Supporters of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers
Simon Archer
Simon Archer is a PhD candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School at York University, where his research focuses on pension and securities law. Simon has worked with civil society groups in Central and Southern America, was in private practice with Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre & Cornish LLP, where his practice involved pension and benefits law, securities law, and legal research. He is a member of Securities Law sub-committee of the OBA, former member of the Pension and Benefits Executive of the OBA, and the CAPSA Model Law Working Group.
Pamela Chapman
Pamela Chapman has taught at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section since January 2002. She teaches labour law and grievance arbitration, is developing a course on the international dimensions of labour law, and coaches moot teams competing in the Mathews Dinsdale and Hicks Morley labour law moots. From January 2000 to May 2003 Professor Chapman also taught in the Department of Law in the Faculty of Public Administration at Carleton University, teaching courses in labour law, employment law and administrative law, including a senior administrative law course offered at the graduate level. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.A. 1983) and of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B. 1986), where she is currently completing a master’s degree in law. Ms. Chapman has been published in the Osgoode Hall Law Journal, the Labour Arbitration Yearbook and the Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal, and her research and writing interests include labour law, administrative law and legal theory.
Professor Chapman continues her practice as a labour arbitrator and mediator, and is a former Vice-Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. She was first appointed to the Board as a full-time Vice-Chair in November 1993 and moved to part-time status in September 1998, concluding her third and final term in July 2002. After her call to the bar in 1988, she practiced law in Toronto, first as an associate in the labour relations group at a large firm, and then as a founding partner in a small firm specializing in labour and administrative law. She speaks frequently on various labour, employment and administrative law topics, with a special emphasis on human rights and accommodation issues, as well as workplace privacy.
Michael Dale
D. Michael Dale (michael@nwjp.org), Northwest Workers Jjustice Project Executive Director, worked for 25 years as a legal services attorney in Oregon, directing its migrant program. When, in 1995, federally funded legal services were restricted from representing undocumented individuals and from class action litigation, Michael helped establish the Oregon Law Center to meet those needs. He has litigated and won significant cases involving minimum wage law, immigration rights, and workers compensation in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in the Oregon appellate courts.
Johanne Drolet
Johanne Drolet est diplômée de l'Université Laval et a été admise au Barreau en 1987. Associée du cabinet, elle oeuvre principalement en droit du travail et en droit administratif. Elle représente syndicats, associations et individus. Elle plaide régulièrement en arbitrage de grief, devant les cours supérieures et d'appel et devant divers tribunaux administratifs. Elle possède une solide expérience des commissions d'enquête, des réclamations pour accident de travail ou maladie professionnelle, des plaintes à la Commission des droits de la personne pour discrimination ou harcèlement sexuel et elle est familière avec l'équité salariale. Johanne agit régulièrement comme conférencière auprès des organisations syndicales. Elle dessert surtout la clientèle de la région de Québec.
RICK ENGEL, Q.C., B.A. (Hons), LL.B.
Formerly of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Rick Engel obtained a Bachelor of Laws from Queen's University in 1983 and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), majoring in Political Science in 1982 from the University of Saskatchewan. He was admitted to the Saskatchewan Law Society in 1984. He practiced law in Swift Current for three years and then obtained employment in 1987 with a law firm located in Saskatoon and Regina. In 1989 he joined the firm known today as Gerrand Rath Johnson. He became a partner in 1993 and was appointed Queens Counsel in 2004.
Since 1987, Mr. Engel has developed a highly concentrated practice in Labour Law and Human Rights litigation. He has served as a Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, past Chair of the Southern Saskatchewan CBA Labour/Administrative Law Section and has participated in numerous union workshops and seminars.
He is current solicitor of record for 8 major unions in Saskatchewan. On a periodic basis, he also represents other unions, associations and individuals. He has been lead union counsel on a number of significant public sector lawsuits and appeals, including a large representative pension action on behalf of Nonpermanent Public Sector Employees, a judicial challenge of the Fair Share Saskatchewan policy, judicial review of the Health Labour Relations Reorganization Act, and a landmark decision concerning Duty of Fair Representation jurisdictional disputes.
