The South Asian Bar Association of Toronto hosted its 2010 annual gala and awards at Le Meridien King Edward Hotel.

The keynote speaker was The Honourable Ujjal Dosanjh, P.C., Q.C., M.P., former Attorney General and Premier of British Columbia.

Omar Ha-Redeye with Ujjal Dosanjh

Recipients of the awards this year included Poonam Puri, Raj Anand, and Emir Aly Crowne-Mohammed.

To augment his legal education, Omar Ha-Redeye registered in a bar prep course with CanBarPrep.

Instructors for the course included Professor Stephanie Ben-Ishai of Osgoode Hall Law School, Howard Black of Minden Gross, Craig Carter of Fasken Martineau, Kim Crosbie of the Crown Law Office – Criminal, Professor Trevor Farrow of Osgoode Hall Law School, Lorne Wolfson of Torkin Manes, Professor Benjamin Alarie of University of Toronto, Professor Poonam Puri of Osgoode Hall Law School, Reuben Rosenblatt of Minden Gross, Freya Kristjansen of Cavalluzzo, Hayes, Shilton, McIntyre & Cornish, and Sid Troister of Torkin Manes.

The Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL) held their 2009 annual conference at UofT.

After a welcome by Jason Leung, the FACL President and Conference Co-Chair, Professor Anita Anand of UofT Law provided some opening remarks.

A judiciary panel chaired by Justice Maryka Omatsu, and consisted of The Honourable Justice Russell Juriansz of Court of Appeal of Ontario; the Honourable Justice Shaun Nakatsuru of the Ontario Court of Justice; and the Honourable Justice Manjusha Pawagi of the Ontario Court of Justice.  They addressed the subject of, “Is Justice (Colour) Blind?”  They addressed issues raised previously on Law is Cool, such as by Bertha Wilson’s paper Will Women Judges Really Make a Difference?, and the study by Yahya and Stribopoulos, Does a Judge’s Party of Appointment or Gender Matter to Case Outcomes? An Empirical

The Keynote Address was delivered by the Honourable Frank Iacobucci, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, on residential schools.  A summary of the talk is found on Law is Cool and Slaw.

Honourable Frank Iacobucci, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

The afternoon consisted of a series of workshops on legal updates, which included Visha Sukdeo, Roslyn Tsao, Kathy Laird, Professor Poonam Puri, Carolyn Chambers, Teresa Cheung, Ron Choudhury, Jason Leung, and Dee Rajpal.

A subsequent workshop focussed on Bay Street Initiatives on Diversity, chaired by Fred Gerra , featured
Tariq Remtulla of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, May Cheng of Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP, Kate Broer of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, André Bacchus of Heenan Blaikie LLP, and Kevin O’Brien of Stikeman Elliott
LLP.

A concurrent panel, chaired by Deanna Santos, looked at the experiences of sole practitioners Jacqueline An, Ramon Andal, Peggy Chooi and Amer Mushtaq.