Law Society to divorce itself from ‘archaic’ past
After hours of debate, regulatory body for Ontario lawyers votes to drop ‘Upper Canada’ from its name
The Law Society of Upper Canada will soon be no more. Or at least half of it won’t be. The body that regulates Ontario’s lawyers and paralegals voted 38-11 Thursday to discard the “Upper Canada” part of its name, and come up with a new name for the organization at its November board meeting.
Whether that will even include the words “Law Society” remains to be seen.
The vote came after more than two hours of debate — sometimes humorous, other times emotional — that touched on everything from tradition and history to colonialism and reconciliation, and included several mentions of what a hypothetical man selling sausages at the corner of Queen St. and University Ave. and his customers would even know about the regulatory body.
The original motion put before the “benchers” — the term the society uses for its board of directors — called for the organization’s name to be changed to the Law Society of Ontario as of Jan. 1.
It was the third time in 24 years that the society — the only legal regulatory body in Canada not to include the province or territory in its title — had tried for a name change. The Law Society of Upper Canada was founded in 1797, but the British colony from which it takes its name — which covered parts of present-day Ontario — ceased to exist in 1841.
“I’m very pleased that the benchers voted overwhelmingly to discard the anachronistic term ‘Upper Canada,’ and that there would seem to be an overwhelming recognition that we need to change and have a modern name that is relevant and can be understood by Ontarians in the 21st century,” treasurer Paul Schabas, the elected head of the society, told the Star.
“The debate was going in a way that made it clear that most people recognize the term ‘Upper Canada’ should go, and yet there’s also a discomfort with the word ‘society,’ because there’s an element of elitism and exclusiveness to the term.”
Following accusations from some benchers that there had not been enough — or any — consultation done among the thousands of lawyer and paralegal members, lawyer William McDowell proposed that the motion be amended, allowing for “Upper Canada” to be dropped and a new name created at the November meeting.
The amendment was favourable to lawyer Julian Falconer, chair of the law society’s strategic communications steering group, which had come up with the Law Society of Ontario proposal.
“My personal preference (for a new name) has already been realized, which is the archaic and colonial term ‘Upper Canada’ has been resoundingly rejected by this bench, and I’m very proud of us,” Falconer told the Star after the vote.
He maintained that the consultation has been done by his steering group, which will continue to analyze the data ahead of the November meeting and come up with proposals for a new name.
Findings from an external consultant hired by the steering group pointed to ‘Upper Canada’ as being a barrier to connecting with the public, according to the steering group’s report presented at Thursday’s meeting.
Having surveyed 1,000 adults, the consultant found that 46 per cent “believe that (the law society) represents the province of Ontario.” The findings also showed half of the law society’s members found the name “not suitable or somewhat suitable.”
Lay bencher Baljit Sikand, another member of the steering group, got emotional at the meeting, saying he wonders at times if the society is “just paying lip service” to its mandate of regulating the professions in the public interest.
“How painfully confusing a term from two centuries ago can be to an immigrant to Canada,” he said. “Is this some kind of an elitist club that I cannot get into?”
Lawyer Dianne Corbiere spoke of the law society’s commitments to reconciliation and working with Indigenous peoples when she expressed her support for the name change. “I do not believe hanging on to our colonial past is in keeping with reconciliation,” she said.
Rocco Galati, a Toronto lawyer, spoke forcefully against the change, referring to it as “B.S. window-dressing,” as he suggested the law society remains out of touch with the general public.
“We’re still a pretentious body, whether we change the name or not,” he said. “‘Ontario’ is no less colonial than ‘Upper Canada.’ We have not evolved in any substantive way for a name change.”
Schabas told the Star that the new name was simply the first step in the regulatory body’s attempt at connecting with the public, which will include a “robust” communications and marketing strategy to be presented to the benchers later this year.
“Our name would be a barrier to effective communication,” he said.