Submitted by Preston Parsons, Co-Chair of CBABC Sogic
Summary of Activities
Number of Meetings Held: 8
Composition of our 2011-2012 Executive
11 Executive Members: 2 Male, 9 Female
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Male and Female Co-chairs: Preston Parsons & Jacqueline Small
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2 UBC Law students on the executive, 1 being the official UBC Law representative and being our Membership/Outreach Coordinator.
Membership & Outreach Coordinator: For additional privacy concerns we maintain an informal database & distribution list containing over 150 contacts. This list continues to grow, and distributes messages informally through our sogic.bc@live.ca account, and/or through Facebook, typically for events which are not CPD related. Unfortunately, this list grows much more quickly than our official list at the CBA.
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We had no UVic Law representation this past year.
Chronology of 2011-2012 Activity
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September 2011: Prosecuting Hate Crimes: A Community Presentation
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October 2011: “Women & Trans” Social & Pizza-Making event
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January New Year Social Event
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March 2012: Transgender Rights – Developments in Canadian Law
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May 17, 2012: Update on BC’s new Family Law Act and the relevance for LBGT persons
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June 2012: SOGIC BC’s AGM & Social
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August 2012:
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PRIDE FLOAT! – CBA and firm sponsored
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Canadian Legal Conference – SOGIC hosted an event on August 11, 2012 to welcome members attending the CLC.
Upcoming Activities and Plans
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Fall 2012: Potential update on Criminalization of HIV laws in light of Supreme Court of Canada deliberations – likely partnership with Criminal Justice section
We continue to discuss plans for further substantive section meetings and how we can be of service to the profession and community in ways that enhance the perception of lawyers and educate the public on the law, the role of lawyers and key players in the justice system, and the importance of engaging in healthy dialogue to keep the administration of justice strong. There has been continued discussion on how to support the efforts around bullying and workplace harassment, with discussion about emulating the very successful Ontario event held in the fall of 2010. We continue to brainstorm efforts in this regard. A potential solution would be using pro bono time to help draft anti-homophobia or ant-discrimination policies for school districts in BC, which is a hot topic at the moment. We could make ourselves known to those trying to advance those causes so they will consider contacting us as a resource.
There has also been interest in growing a province wide LGBT lawyer referral database and what this will look like. Several members have contacted us in this regard.
Finally, the idea of a West Coast style “Out of Bay Street” event has been discussed amongst the executive as a future initiative that we could begin to look at, a=s has the idea of a full day CLE on various topics.
With regard to the next executive, we have some new faces who bring enthusiasm, youth, and energy. Our section executive is strong and looks forward to the challenges in the year ahead.
Legal Developments we’re monitoring
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Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert introduced the Gender Identify and Expression Human Rights Recognition Act in May 2011. The bill would seek to add “gender identity” and “gender expression” to the code.
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BC’s new Family Law Act as it comes into force.
Section Observations & Challenges
Geography
We lost representation this past year in Victoria and in the interior. Our Kamloops liason and Vancouver Island contacts stepped off the executive, out of the province, or out of the profession, which severed our ties in those areas. There certainly is some interest in growing SOGIC’s presence in Victoria for sure, though attempts to reach out to build stronger networks there have not been very successful thus far. This will have to be a higher priority next year and we hope to that Zach and Julie at UVic Outlaws can assist us in that endeavour.
Our official membership at the CBA for 2011-2012 was comprised of 38 members largely from Vancouver with a few members from Vancouver Island, Prince George, Richmond, Surrey, Fort St. John, and New Westminster. We are continuing to push for our events to be webcast to increase accessibility to our events. We also have over 150 LGBT lawyers who we are in contact with that we continue to try to reach out to for social events while we encourage them to join the CBA and take advantage of the benefits that membership offers.
Attendance at Meetings
Generally growing. While there is the issue of people being taxed time-wise and preferring to spend time at substantive section meetings more closely related to their practice areas, our meetings have grown in attendance. This has been done, at least in part, by opening up the section meetings to members of other BC Sections that would be interested. Not all sections have agreed to distribute our invitations, but most have. Occasionally we have also invited key members of the public into our sessions which has helped us build community bridges, enhance the perception of lawyers, educate key members of our community and give back to others.
Getting people to join the CBA and or the SOGIC section
These barriers to entry continue to create problems for us unforeseen by other sections, particularly because of our substantive list of informal members. We continue to actively encourage people to join the section, and tout the benefits of CBA membership. Weexpect that as fees are being reviewed nationally, the new value based approaches may assist in increasing membership and, hopefully, growing affordable access to additional sections. Many of our members come from small firms or other government departments where the cost of joining the CBA and additional sections is cost-prohibitive.
Growing female attendance at events
Though our substantive meetings are generally fairly balanced, our social events are sometimes still skewed towards male attendance, though our high ratio of female voices on the executive I think has assisted in balancing this out.
Overall Thoughts
This section has grown and developed well in the 3 years since its creation. I am proud of what we have accomplished together and will continue to accomplish in the upcoming year. Together we stand as an example of equality for both other minority groups and for younger members of society who may be looking to enter the legal profession. I like to think that we have also done a great job at reaching out to the community in ways that the CBA has not yet done, and in doing so, in helping to enhance the perception of the legal community.