About: Members of the Equality Panel

Sharryn Aiken

Formerly a practicing lawyer in Ontario's legal clinic system, Sharryn Aiken is assistant professor of law with Queen's University. She teaches courses in immigration and refugee law, international human rights and administrative law. Sharry is editor-in-chief of Refuge, Canada's Periodical on Refugees and past president of the Canadian Council for Refugees.

Raj Anand

Mr. Raj Anand is a partner with WeirFoulds LLP where he practises in the areas of human rights, constitutional and administrative law, labour relations, civil litigation, professional negligence and discipline. He is a former Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission and presently acts for complainants and respondents before the Ontario and Canadian Human Rights Commissions. He has acted as a Board of Inquiry under the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Police Services Act, and has acted as counsel to a number of administrative tribunals. Mr. Anand has spoken and written on diverse subjects including trial, appellate and administrative advocacy and human rights. He graduated with the Dean's Key in 1978 from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He served in 1986-1987 as a Task Force to the Ontario Government on the Law Concerning Trespass to Publicly-used Property as it Affects Youth and Minorities. In 1997, he was the first recipient of the Advocates' Society Award of Justice. In 2000, Mr. Anand taught "the New Administrative Law" in the LL.M. programme at Osgoode Hall Law School. Mr. Anand chairs the Minority Advocacy and Rights Council and acts for a variety of non-governmental organizations in public interest litigation. He is a member of the Equity Advisory Group of the Law Society, the Board of Directors of the Income Security Advocacy Centre, and the Executive Committee of the University of Toronto Law Alumni Council. Mr. Anand is the President of Pro Bono Law Ontario. In 2003, he received the Law Society Medal, the highest honour awarded by the governing body of the legal profession in Ontario.

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, B.A., LL.B., LL.M.

Lorena Fontaine is Cree and Anishnabe from the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor for the First Nations University of Canada. Lorena has worked with Aboriginal political organizations for the past 15 years. The focus of her work, outside of teaching, includes advocacy for residential school survivors, and Aboriginal youth. Lorena has worked with the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States as a legal intern, and has assisted in land rights cases for Indigenous peoples in Belize, and the United States. Since 1995, Lorena has been involved with the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund as a board member and subcommittee member. She has also worked as a legal consultant to Thomson Rogers, in the Baxter class action on residential schools, and for the Assembly of First Nations Residential School Unit.

Linda Moreau

Linda raised her two children on welfare as a single mother in the 1980's. She was a founding member of the Surrey/Delta/White Rock Welfare Rights Group, helping people with welfare problems. Her daughter has Downs Syndrome, and she continues to work with people with disabilities. In 1998 she was hired as a community organizer with End Legislated Poverty (ELP), a BC province-wide coalition of grass roots advocacy groups, unions and religious groups. In 1992 Linda was part of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Summit on Social Development in New York. She was the poverty groups representative on the BC Premiers Panel on Welfare Reform. Also in 1992, 170,000 children in elementary schools in low income neighborhoods were being fed a hot lunch as a result of ELP's work. This provincially funded program continued for ten years. Linda led countless 'Poverty Game' workshops for professionals working with people living on a low income. Linda has led support groups for battered women, and groups to learn how to organize. She wrote a chapter in Sheila Baxter's book "A Child is Not a Toy". She served as BC's representative on the National Anti-Poverty Organization Board of Directors. In 2001 Linda left ELP and now works as a Youth Services Technician in the Surrey Public Library system.

Dianne Pothier

Dianne Pothier is a professor at Dalhousie Law School, in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she has been teaching since 1986. A member of the Nova Scotia bar, Professor Pothier's litigation experience includes acting as counsel for the appellant in the Supreme Court of Canada in R.D.S. v. The Queen, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 484. She has published extensively, and has had numerous speaking engagements, in the areas of labour law, human rights and equality rights, with specific emphasis on gender, disability and their intersections. Professor Pothier is a member of DAWN Canada (DisAbled Women's Network), the Canadian Association of Law Teachers and has been a member of various LEAF (Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) committees and subcommittees. Past legal experience includes the positions of law clerk in 1983 for Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada and legal counsel at the Canada Labour Relations Board from 1984-86.

Robert Saint-Louis

Robert Saint-Louis (Québec) - lawyer and consultant on unemployment and disabilities issues. Me. Saint-Louis also taught law classes at the Université de Québec à Montréal and was responsible for l'UQAM's legal clinic.

Charles C. Smith

Charles C. Smith is currently the Equity Advisor to the Canadian Bar Association and Lecturer, Cultural Pluralism in the Arts, at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Charles is also consultant to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal regarding OHRC and McKinnon v. HMQ et al, Professor H. Albert Hubbard, Chair.

Charles has many years of dedication and commitment to equity and diversity as demonstrated in his work experience within the public sector and within the legal profession. Most recently, he served as the first Equity Advisor to the Law Society of Upper Canada, guiding the development of numerous policies and programs promoting equity and diversity in the legal profession. Charles also prepared the Law Society's Equity and Diversity Action Plans and has written on equity and diversity in legal education and commented on the reform of the Bar Admission Course.

Before joining the Law Society, Charles served as Manager of the Access and Equity Centre with the City of Toronto and the former Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto where he also developed various policies and programs to enable successful implementation of equity and diversity initiatives. Charles has also provided advice to numerous organizations interested in developing and implementing equity and diversity policies and programs.

Charles has also written extensively on equity issues. He recently authored several papers for the Canadian Bar Association and presented a paper for the Chief Justice of Ontario's Fourth Colloquium on Professionalism. He has a book forthcoming from Sumach Press ("Feminism, Law, Inclusion: Intersectionality in Action") and is continuing his research on racial profiling in policing and in national security for a publication with the Canadian Centre on Policy Alternatives, scheduled for release in late 2005. Charles is also a published poet, playwright and essayist.

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