2022 Annual General Meeting

2022 Annual General Meeting of the Law Society of British Columbia

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Call to order: 12:30 pm PDT

Meeting location: Virtual Meeting via. Zoom Webinar

Advance Online Voting

Advance online voting on the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) resolutions will be available from Friday June 3, 2022 until 5:00 pm PDT on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Voter credentials and instructions on how to access the voting site will be sent to all eligible voters shortly following the receipt of this Notice. Only Law Society of BC members in good standing will be eligible to vote.

Virtual Meeting

Pursuant to Rule 1-9.1, the Executive Committee has directed that the 2022 AGM will be a virtual meeting, and there will not be any physical meeting locations. Members will be able to join, vote, and speak at the meeting virtually.

If you are planning to attend the virtual meeting, you will need to register prior to the meeting. Please register by using the RSVP function available in the Member Portal. Please RSVP by 5:00 pm PDT on Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

Instructions on how to join the meeting will be sent to all registered members in advance of the meeting.

To watch a live stream of the meeting, go to the Annual General Meeting page on the Law Society website on the day of the meeting, and click on the link to access.

2021 Audited Financial Statements

The Law Society’s audited financial statements for 2021 are now available on the Law Society website.

Business of the Meeting

The business of the 2022 AGM will be as follows:

Election of Second Vice-President for 2023
Benchers’ report of proceedings since last meeting
Resolution 1: Benchers' Resolution regarding the Appointment of Law Society Auditors for 2022
Resolution 2: Member Resolution regarding Support for an Independent Bar Association in Afghanistan
Resolution 3: Member Resolution regarding the Implementation of Changes to the Member Portal and Lawyer Directory
Resolution 4: Member Resolution regarding the Role of Lawyers in Addressing Climate Change
Resolution 5: Member Resolution regarding No Single Legal Regulator
Resolution 6: Withdrawn
Resolution 7: Member Resolution regarding Mobility of Citizens
Resolution 8: Member Resolution regarding the Segregation of Citizens

Election of Second Vice-President for 2023

Each year at the AGM, there is to be an election for the position of Second Vice-President-elect. Pursuant to Law Society Rule 1-19, if only one candidate is nominated, the President will declare that candidate Second-Vice-President-elect. The Benchers are pleased to announce their nomination of Brook Greenberg, QC for Second Vice-President-elect.

Pursuant to Rule 1-5(2), the Second Vice-President for 2023 will be First Vice-President in 2024 and President in 2025.

Brook Greenberg, QC

Brook Greenberg, QC has been a member of the Litigation Department of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP since being called to the bar in 1998. His practice focuses on complex commercial, construction, and forestry litigation. He has appeared before all levels of court including the Supreme Court of Canada. He has been the partner responsible for pro bono matters in Fasken’s Vancouver office since 2004. He has taught civil procedure as an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia from 2006 to the present.

First elected a Bencher for 2016, Brook is currently Chair of the Discipline Committee and Mental Health Task Force, Vice-chair of the Lawyer Development Task Force, and a member of the Executive Committee.

Brook has been involved with the Law Students’ Legal Advice Program since 1993, first as a student clinician, clinic head and executive member, and then as a supervising lawyer at various clinics. In 2012, Brook joined the founding board of directors of the Greater Vancouver Law Students’ Legal Advice Society. Brook also acted as Secretary/Treasurer of the GVLSLAS in 2012 and 2013. He then served as President in 2014 and 2015, and as Past-President in 2016. Brook has remained a member of the board to the present.

In the community, Brook served from 2005 to 2012 on the board of directors of MOSAIC, a not-for-profit provider of settlement and support services for immigrants and refugees. He was Vice-President of MOSAIC in 2008, and President from 2009 to 2011.

Benchers’ Report: Proceedings since last meeting

Pursuant to Rule 1-8(4), on behalf of the Benchers, President Lisa Hamilton, QC will provide a brief outline of Law Society proceedings since the 2021 Annual General Meeting.

Resolutions

Resolution 1: Bencher Resolution

BE IT RESOLVED that PricewaterhouseCoopers be appointed as the Law Society auditors for the year ending December 31, 2022.

