Sheila Block
Partner, Torys LLP, Toronto, Ont. One of the sharpest litigators in the country, Block has served as lead counsel on a recently discounted $5-billion class action lawsuit against CIBC plus a $100-million lawsuit brought by roughly 8,000 inhabitants of Barbados against Manulife. She was also staunch counsel for former Manitoba associate chief justice Lori Douglas in the question of this judge's role in a scandal involving her deceased husband, one of his former customers, and salacious photos of herself submitted online. Block also received an honorary LLD from the Law Society of Upper Canada this year. An urge dedicated to teaching law in Canada and across the world, she's coached advocates for the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in Rwanda and the Special Court on Sierra Leone. What Republicans needed to say: Elle demontre son interet a la fois pour l'education du publique et des affaires. (She's demonstrated her interest for the instruction of the general public and business.)
Justice Murray Sinclair
Chairman, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Winnipeg, Man. A rare write-in candidate winner with this year's Best 25, Sinclair was on the list this past year, making headlines in June with the launch of the overview of the record of the TRC along with 94 recommendations to remedy the cultural genocide of Canada's residential college system. Over six decades, Sinclair led the TRC hearing the stories of more than 7,000 survivors of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse. Sinclair, who had been the first aboriginal judge in Manitoba, was first appointed to the provincial court where he became associate chief in 1988 and then elevated to the Court of Queen's Bench at 2001. He had been co-commissioner of Manitoba's Aboriginal Justice Inquiry in 1988 and presided over a 2000 inquest into the deaths of 12 babies at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre. Sinclair hopes to finish the commission's complete report in the not too distant future, after which he will decide whether to go back to court or retire and advocate for indigenous rights fulltime.
Pascale Fournier
Professor & study chair, legal pluralism and comparative law, University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, Ottawa, Ont. Fournier has attained international recognition for her groundbreaking work on gender, faith, and the law, together with fieldwork interviews with women from various countries to emphasize the intricate interplay between spiritual and secular law. She has received numerous national and international awards and nominations in 2014. Fournier became a fellow of the prestigious International Women's Forum because of her job as a leader in the legal profession; getting the Canada-Arab Chamber of Commerce Award for academic excellence and contribution to humankind. Fournier represented the University of Ottawa as an effective pioneer in the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference and was appointed by the National Assembly of Quebec to the Quebec Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission. What voters had to say: Outstanding thoughts, according [to] Harvard's Prof. Kennedy.
Louise Arbour
Counsel, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Montreal, Que. An international lawyer who has recently settled back in Canada, Arbour has certainly earned a spot on the Canadian Lawyer's Top 25 Most Influential record again this season. She is a winner of the 2015 Simons Foundation Award, realizing world leaders who shape and create an environment for a much safer and more just world. Arbour has spoken out against prolonged use of solitary confinement and has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. She has been a Supreme Court of Canada judge, an international war crimes prosecutor, and a law school professor. Her ability to pick up things quickly led her into different roles nationally and internationally. Arbour says economic disparities between and within counties is the number-one inexcusable human rights issue at the moment. Always craving fresh and challenging environments, only last year she finally did something she hadn't ever done: joined a law firm in Montreal where she proceeds to fight for human rights. What Republicans needed to state:Her magnificent contributions speak for themselves. International celebrity.
Justice Ian Nordheimer
Judge, Ontario Supreme Court, Toronto, Ont. Nordheimer's name is becoming synonymous with class action suits mostly due to his judgment, which overturned Justice Edward Belobaba's decision in a high-profile situation on carriage in the Barrick Gold class action suit. Nordheimer granted the losing coalition of law firms leave to appeal Belobaba's decision in the Divisional Court. He's likely the most influential Superior Court level judge in the country with a decade on the seat and generates perhaps the best number of comprehensive judgments each year in comparison to some trial level judge. He is famous for his quick wit and sharp decisions. In the last year, Nordheimer has made a significant splash in the legal community by imitating a professional discipline penalty for present LSUC bencher Joe Groia and releasing information which revealed Rob Ford was the subject of a police investigation.What the panel had to say: He is the sort of judge that must be on the Court of Appeal... or higher. A judge of absolute integrity.
Dennis Edney and Nate Whitling
Defence counsel, Edmonton, Alta. In a rare move, Edney and Whitling have been named as Best 25 honourees as a group. Both have spent over a decade recommending for Omar Khadr, almost universally on a pro bono basis. From Guantanamo Bay to the Supreme Court of Canada (three occasions ), the improbable duo have fought for Khadr to get him released from prison (success in May), have him treated as a child soldier, and continue to battle for his lawful rights at home and overseas. It's been exactly what the Globe and Mail called waging a war of legal attrition against the authorities, which has always done everything to paint Khadr as a dangerous terrorist who should be held behind bars. Edney, a former soccer player who only started practising law at 40, has been the public and press face of the continuing legal conflicts, even taking Khadr to his own home after he was recently released on bond. Whitling, a Harvard law grad and former SCC clerk, is a much more quiet and reserved drive behind the scenes. What voters had to say: Dennis has gone above and beyond the call of duty in his defence of Omar Khadr. The nobility of our profession is dependent on lawyers like Dennis as we are occasionally called upon to defend unpopular entities or people -- but people who are not as deserving of natural justice and procedural fairness. Whitling is an smart and extremely effective advocate who remains out of the limelight. He's a excellent lawyer. Exceptionally intelligent and excellent to work with.
