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3. ÉDUCALOI
Our third pro bono initiative is a partnership with Éducaloi, a major legal non-profit organization in Quebec that promotes public legal information, through a website, video capsules, infographics and more. Éducaloi has a legal academy with co- horts of community organizations that can receive legal advice in matters pertaining to governance, employment, contracts, IP, leasing and more. We work together with Éducaloi to be referred to such community organizations in need of legal ad- vice and accompany them with their various legal questions.
4. PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION
Our fourth pro bono initiative is public interest litigation. Over the years, we have represented several plaintiffs and interveners in constitutional and public law matters. Our biggest involve- ment was our pro bono representation of four plaintiffs in the Quebec Bill 21 litigation, both in Superior Court and at the Court of Appeal level. The Quebec Court of Appeal rendered its decision in the matter February 29, essentially upholding the validity of the law about the secular nature of the state and the ban on wearing religious symbols for public officials. The position on our clients was that the law violated their freedom of religion and could not be upheld even with the use of what we call in Canada the notwithstanding or derogatory clause
of the constitution; now it is expected that the matter will go to the Supreme Court of Canada given the importance of the constitutional and charter rights issues raised in the case.
Another prominent public and constitutional law case our firm is currently involved in is the Luamba case. In 2022, a young black student in Montreal was successful before the Quebec Superior Court in challenging the police’s random vehicle stop powers, which were up to then recognized in Canadian juris- prudence as valid to fight against drunk driving among oth- ers. Over the years data showed that BIPOC individuals were disproportionately being stopped randomly by police officers while driving. The Court of Appeal hearing is next week in this matter. Our firm represents, on a pro bono basis, the Brit- ish Columbia Civil Liberties Association, an intervener in the matter, and we have one of our brilliant young associates who is currently prepping as we speak for his first major pleading before the Quebec Court of Appeal on Charter rights, more specifically the right to equality and prohibited grounds of dis- crimination.
The McLachlin Award will have tremendous impact on our future endeavours, as it will help open doors for us when we meet with elected officials, donors for our legal clinic, and po- tential new partners to launch new pro bono programs.
Our profession is about helping people. Helping our clients, of course, but more and more I believe it is also important to help ourselves, lawyers, along the way. Being a lawyer often means you work a lot and are under a lot of stress and pres- sure. There can be another way of practicing law that makes us happier and makes our clients and the community happier and a better place.
I hope our journey inspires you to rethink what it means to be a lawyer, how we should envision our careers, our role in society, the way we define success and achievement.
Thank you again so much for this Award.
Pasquale Santini Ottawa, ON
SUMMER 2024 JOURNAL 42