Resolution 2: Member Resolution submitted by Drew White, QC and Marilyn Sandford, QC

WHEREAS the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association (AIBA) has been the self-governing body of private bar lawyers throughout Afghanistan, with both male and female members, and has been a member of the International Bar Association (IBA) since 2008; and

WHEREAS the AIBA has supported and promoted the rule of law in Afghanistan through its members providing independent legal services and advice to clients in all forms of legal proceedings and matters; and

WHEREAS in August 2021 the government of Afghanistan lost control and fell to an armed insurgency, widely known and referred to as the “Taliban”, who since that time have been acting as the de facto authorities within the country, albeit without formal recognition by the United Nations or international community generally; and

WHEREAS the Taliban have subsequently taken control of the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association, after armed Taliban security forces entered and seized control of the Kabul headquarters of the AIBA, froze the financial accounts, placed the operation of the office fully under Taliban control and restricted the membership from representing clients; and

WHEREAS the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europe (CCBE) represents the bar associations and law societies of some 45 countries, collectively composed of over 1 million members; and

WHEREAS the CCBE has formally objected to the Taliban takeover of AIBA, including by reporting the matter to the President and Vice-President of the European Commission, and to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in a letter dated 25 November and entitled “Call for the recognition of an independent bar in Afghanistan” where the CCBE objection specifies, in part, that the suppression of the AIBA is:

“…depriving it of any sense of independence, which is crucial to the integrity of the administration of justice and the respect of the rule of law. …This decision has for consequence that all lawyers who were registered under the AIBA are not recognized as such anymore and cannot exercise their legitimate profession, nor appear before a court or represent their clients. From the information we have received directly from the ground, only lawyers approved by the Taliban Ministry of Justice will be accepted to practice as such. This will notably exclude all women which before the fall to the Taliban regime counted for 25% of registered lawyers within the AIBA. This will also exclude any lawyer with a legal education which is not in line with the Sharia or with the Taliban regime. This will therefore exclude the possibility for any lawyer to exercise their profession freely and independently, making the protection of human rights in Afghanistan practically impossible.”; and

WHEREAS since the takeover of AIBA no lawyers have been permitted to appear or to represent clients in any form of proceedings before the de facto authority of the Taliban in Afghanistan; NOW THEREFORE

BE IT RESOLVED that the Law Society of British Columbia expresses its support and stands in solidarity with the international call for an independent bar association in Afghanistan.

Resolution 3: Member Resolution submitted by Diana Sepúlveda and Afifa Hashimi

WHEREAS the Law Society of BC believes that the public is best served by an inclusive profession that reflects BC's diverse communities;

WHEREAS the Law Society of BC recognizes that access to justice is a fundamental human right, and that the rule of law depends on all people having meaningful and effective access to justice;

WHEREAS access to justice for the majority of people in British Columbia is currently at a crisis level and needs to be immediately addressed;

WHEREAS language minorities are particularly disadvantaged by the access to justice crisis in British Columbia, in part because of an inability to communicate effectively in English;

WHEREAS there are licensed lawyers in BC who are able to speak languages other than English and can offer their legal services in those languages to members of the public who cannot communicate accurately and comfortably in English;

WHEREAS translation and interpretation services are often costly and not readily available throughout the province;

WHEREAS the current Lawyer Directory does not allow the public to search for lawyers by language(s) spoken or area(s) of practice;

WHEREAS the Law Societies of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador permit users to run a search of their lawyer and/or paralegal directories that includes language(s) and area(s) of practice as search criteria;

BE IT RESOLVED THAT membership directs the Law Society of BC to implement changes to the Member Portal and Lawyer Directory on the Law Society of BC’s website to do all of the following:

Allow members through the Member Portal to list in their Lawyer Directory Profile their language(s) spoken and areas of practice;
Eliminate “last name” as a required field to run a search of the Lawyer Directory;
Permit a user to run a search of the Lawyer Directory based on any of the following criteria (or a combination thereof): lawyer’s first or last names, city, language(s) spoken, and area(s) of law in which the lawyer practises;
Create a page that contains a list of practice areas with a plain-language description of each area, and add a link to this page to the Lawyer Directory, for reference.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Benchers will be required to send a message to the membership to announce the changes, and to encourage members to update their profile in the Member Portal.

Resolution 4: Member Resolution submitted by Yuki Matsuno and Hasan Alam

WHEREAS:

The Supreme Court of Canada (in References re Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, 2021 SCC 11) has recognized that

Global climate change is real and a threat of the highest order to the country and the world;

The effects of climate change have been and will be particularly severe and devastating in Canada, particularly in the Canadian Arctic, coastal regions and Indigenous territories, and with respect to Indigenous Peoples’ ability to sustain themselves and maintain their traditional ways of life;

Addressing climate change requires collective national and international action;

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that global warming, reaching 1.5°C in the near-term (2021-2040) would cause unavoidable increases in multiple climate hazards and present multiple risks to ecosystems and humans and that actions in this time frame that limit global warming to close to 1.5°C “would substantially reduce projected losses and damages related to climate change in human systems and ecosystems, compared to higher warming levels, but cannot eliminate them all” (Climate Change 2022 - Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Summary for Policymakers, para. B3);

