The Canadian Bar Association held its annual general meeting on Tuesday
Canadian Bar Association members approved every resolution presented at Tuesday’s annual general meeting, paving the way for the CBA to take stances on economic sanctions, amendments to the Criminal Code, work conditions for articling students, and more.
All seven resolutions passed with minimal debate. Here are some of the highlights.
Presented by Dentons counsel Sean Stephenson, one of the first resolutions that CBA members adopted Tuesday is to urge Global Affairs Canada and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to strengthen Canada’s sanctions regime.
According to the resolution, fulfilling that mandate would require the federal government to take several steps. These include providing comprehensive guidance on interpreting and applying economic sanctions, prompt responses to sanctions permit applications, and publicly available reasons for listing an individual or entity under Canadian sanctions.
The resolution addresses “what we believe are pretty significant shortcomings of the Canadian sanctions regime,” Stephenson told CBA members, adding that the resolution includes “targeted and specific solutions that we believe would make the regime more robust and would align more clearly with basic tenets of law, consistency, predictability, and transparency.”
Stephenson, who chairs the CBA’s national section of international law, said the section put together a working group to improve the sanctions regime after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The group has approximately 60 members across the country.
Passing the resolution would create a “strong public marker on some of the issues that we've been dealing with over the past three years,” Stephenson said.
The resolution passed with no debate.
In 2004, a Supreme Court of Canada decision upheld s. 43 of the Criminal Code – a provision that allows teachers, parents, and guardians to punish children with physical force as long as that force “does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.”
Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada became known as the “spanking case.” In 2016, the CBA adopted a resolution to urge Parliament to replace s. 43 with “a narrow, modern exemption” from assault under the Criminal Code.
At Tuesday’s meeting, David Asper Center for Constitutional Rights executive director Cheryl Milne introduced a resolution to repeal the CBA’s 2016 commitment and push the federal government to repeal s. 43.
Under the resolution, the CBA would also join more than 700 organizations in endorsing a statement condemning the physical punishment of children, and urge the federal government to expand awareness and educational resources about children’s rights.
“While the Supreme Court of Canada held that s. 43 was constitutional in 2004, over 20 years, and much more research and international interpretations of children's rights have happened since then,” says Milne, who represented the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law in the SCC case. “I believe that it would no longer be held constitutional.”
CBA member Simon Potter said that while he was “viscerally in favour of this resolution,” he worried that it would foster uncertainty in the courts.
“As I understand it, the exception of s. 43 would disappear. Is that going to allow some people to argue that absolutely no physical punishment for any reason is ever justified?” he asked. “Or does it condemn everyone to making arguments about just what is de minimis? Is asking a child to go to bed without his dinner physical punishment?”
The resolution passed with no further pushback.
Last year, the CBA’s young lawyers and law students sections received the results of a nationwide survey on articling experiences. According to Graeme Maitland, an associate at Aarbo Fuldauer LLP and chair of the young lawyers section, the survey results highlight serious issues.
“We have seen stories of lack of fair pay, a failure to accommodate bar course or bar exam work, principals who were absent or unaware of their responsibilities, and unfortunately, multiple examples of discrimination, harassment, and abuse,” Maitland said. “This is unacceptable. Change must happen.”
Maitland’s resolution asks the CBA to commit to engaging with lawyers, articling students, legal employers, and law societies to identify challenges with articling and improve the articling process.
Maitland acknowledged that the resolution “may look rather broad and more a statement piece than something with teeth.”
However, he said the CBA’s commitment would help the young lawyers and law students sections create an in-depth report that includes “a clear and concise list of improvements that we intend to bring back to our members at the AGM one year from now.”
The resolution passed with no debate.