Public forum on citizenship

VANCOUVER — The Law Society of BC, in partnership with the North Shore Multicultural Society and MOSAIC, is presenting a free public forum on October 19 as part of Canadian Citizenship week that will examine citizenship and the law. Among the topics for discussion at the forum are: the duties of citizenship, conflicting responsibilities that may arise when people have dual citizenship and the importance of the rule of law.

Panellists for the forum will be Provincial Court Judge Justine Saunders, Senator Mobina Jaffer, QC, Vancouver lawyer and former BC Supreme Court Justice Thomas Berger, QC and Najeeb Hassan, lawyer and President of the North Shore Multicultural Society. Attorney General Wally Oppal, QC will also be a featured guest and will provide a special greeting.

The Forum will take place at the Law Society building at 845 Cambie Street in Vancouver on October 19 from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm. People attending are invited to join a free reception afterwards at the Law Society. For further information, or to arrange advance interviews with one of the panellists, please contact Dana Bales at 604 443-5708. Biographical information about the panellists is attached to this news release (see "biographies of panellists").

The Law Society of BC was founded in 1869 and is the governing body of the legal profession in BC. Under the provisions of the Legal Profession Act, the Law Society is responsible for the licensing, professional conduct and discipline of the more than 11,000 lawyers in BC.

Law Society of BC media contact:
Dana Bales, Communications Officer
604 443-5708 or 1-800-903-5300 toll-free in BC
Email: dbales@lsbc.org
www.lawsociety.bc.ca

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Biographies of the Panellists

Currently a Provincial Court judge in Nanaimo, BC, Judge Justine Saunders has had the unique experience of working in three different legal systems. She began her legal career in South Africa where she practised as a barrister for seven years, mainly doing defence work involving black clients. Judge Saunders immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1985 and worked in the Inns of the Court before moving to Vancouver in 1987. Called to the BC bar in 1992, she was subsequently appointed to the bench in December 1997. Judge Saunders has been a member of the Provincial Court Judge’s Association executive and the Equality Committee, and she is presently on the Court’s Public Information Committee. She holds a BA, LLB (Rhodes University, South Africa); LLB (Foreign Law Accreditation) (UBC, Vancouver); MA and PhD (Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara).

Born in Uganda, Senator Mobina Jaffer was educated in both England and Canada before becoming the first East Indian woman lawyer in BC in 1978. As a lawyer, she had an extensive record of achievement in the areas of equality and justice for women of colour and the struggle to end violence against all women. In 2001, she became the first East Indian, first Muslim and first African appointed to the Senate. From 2002-2006 she was Canada’s Special Envoy for Peace in Sudan, where she worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Sudanese Community and the Diplomatic Community to assist the people of Sudan in the search for peace. From May 2005 to March 2006 she was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Special Advisory Team, which focused on the implementation of the Peace Process in Sudan. Her advocacy helped enable Sudanese women to participate in Peace negotiations in the fall of 2005 for the first time. Senator Jaffer was also the Chair of the Canadian Committee on Women, Peace & Security from 2002-2005, which involved round tables exploring possible solutions to the plight of Afghani and Iraqi women and trying to find peaceful solutions to the conflict in the Middle East.

Now a practicing lawyer in Vancouver, Thomas Berger has been prominent in defending minority rights and establishing the rights of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. He served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of BC from 1971 – 1983. During that time, he was Chairman of the Royal Commission on Family and Children’s Law, BC, 1973-74, Commissioner of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry 1974-77, and of the Inquiry on Indian and Health Consultation 1979-80 for the Government of Canada. From 1983-85, he was Chairman of the Alaska Native Review Commission. In 1991 – 1992 he served as Deputy Chairman of the World Bank’s Sardar Sarovar Commission in India. Mr. Berger is the author of Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland (1977); Village Journey: a Long and Terrible Shadow (1985); Fragile Freedoms: Human Rights and Dissent in Canada (1981); and One Man’s Justice: A Life in the Law (2002). He acted as Conciliator, in 2005-2006 with respect to a series of disputes between the Government of Canada and the Government of Nunavut; his report is called “The Nunavut Project.”

Najeeb Hassan is President of the North Shore Multicultural Society and practices labour and employment law in the Vancouver office of Heenan Blaikie. Prior to joining Heenan Blaikie, he was a Vice-Chair at the BC Labour Relations Board from 2003 until the summer of 2006. Before that, Mr. Hassan was employed with the Health Employers Association of BC as a Senior Labour Relations Consultant in the advocacy services department. Mr. Hassan has also served as a member of the BC Branch of the Canadian Bar Association’s Equality Committee and is currently a member of the Law Society’s Equity and Diversity Committee.