The Province of British Columbia in 2019 affirmed that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) applies to the laws of British Columbia; UNDRIP provides that Indigenous Peoples have the right to the conservation and protection of the environment, the productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources, and the protection of Indigenous laws;

In 2016 the Law Society recognized that addressing the challenges arising from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report was one of the most important and critical issues facing Canada and the legal system;

Lawyers in British Columbia have an important role to play in addressing climate change locally, nationally and internationally; and

The Law Society exercises a leadership role in British Columbia by overseeing standards of professional conduct for lawyers and by bringing a voice to issues affecting the justice system and the delivery of legal services.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The Law Society encourage lawyers to engage with climate change and its effects, in accordance with the Code of Conduct and other regulatory instruments of the Law Society, by:

undertaking activities, including pro bono activities, to:
1. support efforts based on science-based targets to reduce global warming;
2. adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change;
3. advocate for those who are most experiencing the negative effects of climate change, including but not limited to Indigenous Peoples; and
4. support efforts to make law and policy aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, consistent with commitments under international treaties and domestic law;

advising their clients, as appropriate, of the risks and opportunities associated with climate change including those related to the fiduciary duties of individuals, directors, trustees, policymakers and other fiduciaries in their governance of beneficiaries, non-profit, corporate entities, and pension funds; and

making efforts to reduce the climate impacts associated with their law practice, including greenhouse gas emissions, in keeping with available resources and geographic location.

The Law Society create an advisory committee or task force to study the topic of the role of lawyers in both advising clients and addressing climate change with the goal of developing further guidelines for lawyers in their practice, creating educational programming for lawyers and articled students, defining climate justice, and developing guidelines for climate conscious lawyering.

The Law Society provide to its members and the public, to the extent feasible, a report on the climate impacts of the Law Society and its operations, and a plan to reduce those impacts.

Resolution 5: Member Resolution submitted by Jason Ralph and Cameron Matthee-Johnson

WHEREAS:

The government has intentions of creating a single regulator of legal services; see link here: https://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/about-us/news-and-publications/news/2022/moving-toward-a-single-regulator-of-legal-professi/.
Such intended regulation would affect the interests of lawyers, notaries, law students and the public.
Notaries have existed and have been regulated independently since the 19th century. Notaries in BC are regulated by their own statute and permitted to provide restricted legal work in discrete areas. They are not just commissioners as in other provinces. (There are about 400 notaries in British Columbia now);
The number of lawyers serving the public has increased exponentially over time. In the 19th century there were only a few lawyers and a few notaries doing legal work. Today there are over 13,000 lawyers in BC serving the public in various capacities;
The Law Society and Notaries considered having a single regulator between 2010 and 2015 but concluded that such a model was not a good fit for the lawyers, the notaries or the public;
The Law Society of Ontario has become a single regulator of both lawyers and paralegals with mixed results. (Recently the paralegals of Ontario have brought on a motion for the AG to regulate both lawyers and paralegals);
Many professionals have co-existed with lawyers but have been regulated by their various other regulators including Realtors, Accountants, Immigration consultants, Labor negotiators and others;
The membership of the Law Society has previously opposed non-lawyer membership in the Law Society by passing the following resolution at the 2018 AGM:

“Be it resolved that the membership directs the Benchers:

⁃ to request that the provincial government not pass regulations to bring the licensed paralegal amendments into force until the Benchers have had more time to complete their consultations regarding licensed paralegals; and

⁃ not to authorize licensed paralegals to practice family law under the authority provided in the amendments to the Legal Profession Act.”

Independence and independent regulation of lawyers is a hallmark of the rule of law;

BE IT RESOLVED that the membership directs the Benchers to oppose the proposed legislation and support the existing legal profession act regulating lawyers only.

Resolution 6: Withdrawn

Resolution 7: Member Resolution submitted by Catherine Mary Greenall and Delwen Stander

WHEREAS the Government of Canada is preventing those citizens who have not received an injection of a substance mandated by the Government of Canada (the "Injection") from leaving Canada via air, rail or water (the "International Travel Mandate");

WHEREAS the USA, being the only country sharing a land border with Canada, requires Canadian citizens to have had the Injection in order to enter the USA by land (the "USA Entry Mandate");

WHEREAS by operation of the International Travel Mandate in combination with the USA Entry Mandate, Canadians citizens are prevented from leaving Canada in circumstances where the mobility rights of those citizens have not been restricted by a court of competent jurisdiction;

WHEREAS the Government of Canada is preventing citizens who have not had the Injection from flying on commercial aircraft from one part of Canada to another in circumstances where the mobility rights of those citizens have not been restricted by a court of competent jurisdiction (the "Domestic Travel Mandate");

