Submitted by Section Co-Chair, Danielle Jarvis
Summary of Meetings
Number of Meetings Held: 5
November 6, 2012
Guest Speaker: Jenny Rutherford (defense counsel), Janet Dickie (Ministry of Attorney General – Criminal Justice Branch), and Micheal Vonn (BC Civil Liberties Association)
Synopsis: Criminalization of HIV Update Meeting - Recent SCC Decisions on the Criminalization of HIV Transfer
November 2012
Guest Speaker: N/A
Synopsis: Women and Trans* Social
December 19, 2012
Guest Speaker: N/A
Synopsis: Holiday Social Event
February 2013
Guest Speaker: N/A
Synopsis: Out in the Legal Profession Panel and Lawyer-Student Mixer, hosted by UBC OutLaws – SOGIC members actively assisted with the preparation of the event by appear as speakers, audience members, and assisting in promoting the event.
June 17, 2013
Guest Speaker: Rob Hughes, Out/law Immigration
Synopsis: Joint Section meeting with International Assistance Section and Immigration Law - Refugee Lawyers Subgroup - Immigration and International Legal Issues Affecting the LGBT Community Update and Section Meeting
Reports and Resolutions
Legal developments we are monitoring
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An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression), adding "gender identity" to the Human Rights Code has passed Parliament and is set to once again be on the Senate agenda when the Senate re-convenes in the fall.
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The Gender Identity and Expression Human Rights Recognition Act, BILL M 207 - 2011, introduced to the BC Legislature by MLA Spencer Chandra-Herbert, and monitoring what the current Liberal government is doing to further legislation in the Province on transgender rights by amending the BC Human Rights Code.
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The Application of Trinity Western University to create a law school while maintaining a mandatory community covenant that prohibits sexual intimacy outside the confines of a marriage between one man and one woman.
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This has been an extremely active issue in which BC SOGIC has spent a lot of time assisting SOGIC National wherever possible.
Comments and Observations of the Chair
Geography
While growing our representation in areas outside of the Lower Mainland has been a priority over the past year, we continue to have challenges related to representation in rural areas, as well as the Interior and North of BC Generally. Our representative from Prince George has relocated to the Lower Mainland and we will be seeking new members in the North and Interior to attempt to build the involvement of those regions. The assistance of UVic OutLaws over the past year has been positive in developing ties in Victoria and Vancouver Island and we hope to continue to build on that relationship in order to create a strong membership base in the region. We also now have a TRU Student.
Attendance at Meetings
We have increased attendance at meetings by partnering with other Sections and opening meetings to other members of the CBA that are not necessarily members of SOGIC yet. We hope to continue to build our relationships with other Sections, and increase the interest in SOGIC meetings from members of the CBA more generally.
Member Engagement
A challenge for the future will be to widen the circle of lawyers getting involved in SOGIC and the CBA. The number of lawyers in our informal network continues to be consistently larger than the official membership, and attempting to encourage involvement in SOGIC initiatives and events from this wider circle continues to be a priority in the future. This will hopefully be achieved by diversifying the updates provided by SOGIC and continuing to demonstrate the benefits of CBA membership to members of the legal community. What impact the new fee structure has on SOGIC's official membership has yet to be determined, but financial barriers to joining the CBA and then our Section have been cited by several people in the past for not signing up officially as a part of the Section. This is particularly true for lawyers in firms/organizations that do not pay for their CBA memberships.
Section Budget
Due to the delay of our May Family Law Section meeting until the Fall of 2013 and the great cost savings we were able to create for our June meeting, we used considerably less than our Section budget allotted for the year. The Family Law meeting was anticipated to use a good chunk of that as we were unable to hold it as a joint meeting (the Family Law Section declined as they had held an overlapping topic around the same time). Having said that, SOGIC would like to continue its standing and momentum and with the shift of the Family law meeting to the fall, we will have a higher level of activity than last year in the 2013-2014 year. We mention this only in the event that our budget has been considered for a reduction. Ultimately, whatever budget we are approved for, we strive to keep the use of our budgeted funds to a minimum and to allocate cost efficiently.
Overall Thoughts
This Section has developed well since its inception in BC 4 years ago, and has provided members with the ability to engage in legal issues prevalent in the LGBTQ+ community. The enthusiasm of members has been matched by the support of the legal profession, and we look forward to exploring how SOGIC can continue to serve CBA, the legal profession and the province of British Columbia.
In addition to discussing plans for substantive meetings, the SOGIC Executive is discussing ways to be of service to both the legal profession and the community as a whole. The discussions have been focused around the creation of an “It Gets Better” video for the legal profession to encourage accessibility of the profession to LGBTQ+ youth and to demonstrate the inclusive nature of the profession generally. In addition there has been discussion of organizing an event similar in nature to “Out on Bay Street” that is held in Toronto, with members of other professional organizations in BC.
In addition to these projects, there has been discussion of reviewing legislation in British Columbia, such as the BC Human Rights Code, in order to determine whether there are adequate protections for groups such as trans or gender variant individuals. This is an area of potential advocacy interest for our executive and members this upcoming year.
Our new executive is a healthy mix of experienced and new members. We are fortunate to have an enthusiastic group of members with a variety of viewpoints and interest areas to provide SOGIC with updates and events covering a wide range of legal issues.