This week, a slate of those brave enough to publicly oppose the 'statement of principles' the Law Society of Ontario imposed upon lawyers was resoundingly electedThe Law Society of Ontario (formerly the Law Society of Upper Canada) in downtown Toronto. Jack Boland/Postmedia/File
Lawyers 1, thought police 0.
I often have kind words for lawyers โ those I have seen at work and admire but also, in general, on how when you're in trouble, with your liberty at stake, your lawyer is your best friend.
But I don't think I've ever been more proud of them as a group than I am now.
This week, after a 15-day election period, a slate of those brave enough to publicly oppose the "statement of principles" (SOP) the Law Society of Ontario imposed upon lawyers in December of 2016 was resoundingly elected as benchers (the Law Society's board of directors).
The SOP
forced lawyers to create, adopt and abide by a mandatory statement acknowledging their "obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion" and required law firms with 10 or more lawyers or paralegals
to complete an "inclusion self-assessment" every two years and publish the results.
Lawyers and firms that didn't toe the line were threatened with "progressive compliance measures."
Comment: See also: 'We will not bow to the giant': Indian farmers sued by PepsiCo reject any settlement