Mr. Engel is one of the leading union-aligned labour lawyers in Saskatchewan in fashioning new and novel arguments in motions and hearings before the Labour Relations Board, numerous Arbitration Boards and Human Rights Commission and Boards of Inquiry. He represented SGEU and IBEW in the 1992 Crown Sector Labour Dispute before the LRB. From 1995 2000, he represented SGEU in a number of LRB Applications that have determined Public Sector Middle Mangers Bargaining Unit Configurations in Saskatchewan. From 2000 to 2004, he acted as union counsel in a major Human Rights/Labour Relations Board Jurisdictional Dispute that involved proceedings before the LRB, the Human Rights Commission, and Saskatchewan Court of Queens Bench. In 2005, he was union counsel in a protracted dispute under The Occupational Health and Safety Act concerning the administration of medication in the North Battleford Youth Centre.
Rick is vigorously committed to a judicial process that recognizes the best interests of working people in Saskatchewan. He is married to Adrienne Cottrell and they have one teenage daughter. They are avid sailors and are active participants in the Lake Diefenbaker Yacht Club.
Tim Gleason
Tim Gleason is a lawyer with Sack Goldblatt Mitchell where he represents trade unions in all types of litigation. His practice focuses primarily on Labour litigation, with an emphasis on the public sector and the education sector. He is the Chair of the Ontario Bar Association's Labour Section. He fequently participates as a speaker and educator for trade unions and trade union organizations and he also a writes a regular column on labour law for the Canadian Association of Labour Media.
Clio Godkewitsch
Clio Godkewitsch is an associate in Koskie Minsky's pension and benefits department and provides advice and representation to clients on a range of pensions, benefits, as well as employment and human rights matters. Clio has a background in litigation, and has participated in hearings before a number of tribunals and all levels of court in Ontario. Prior to joining Koskie Minsky, Clio worked in a general litigation practice with an emphasis on employment law and professional discipline, servicing a broad clientele.
Clio graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. During law school, Clio worked at Parkdale Community Legal Services representing clients in social assistance appeals, criminal injuries compensation claims, and advocated for clients with mental health disabilities. Clio was the recipient of the Helen Kinnear Prize in Criminal Procedure. Clio is a member of the Ontario Bar Association and the Advocates' Society and is the editor of the Legal and Legislative Reporter, part of the Canadian Benefits & Compensation Digest, published by the International Foundation.
Gwen Gray
Gwen Gray practices union-side labour law at Chivers Kanee Carpenter in Edmonton. Gwen practiced with the firm previously between 1992 and 1994 until she moved back to Regina, Saskatchewan to assume a position with the Department of Labour. In 1994 she became Vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board and from 1997 until 2003 served as Board Chair.
Gwen obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Saskatchewan in 1975 and won the President's medal as most distinguished graduate. In 1978 she obtained her LL.B. and was the recipient of the prize as most distinguished graduate. Following graduation, Gwen established a vibrant, labour-side practice with a diverse client base, which included the Saskatchewan Nurses Union, the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union and the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. In 1991, Gwen obtained her LL. M. at Cornell University focusing her studies on labour law, comparative constitutional law, and legal theory and graduated with honours. Gwen has two daughters, Kate and Jane.
Kate Hughes
Kate Hughes originally joined the firm in 1988 and returned to the firm in 1998 after practising in a labour law firm from 1993 - 1998 in British Columbia. Kate’s practice covers a wide range of areas including labour arbitration, labour board matters, court injunctions, civil litigation, professional discipline, education law, inquests and human rights.
Kate has successfully argued two leading Supreme Court of Canada cases. She was counsel for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), and the Disabled Women’s Network (DAWN) in Meiorin (also known as the "firefighter" case), the ground-breaking human rights case dealing with employment standards set by employers and the duty to accommodate that established a new test for discrimination in Canada. In the BMWE v. Canadian Pacific case, she established the right of a trade union to obtain a court injunction against an employer for violating the collective agreement where the arbitrator had no substantive interim relief powers.
Kate is active in the health law field and was appointed by the British Columbia Ministry of Health to the Board which set up the first College of Midwives. Previously, she had authored Midwifery Legal Issues and A History of Midwifery for the 1987 Task Force on the Implementation of Midwifery in Ontario.
