MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
All of us at the LCO were thrilled with the launch of our older adults final report this past summer, a milestone as we enter our sixth year of operation. You can learn more about how it was received in this issue of Liaison. Expect in December the release of the final report in the older adults’ sister project — a study of persons with disabilities. You’ll also hear soon about a day-long event planned around these projects and our new project in capacity and guardianship.
Speaking of new projects, be sure to visit our website for the consultation paper on the Forestry Workers Lien for Wages Act.
You can also read inside about former Ontario Deputy Attorney General Murray Segal’s significant role in creating and guiding the LCO through its first six years until his retirement from the Ontario Public Service May 31. I want to express my own appreciation to Murray, who was a terrific friend to the LCO.
Thanks to Professors Bev Baines and Kathleen Lahey for inviting me to their classes at Queen’s Faculty of Law to spread the word about the LCO. For more on my October classroom visits, see my blog. I also met with Dean Bill Flanagan, faculty and students, as well as with community groups. I’ll be visiting other law schools next term.
LCO at the United Nations
The LCO was an invited guest of the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) at a United Nations working group exploring the protection of the human rights of older persons. (more)
Violence Against Women Modules in Ontario Law Schools
The LCO has launched a series of Ontario-wide law school curriculum modules on violence against women. Developed with funding from the Ontario Women’s Directorate, the modules are intended as a roadmap to help professors set the context within every law course and explore key issues in courses such as ethics, and property, family and criminal law. (more)
The next generation of leadership
With the retirement of the last original Board Member, Murrary Segal, and the start of a three-year term for new LCO chair, Bruce Elman, the LCO is entering a new generation of Board leadership. (more)
Queen’s University law students gain an insider’s perspective on law reform
LCO Executive Director, Dr. Patricia Hughes addressed more than 100 students over a two-day guest lectureship that included presentations on the work of the Law Commission of Ontario to students in public law and to combined mental health law and gender law classes. (more)
The LCO is taking on a 121-old statute as one of its newest law reform projects
A consultation paper, released in October, asks whether or not the Ontario Forestry Workers Lien for Wages Act, enacted in 1891, still makes sense in light of modern law and lumber practices. Under the statute, forestry workers are entitled to claim a lien for wages on certain wood products. (more)
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IN BRIEF
New Board Chair!
Bruce Elman, former dean of law at the University of Windsor, began his three-year term as Chair of the LCO Board on September 1. The LCO also welcomes Board members Andrew Pinto, partner at Pinto Wray James LLP and Acting Deputy Attorney General Mark Leach.
Learning on the Job
L-R: Eddie Clark, Nathalie Kalina, Jordan Birenbaum, Karla Bonilla and Rasha Rehman.
University law students Eddie Clark (SJD candidate at U of T) and Jordan Birenbaum, Nathalie Kalina and Debjani Poddar (JD students at U of T, Osgoode and Ottawa, respectively) spent the summer months working on LCO projects, together with LCO Work Study student Karla Bonilla and Toronto high school student Rasha Rehman, who joined the team as part of the Law in Action Within Schools (LAWS) program.