WHEREAS in a democratic country, in which there is the rule of law, it is the role of courts of competent jurisdiction to determine the circumstances, if any, in which a citizen's mobility rights ought to be restricted;

WHEREAS Section 3(1)(a) of the Legal Profession Act provides that 'It is the object and duty of the society to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of justice by preserving and protecting the rights and freedoms of all persons';

WHEREAS every lawyer in the Province of British Columbia, as a condition of becoming a lawyer, took an oath to 'uphold the law and the rights and freedoms of all persons according to the laws of Canada and the Province of British Columbia';

AND WHEREAS the actions of the Government of Canada, in restricting the mobility of citizens, including their right to leave the country, are anti-democratic and are a fundamental and gross infringement on the rights and freedoms of all persons which The Law Society of British Columbia is mandated to protect and which all BC lawyers have taken an oath to uphold;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The Law Society of BC forthwith:

1. Publicly announce, through all available media and other sources, and by way of letters directed to the Prime Minister of Canada, the federal Minister of Transportation, the federal Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, that the actions of the Government of Canada in preventing citizens from leaving the country are anti-democratic and are a fundamental attack on the rights and freedoms of all persons; and

2. Communicate directly with all members of The Law Society of BC reminding them of their oath to "uphold the law and the rights and freedoms of all persons according to the laws of Canada and the Province of British Columbia" and encouraging them to use all lawful means to oppose any law or practice by the Government of Canada which would have the effect of preventing Canadian citizens from leaving the country unless such citizen is specifically prohibited from doing so by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Resolution 8: Member Resolution submitted by Catherine Mary Greenall and Delwen Stander

WHEREAS every lawyer in the Province of British Columbia made an oath to 'uphold the law and the rights and freedoms of all persons according to the laws of Canada and the Province of British Columbia';

WHEREAS the Ontario Court of Appeal in Canadian Civil Liberties Assn. v. Canada (Attorney General) 2019 ONCA 243 held that segregation of individuals, without meaningful social contact, ("Segregation") for more than 15 days, is cruel and unusual treatment, regardless of the purpose of the segregation:

WHEREAS, within the past two years, the Provincial Health Officer of BC and the BC Minister of Health have placed thousands of BC residents in Segregation for periods far in excess of 15 days and thus have engaged in the cruel and unusual treatment of those citizens (the "Provincial Segregation Orders");

WHEREAS the Office of the Seniors Advocate British Columbia prepared and published a report on November 3, 2020 entitled 'Staying Apart to Stay Safe: The Impact of Visit Restrictions on Long- Term Care and Assisted Living Survey' (the 'Staying Apart Report') in which residents of care homes and their family members described the severe and devastating impact of the cruel and unusual treatment of care home residents as a direct result of the Provincial Segregation Orders;

WHEREAS certain senior citizens have found Segregation to be so tortuous that they have sought assisted suicide and have enlisted members of the medical profession in Canada to facilitate such killings;

WHEREAS the torture of innocent citizens due to Segregation for such prolonged periods of time that some resort to suicide is such an egregious attack on the rights and freedoms of those citizens that it is unconscionable for lawyers generally, and The Law Society of BC specifically, to remain silent;

WHEREAS neither the Minister of Health, nor BC's Public Health Officer, nor the Attorney General of BC (collectively, the "Responsible Government Authorities") have expressed any concern that the Provincial Segregation Orders have violated the rights and freedoms of persons in care facilities in such an egregious manner;

AND WHEREAS the Responsible Government Authorities continue to enable Provincial Segregation Orders to be made.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The Law Society of BC forthwith:

1. publicly announce, through all available media and other sources, and by way of letters directed to the Premier of the Province of British Columbia, the Minister of Health, the BC Public Health Officer and the Attorney General of BC, that Segregation of any individual for more than 15 days, regardless of the purpose of the Segregation, is cruel and unusual treatment, is a fundamental attack on the right and freedoms of all persons, and that The Law Society of BC will encourage lawyers to use all efforts to assist members of the public in opposing such treatment;

2. communicate directly with all members of The Law Society of BC, reminding them of their oath to "uphold the law and the rights and freedoms of all persons according to the laws of Canada and the Province of British Columbia" and encouraging them to use all lawful means to oppose the Segregation of any individual for more than 15 days, regardless of the purpose of the Segregation; and

3. communicate directly and publicly with the BC Civil Liberties Association to encourage that association to represent all members of the public who are adversely affected by Segregation, regardless of the purpose of the Segregation.

2022 Annual General Meeting – second notice