Kate is a frequent speaker and author of articles on a variety of labour issues including harassment in the workplace, discrimination and professional discipline and the duty of fair representation. She recently co-authored a paper A New Approach to Workplace Discrimination/Une nouvelle approche la discrimination on the Meiorin decision.
Prior to her joining the firm in 1988, Kate was with the feminist labour law firm, Symes Kiteley & McIntyre from 1985 to 1987.
Kate is a past Vice-President of the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers and is active with the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund.
Francisco Iturraspe
Francisco Iturraspe took part in collective bargaining's on behalf of Unions. He`s a Professor and conducts research in Labour and Employment Law, Social Security and Sociology and Economy of Law and Labour at Universities of Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, United States, Mexico and Chile. He has written more than twenty books and has contributed to a number of publications. Is a national Coordinator of the Venezuelan Labour Lawyers Association (AVAL, Asociación Venezolana de Abogados Laboralistas) and founder and Press Secretary to the Latin-American Labour Lawyer Society (ALAL, Asociación Latinoamericana de Abogados Laboralistas). He`s currently working to build a global network of labour lawyers and people interested in the world of labour for the solidarity and mutual support against the neoliberal reforms. He spent the 1995 winter in Ontario, Ottawa and Quebec doing comparative research on the Health and Safety Law between Canada and Venezuela. He`s a Magister Scientiarun en Derecho del Trabajo (Labour Law) and Doctor en Ciencias (PhD.) mención Derecho (Law) for the UCV Universidad Central de Venezuela and also made postdoctoral research in this University.
Stéphane Lacoste
After obtaining his Law degree from the University of Montreal in 1988, Stéphane became a member of the Quebec Bar in 1989. He has always practiced in labour law representing only employees and trade unions. In private practice until 1997 when he joined Teamsters Local Union 106 as sole in-house counsel where he was in charge of all legal affairs of the local except unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation cases. In 2004, he joined Teamsters Canada as General Counsel working from the head office in Laval, Québec. His practice now covers every fields of Law that involve Teamsters Canada. Stéphane has always been highly interested in privacy law and has kept informed of the developments in this field ever since the start of his career.
Michael Lynk
Michael Lynk, BA (Hons.) Dalhousie 1974, LLB (Dalhousie) 1981, LLM (Queen's)
Michael Lynk is a member of the Faculty of Law, the University of Western Ontario, where he teaches constitutional law, labour law and human rights law. Previously, he taught labour law at the University of Ottawa. Prof. Lynk is a graduate of Dalhousie University (LL.B.) and Queens University (LL.M.). Before becoming an academic, he practiced labour law in Ottawa and Toronto for a decade. Prof. Lynk is also an active labour arbitrator, and has served as a vice-chair with the Ontario Public Service Grievance Board. He has written widely on the issues of labour law and human rights in the unionized Canadian workplace, and is a frequent speaker at industrial relations and labour law conferences across the country.
Prof. Lynk is a co-author of Trade Union Law in Canada (Canada Law Book), and the co-editor of Globalization and the Future of Labour Law (Cambridge University Press, 2006). He is a senior co-editor of the Labour Law Casebook (7th ed.), which is the national casebook used in law schools across Canada. Prof. Lynk is also an editor of the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal. In addition to his labour law activities, he has worked with the United Nations in the Middle East, and he is a regular commentator in the print and broadcast media on political and legal developments in that region. He has been published in the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Refuge, the Labour Arbitration Yearbook, the Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, the Queen's Law Journal and the International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations.
Drew Plaxton
Drew Plaxton is one of the founding members of the firm now known as Plaxton Gillies in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The firm's practice is almost exclusively union side labour law and related matters. The firm represents unions in both the private and public sector, including the retail, service, construction and health care sectors.
Drew graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1976, was admitted to the Saskatchewan Bar in 1977 and the Alberta Bar in 1981. Recently he has been representing United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1400 in it's efforts to organize Wal-Mart stores in Saskatchewan.
