Requirement to Acknowledge Human Rights Laws

On September 11, 2019, Law Society benchers approved a motion to require licensees to acknowledge in their Annual Report Filing, in accordance with the professional conduct rules, their special responsibility as a lawyer or paralegal to respect the requirements of human rights laws in Ontario and to honour the obligation not to discriminate.



The approved motion is as follows:

That the Law Society shall require every lawyer licensee to acknowledge in the lawyer annual report that, in accordance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, the lawyer has a special responsibility to respect the requirement of human rights laws in force in Ontario and, specifically to honour the obligation not to discriminate on the grounds of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences (as defined in the Ontario Human Rights Code), marital status, family status, or disability with respect to professional employment of other lawyers, articled students, or any other person or in professional dealings with other licensees or any other person;

and

That: the Law Society shall require every paralegal licensee to acknowledge in the paralegal annual report that, in accordance with the Paralegal Rules of Professional Conduct, the paralegal has the obligation to respect the requirements of human rights laws in force in Ontario and without restricting the generality of the foregoing, a paralegal shall not discriminate on the grounds of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, record of offences, marital status, family status or disability with respect to the employment of others or in dealings with other licensees or any other person.