Home ● Services ● Experience ● Articles ● Quicklaw Articles ● Book Review ● Publications ● Work in Progress ● The Media ● Link Sites ● Contact ●Your Suggestions
Legal world sidelines blacks; By Cecil Foster. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Jan 27, 1997. pg. A.15
February, Black History Month, provides another opportunity for members of the black community to evaluate their progress building support in areas that still need a great deal of work.
One of them, the legal profession, has always been a challenge. Let's remember it took a special act of Parliament for the first black person to become a full-fledged lawyer.
A few things of late have caused me to reflect on the role of black lawyers. The first was an article in a community newspaper, about the success of a female black lawyer. She was quoted as saying her achievements put to rest any concerns blacks may have about using black lawyers.
Holy cow, I thought, is this really the case? I know of the anecdotes among some blacks, who say they would never walk into a court with a black lawyer.
They argue that it's not that the black lawyers are not competent or well-versed in law, but that the sight of a black lawyer and a black client provides the wrong optics for the courts and wider society. And of course, black criminal lawyers themselves will relate how judges and court officials mistake them for their clients.
But for a black lawyer to publicly acknowledge that this perception is real, and that it hurts, was still an eye opener.
The second occasion was the recent inaugural dinner and conference of the Canadian Association of Black Lawyers, in Toronto. As CABL secretary Roger Rowe said, this event was special because for the first time Canada has enough black lawyers to form an association.
And CABL rolled out a stellar bunch of achievers to mark the occasion: keynote speaker Selwyn Romilly, justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court; Julius Isaac, chief justice of the Federal Court; Corrine Sparks of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court and the country's first black female judge; and Lincoln Alexander, Ontario's former lieutenant governor. (Unfortunately, one of the honorees, lawyer and a former Ontario official guardian, Lloyd Perry, died days before the event.)
Then there is the paper presented by black lawyer Munyonzwe Hamalengwa last month to the Canadian Bar Association's working group on racial equality in the legal profession.
Hamalengwa makes a strong case that black lawyers are not treated equally. They are seldom quoted by the media and largely ignored by professional associations and bodies, and by the governments when making appointments.
He notes:
Blacks are seldom included in education programs by the Canadian Bar Association, or the Law Society of Upper Canada. ``It is always the same white people or lawyers who get invited (to lecture.) Inevitably, these are the same people who get noticed by potential clients, who get appointed to judgeships. . .''
The teaching staffs of the Law Society's Bar Admission course and in law schools include few black lawyers. ``Many practising white lawyers with only (bachelors of law) are teaching part-time at the University of Toronto or Osgoode Hall Law School. . . . Blacks get left out deliberately, even those with (master's degrees or doctorates of law) or Ph.Ds.''
Osgoode Hall Law School - the largest in the British Commonwealth - has one black faculty member. ``Yet the law school is increasingly producing black lawyers, who are not reflected on the faculty. The law school does not represent a model of professional development.''
One can only wonder if the situation is any better for blacks in any other profession. I suspect not.
Cecil Foster is a freelance writer and broadcaster.
Member Of:
Criminal Lawyers Association The Law Society Of Upper Canada
Last Modified: August 11, 2007
Home
●
Services
●
Experience
●
Articles
●
Quicklaw Articles
●
Book Review
●
Publications
●Work
in Progress
●
The Media
●
Link Sites
●
Contact
●Your Suggestions
Copyright @ 2005 by C&H