Trio of outstanding lawyers honoured at TLA Gala

By Paul Russell, LegalMatters Staff • Three exceptional lawyers were honoured at the Toronto Lawyers Association (TLA) Gala, including former Supreme Court Justice and international human rights advocate the Honourable Louise Arbour.

“Our three awards honour someone at the start of their career, someone mid-level and someone very experienced,” TLA president Erin O’Donovan told LegalMattersCanada.ca. “All recipients tonight are very worthy, as each exemplifies the best of what it means to be a lawyer.”

When Arbour took the stage to accept the Award of Distinction, she made a point of showing that the microphone stand was too high.

“My greatest dream is that on my tombstone, the epithet should read, ‘She was too short,’” she joked, before launching into a powerful speech about how young lawyers, especially females, should not be afraid to chase their ambitions.

To illustrate that point, Arbour started off by noting that two things happened in April, 1994 that “profoundly changed the course of my life.”

‘Extraordinary connections can happen’

“On April 6, 1994, the first massacre in Rwanda occurred, with subsequent massacres eventually taking 800,000 lives,” she said. A few weeks later, “events” took place at the prison for women in Kingston, with Arbour appointed to head up enquiries into both.

Her appointment to the “enquiry into certain events at the prison for women” gave Arbour her first glimpse into what prisoners endured between bars. After that ended, she was asked by the UN general secretary to head up a tribunal looking into the genocide in Rwanda.

“These two had no connection with each other. But the point is that absolutely extraordinary connections can happen in our professional lives that are totally unforeseeable,” she said.

Arbour ended her speech by quoting the words of 18th-century cleric Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire. “Between the strong and the weak, between the rich and the poor, between the lord and the slave, it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free,” she noted. (Click here to watch a video of her speech.)

Emerging Excellence Award

The Emerging Excellence Award, given to someone with 10 years or less experience, went to Stephen Aylward, an associate with Stockwoods LLP. It was noted he has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada numerous times but won the most acclaim for acting as co-counsel in R. v. Sharma where he successfully challenged “the unconstitutionality of an unjust law restricting the use of conditional sentences.”

Those efforts won the praise of Isfahan Merali, recipient of the Honsberger Award.

“While I have not yet had the honour of meeting Stephen in person, the human rights lawyer in me is a huge fan of his exceptional work in R v. Sharma, where he advanced justice for Indigenous and marginalized communities,” she stated. “I applaud him for the work he keeps doing for the most vulnerable and marginalized.”

In his speech, Aylward started off by thanking TLA members for gathering after two years of isolation brought on by COVID-19.

‘Lawyers wither alone but together we thrive’

“Hobnobbing is one of my favourite parts of being a lawyer and so the last couple of years have felt like a bit of a rip-off,” he explained. “The practice of law just isn’t as fun without colleagues to learn from, argue with and gossip about. Or as my grandfather used to say, “Lawyers wither alone but together we thrive.”

Aylward also acknowledged his own challenges, ever since complications from cataract surgery left him functionally blind.

“Family, friends, and colleagues helped me get through this dark time,” he said. “With new technology, new attitudes and new tricks, I learned at first to get by … this award marks an important step in that journey. It’s a sign that there is room in the legal profession for lawyers like me to thrive.” 

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Aylward ended his speech by noting that Justice Thomas Cromwell used to say “the practice of law is a pie-eating competition where the prize is more pie. I look forward to seeing what flavour is coming next.” (Click here to watch a video of Aylward’s speech. Click here for the text version.)

When the Honsberger Award – honouring someone midway through their career – was presented, it was noted that Merali, tribunal senior counsel to the Consent and Capacity Board, has led a career “highlighted by her pursuit of social justice and the right of all people to pursue their dreams.”

Breaking many barriers

It was also pointed out that she has broken many barriers, including being the first South Asian female bencher of what was then the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Lawyer Karen Ho accepted the award on Merali’s behalf, noting “it comes as no great surprise for me to learn that Isfahan’s deep and meaningful contributions to the profession are being recognized with this award.”

In her speech, Merali praised the TLA for the sense of community it has built within the Toronto legal community.

“During this pandemic, I have depended on the TLA almost every week for its critical updates on legal developments during this challenging time in which to practise law,” she noted. “That sense of community has been what has allowed the legal profession in Ontario and in Toronto to become stronger and more dedicated to the critical legal issues that face us today.”

Merali also reminded Arbour about a dinner they shared in 1998 at the U of T Law School, where the latter was the keynote speaker.

“I was deeply moved by her extraordinary dedication to this difficult human rights and criminal law work … all of us could have spent the entire evening just listening to her,” she noted.

The Honourable Louise Arbour is ‘the coolest lawyer ever’

Merali’s speech went on to state that she was completely surprised “when the Honourable Louise Arbour leaned over, and conspiratorially said, that if she could do it all over again – her career I think she meant – that she would have loved to be a spy. A spy. And so, on that evening the Honourable Louise Arbour went down in my books as the coolest lawyer ever. Hands down.” (Click here to see a video of Merali’s speech. Click here to read a text version.)l

O’Donovan said that the last time the TLA Gala was held was in March 2020, just before the first lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are thrilled to be able to reconnect with friends and colleagues while celebrating the achievements of our three outstanding award recipients,” she said.

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