Kerry Rittich
Kerry Rittich, Mus. Bac. (Toronto) 1979; LL.B. (Alberta) 1992; S.J.D. (Harvard) 1998, joined the faculty in 1998 as an Assistant Professor of Law and Women's Studies and Gender Studies at U of T. She served as Law Clerk to Madame Justice Claire L'Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Her scholarly and teaching interests include international law and institutions, human rights, labour law, critical legal theories and feminism. She is the author of Recharacterizing Restructuring: Law, Distribution and Gender in Market Reform (The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2002) and recently completed a report for the Law Commission of Canada, Vulnerable Workers: Legal and Policy Issues in the New Economy. Along with Joanne Conaghan, University of Kent, she is editing a comparative collection on the legal regulation of the work/family divide in labor law. Her current research is focused on the 'socialization' of the development agenda, and the effects of governance reforms on gender equality and labour market regulation.
Nancy Riche
Nancy Riche retired in 2002 as Secretary Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, where she also spent thirteen years as Executive Vice-President and three years as Secretary Treasurer. At the same time she resigned from her position as Vice President and Chair of the Women’s Committee of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. From 1974 to 1986 she was Secretary Treasurer of NUPGE and also held various staff positions within the labour movement in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Since retirement, Nancy has been busy as a volunteer with the provincial and federal New Democratic Parties and is currently provincial President. She is a member of the Board of the Avalon chapter of United Way, board member of International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, alternate member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations Board and member of the St. John’s International Women’s Day Committee.
Nancy is the recipient of a number of awards, namely
Woman of Courage Award, NAC, 2001
Persons Award, 2002
AFL-CIO International Human Rights Award, 2002
Officer of the Order of Canada, 2003
Honourary Degree, Memorial University of Newfoundland
She is continuously being asked to give speeches and in May will begin a regular column for “The Workers’ Voice”, a quarterly magazine. “But, the best thing of all” she confesses, “is that I made the decision to come home. I am where I want to be.”
Peter Shklanka
Since graduating from the University of Toronto and receiving his call to the bar in 1998, Peter Shklanka has practiced labour and employment law at firms in Ottawa and Toronto, representing clients before the courts, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, Canada Industrial Relations Board and boards of arbitration. He is a contributor to a number of publications including the Labour Arbitration Yearbook and Left History. He spent the past winter networking for CALL/ACAMS in Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela and is currently employed by OPSEU.
Lorne Sossin
Lorne Sossin is Associate Dean and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law. His teaching interests span administrative law, constitutional law, civil litigation, legal process amd poverty law. He received the Mewett Teaching Award in 2003 and 2004.
Professor Sossin holds doctorates in Law from Columbia University and in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the Faculty in 2002, he was a faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and was an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School. He is also a former litigation lawyer with Borden & Elliot (now Borden Ladner Gervais) and a former law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Professor Sossin's recent publications include “Speaking Truth to Power? The Search for Bureaucratic Independence” (2005) 55 University of Toronto Law Journal 1-60, "Demystifying the Boundaries of Public Law: Policy, Discretion and Social Welfare” (2005) U.B.C. Law Rev. 147-87 (with Laura Pottie), “How Canadian Administrative Law Protections Measure up to International Human Rights Standards” (2005) 50 McGill Law Journal (forthcoming) (with Gerald Heckman), "Constitutional Accommodation and the Rule(s) of Courts" (2005) 42 Alberta Law Review 607-33, and "Boldly Going Where No Law Has Gone Before: Call Centres, Intake Scripts, Database Fields and Discretionary Justice in Social Welfare” (2004) 42 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 363-414. In 2004, he received a 3 year SSHRC grant for a research project entitled, "“Discretionary Justice, Public Trust and Social Welfare”. Professor Sossin is the author of Boundaries of Judicial Review: The Law of Justiciability in Canada (Toronto: Carswell, 1999) and Public Law (Toronto: Carswell, 2002) (with Michael J. Bryant) and is co-editor of Barristers and Solicitors in Practice (Toronto: Butterworths, 1998) (looseleaf) (with Jeffrey Hoskins).
Professor Sossin serves on the Boards of the Law Foundation of Ontario, the Ontario Justice Education Network and the Income Security Advocacy Centre. In the summer of 2002, he was one of the founders of the Discretionary Justice in Social Welfare (DJSW) Working Group sponsored by the Faculty of Law. The Faculty hosts the DJSW website as a clearinghouse for new ideas and resource material in the field of social welfare law. Professor Sossin serves on the national executive of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) and in 2005 the Faculty become the host for the CALT website and database of Canadian academics.
