For Immediate Release
August 15, 2008
QUÉBEC CITY – Vincent Calderhead, a senior staff lawyer with Nova Scotia Legal Aid, has been chosen as winner of the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) 2008 John Tait Award of Excellence. The award recognizes an outstanding Canadian public sector lawyer annually.
“Vincent’s long and devoted service to the cause of poverty law has been remarkable, with the impact of his work reaching beyond provincial boundaries to the national level,” said Justice Canada’s Mark Berlin, Chair of the CBA’s Public Sector Lawyers' Forum, which hands out the award each year. “This year, we recognized the contribution of a lawyer who, outside of direct government service, contributes widely to the promotion of the ideals of the public sector lawyer, through the auspices of Nova Scotia Legal Aid.”
Throughout his 21-year career with Nova Scotia Legal Aid, Calderhead has used litigation as a tool to advance social and economic rights, and his work has resulted in considerable legal victories for low-income people, at various tribunals and levels of court.
One landmark example is Dartmouth/Halifax Regional House Authority v. Sparks (1993), 101 D.L.R. (4th) 224 (N.S.C.A.). In that case, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal struck down a provision of the Residential Tenancies Act on the basis that withholding security of tenure and other protections from public housing tenants violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by discriminating against blacks, single mothers, and low-income people, who disproportionately made up public housing tenants in the region. The case is often cited for establishing poverty as an “analogous ground” of discrimination prohibited by the Charter.
Calderhead has used his legal skills both in litigation and broader advocacy. He has made several representations to United Nations treaty bodies, using those occasions to highlight economic and human rights issues of Canadians living in poverty. He has worked on arguments presented by the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues in countless interventions before the Supreme Court of Canada.
In addition to his work for Nova Scotia Legal Aid, Calderhead worked for the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Vancouver between 1994 and 1995. He has also taught poverty law on a part-time basis at Dalhousie University Law School for the past 20 years.
Calderhead received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Ulster, a Master of Arts in history from Concordia University, and a Master of Arts in political studies from Queen’s University. After earning his LL.B. from Dalhousie University in 1985, Calderhead was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1986.
The John Tait Award of Excellence is presented by the CBA’s Public Sector Lawyers Forum during the Canadian Legal Conference in Québec City, as part of the John Tait Reception, on Monday, Aug. 18 in Les Plaines room, at the Hilton Hotel.
The award was established in 1998 to honour, recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of public sector lawyers in Canada. The award honours the memory of John Tait, an outstanding lawyer, public servant and friend of the CBA who passed away in the summer of 1999. The reception is open to accredited journalists who have registered with the CBA Media Centre.
The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 37,000 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, Aug. 15-19, Québec City Convention Centre, room 2103, Tel: 418-649-5218; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org.
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