FullStop.
February 23, 2023
TORONTO: With the close of nominations this week, the #FullStop Team (www.fullstoplso.ca) formally announces the launch of its campaign for the 2023 Law Society Bencher elections, to be held this April. A total of 35 lawyer candidates from across Ontario have joined the team, which will also be endorsing several paralegal candidates. The group includes 18 members of the StopSOP slate, which won top votes across Ontario in the 2019 Bencher election. Along with their new colleagues, the renamed #FullStop Team is committed to returning the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) to its proper role as a neutral regulator that adheres to its statutory mandate.
This is a continuation of the task that began in 2017, when a group of lawyers and paralegals were galvanized into action over the LSO’s new requirement for licensees—a compelled Statement of Principles (SOP) mandating the promotion of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all aspects of their lives. “We recognized that this requirement was not only a flagrant infringement of the independence of the bar, but that it was emblematic of a political ideology which had seeped into the LSO,” says Lisa Bildy, a campaign leader for both StopSOP and the #FullStop Team. The group took the unusual step of running a slate of candidates in the election for the governance of the Law Society in 2019, and the Statement of Principles was eliminated later that year.
Bencher and law professor, Dr. Ryan Alford, who was a member of the group elected in 2019, says, “The StopSOP benchers have worked hard over the last four years to try to reduce members’ fees, increase transparency, and remove the politicizing influence of the ‘woke’ ideology that permeates the LSO, but it was difficult to accomplish these tasks without a majority.”
Establishment benchers in Convocation have created a slate of their own this time to ensure they can proceed unimpeded with their Big Governance goals. It is expected that they will continue with efforts to ensure ideological conformity within the professions—if not through a compelled Statement of Principles, then through law firm ranking and regulation, and introducing EDI requirements into the licensing process. They are also expected to approve the new powers proposed for the Proceedings Authorization Committee, which would permit the committee to compel a member to undergo “re-education” without due process and where there are no reasonable and probable grounds to forward the matter to a discipline hearing. This censure would be included on the members’ public record, risking harm to their professional reputation.
“Given what we have seen from other regulatory bodies that did not have a group like the StopSOP slate to stem the tide, we know how this power will be used,” says Professor Bruce Pardy, who is also a campaign leader. “Competence is being reimagined through a political lens, and a new standard of practice is emerging: be woke, be quiet, or be accused of professional misconduct.”
If elected, the #FullStop Team will work to curb the Law Society’s mission creep. While the #FullStop candidates come from a variety of backgrounds and political persuasions, and are free to vote as they see fit, all share the view that both the public interest and the professions are best served by reining in bureaucratic overreach, reducing members' fees, and removing ideological agendas from the governing body.
As Lisa Bildy concludes, “Self-governance is threatened by the politicization of the Law Society. No profession requires independence more than lawyers, who are the last line of defence for clients of all persuasions. No one is well served if lawyers and paralegals are permitted to provide legal services only if they comport with the Law Society’s political imperatives.”
En français: https://fullstoplso.ca/francais/