Daphne Taras
Daphne Taras is a professor of industrial relations at the Haskayne School of Business and holds a professorship in the Institute for Advanced Policy Research, both at University of Calgary. She holds graduate degrees in political science (Duke), and MBA and PhD in management (Calgary). Her teaching interests focus on the employment relationship, employee representation, and worksite issues.
Her books include Information Technology and the World of Work (2004) Nonunion Employee Representation (2000), and Union-Management Relations in Canada (2005). The latter is one of Canada's leading industrial relations texts. She has examined industrial relations and human resources issues in a number of major petroleum firms, including Petro-Canada and Imperial Oil.
She has mediated labour relations disputes, facilitated union-management committees, and provided training in conflict resolution to managers. She was co-author of a submission on nonunion representation to the U.S. Task Force on Reconstructing America's Labor Market Institutions at MIT (1999) and co-author of a submission recommending against right-to-work to the Alberta Economic Development Authority (1995). She was her faculty’s Outstanding New Scholar in 1997 and the Recipient of the Dean's Award for Outstanding Research Achievement in 2000. She served on the Executive Board of the Industrial Relations Research Association in the United States, and the Canadian Industrial Relations Association, and is a member of the editorial boards of many journals. She was recently appointed to serve on the federal government commission on modernizing employment standards (the Arthurs Commission). Her current research involves examining the micropolitics of a number of Canada’s important employment law and human rights cases. Just for fun she is doing a LLM degree in labour law at Osgoode Hall and is enjoying it very much.
Anil Verma
Dr. Anil Verma is Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto where he holds a joint appointment at the Rotman School of Management and the Centre for Industrial Relations. He has taught previously at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan and worked in the steel industry as an engineer for five years.
His primary research interests are in the area of management responses to unionization, participative forms of work organization, wage and employment outcomes, and the contribution of workplace innovations to organizational effectiveness and performance.
He has served as President of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association and on the Executive Board of the International Industrial Relations Association, Geneva. Professor Verma consults with a wide range of businesses, unions, governments and international agencies including the Advisory Committee on Labour Statistics, Statistics Canada.
He has published over sixty articles in research journals and books. He is a member of the editorial board of several journals. He has co-edited seven books including: Unions in the 21st Century: An International Perspective (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); Restructuring Work and the Life Course (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001); Contract and Commitment: Employment Relations in the New Economy (Kingston, ON: IRC Press, 1999); Regionalization and Labour Market Interdependence in East and South-east Asia (London: Macmillan, 1997).
Veena Verma
Veena’s practice focuses on civil litigation/class proceedings, labour law and human rights. Veena provides practical advice and advocacy to unions in arbitration and labour board matters. Her practice also includes acting in a wide variety of employment matters, including developing innovative approaches to wrongful dismissal claims, injunctions, long term disability and human rights complaints.
Veena has been involved in bringing a number of class actions under the Class Proceedings Act including the Smith v. Krones Manufacturing class action where the firm successfully and expeditiously represented over 70 terminated employees.
Combining her commitment to accessible justice and assisting immigrant and racial minority workers, Veena launched a class action claim in Lian v. J. Crew et. al against five clothing retailers, manufacturers and a contractor on behalf of mainly female immigrant homeworkers doing piece work. The claim, sponsored by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees of Ontario (UNITE) makes claims for unpaid wages, overtime premiums and vacation pay under the Employment Standards Act.
Veena also brings to the firm her expertise in international human rights and labour law. She is on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Lawyers’ Association for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) and is currently providing pro bono legal advice and research assistance to a coalition against sweatshops in Canada and abroad. She has worked in India for MANUSHI, a well-known journal about Indian women and minorities, and in Guyana on a CLAIHR initiative focusing on the property rights of women.
This year's presenters
Take a look at the numerous presenters attending this year's conference. Their biographies are available here.
Wilderness Adventures
We are proud to present conference go-ers with an opportunity to enjoy our province's natural wilderness during their visit. Get out and enjoy the ocean on an afternoon of sea kayaking with Stan Cook. See our coastal landscape up close and personal.
The Women's Future Fund will be hosting an information booth
at the Fairmont Hotel during the conference. As well, they will be giving a short presentation to the delegates regarding their fund.