Gowlings Hall. The Law School had commissioned Black for the work but he decided to donate the carving, which took him approximately 125 hours to complete. Hunched over a workbench in the laundry room of his Toronto home, he carved the individual pieces with his handtools then mounted them on a fibreboard. The final piece measures 72 inches high by 42 across. Black took up woodcarving as a hobby in his late teens and started creating coats of arms in 1967 as hotography a Centennial project. He carved the coats of arms or P shields of all of the provinces, finishing the last one – erget British Columbia – in the 1990s. From there, he went H on to create many more coats of arms including former orst : H Governor General Michaëlle Jean’s personal coat of hoto arms, which he presented to her on behalf of the Society P at an event at Rideau Hall in the spring of 2009. Black, who graduated from the University of Toronto a little smaller “because having a portico on the helmet Faculty of Law in 1960 and was in general practice until makes no sense at all.” In addition, he created an extra his retirement in 2004, points out that the Osgoode coat loop of scroll on the Doric column to ensure that the of arms is relatively young, having been granted its words “Magna Charta Angliae” appear on one side. memorial bearings in 1958. “Dean Smalley Baker conceived of the coat of arms, Black followed the “blazon” for the Osgoode coat of arms but Donald has given us an heirloom,” said Dean in “Beddoe’s Canadian Heraldry” in creating his work. Lorne Sossin. “Every day I see people stopping to look Blazon is the precise language of heraldry that guides at it and I am so pleased that we have such a beautiful an artist. But, he also made some small modifications work of art to carry on an Osgoode tradition.” of his own such as making the portico above the helmet WINTER 2012 5 IN BRIEF Businessman and Benefactor Jay Hennick Receives Honourary Degree As early as six years sometimes had trouble collecting the Howie Kirshenbaum, a 50 per cent money he was owed from some of the equity stake and a free hand to run old, honourary degree neighbours,” Monahan said.