Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Thanks to Pro Bono Students Canada and the Donner Foundation I was able to have an excellent summer experience working with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). CCLA is a non-profit, non-government, law-reform organization dealing with issues of fundamental civil liberties and human rights that affect individuals all across Canada. CCLA's extensive advocacy efforts take a number of forms, including presentations to legislative committees, intervening in cases before the courts, publishing articles in the mass media and conducting education programmes in schools and universities.
My work with CCLA allowed me to participate in a wide variety of advocacy activities, and I feel that the work that I did over the summer served an important societal purpose. The staff at the CCLA was tremendous to work with. I was always given interesting work and felt that my input and opinions were truly valued in all office meetings and discussions. Though much of my work involved researching and writing memos regarding both on-going and emerging civil liberties issues, I also had the opportunity to assist with the drafting of facta and other legal documents, as well as attend meetings of public boards and inquiries.
While I was able to engage with a wide variety of civil liberties issues over the course of the summer, most of my work concentrated on issues related to police powers and immigration and refugee law. Much of the early part of my summer was spent looking into the issue of police governance. The relationship between police and government, and the accountability mechanisms that exist (or should exist) in order to make the police accountable to the public is one of the issues being looked at in the policy phase of the Ipperwash inquiry. CCLA has standing in this phase of the inquiry and I was able to assist their ongoing policy reform efforts by conducting a great deal of research into this issue.
I also devoted a fair amount of my time with CCLA to issues related to police complaints systems. This was an especially timely topic, as over the course of the summer it was announced that Justice George Lesage would be examining Ontario's current police complaints procedures and making recommendations to government about how these procedures could be improved and strengthened through amendments to the Police Services Act. As part of my work on this issue I was able to attend several meetings of the Toronto Police Services Board and to examine how complaints against police officers are dealt with in other jurisdictions. This work was brought to life even more when I was able to help draft a notice of appeal to the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services relating to a complaint against a police officer.
Overall, my experience this summer with CCLA was superb and broadened my understanding of the practice of law. As CCLA works extensively with pro bono lawyers, I was able to see first hand how practicing lawyers can engage with community groups. Seeing these relationships made me excited about one day being able to contribute to the public interest in this way myself. My time at CCLA also increased my commitment to achieving progressive social change through law reform. Dealing closely with a wide range of statutory law helped me improve my policy analysis skills, and has given me a better appreciation of the importance of making sure that laws are drafted in a manner that reflects the purpose that they were originally intended to achieve.
