Press Releases & Statements

Stephen Rotstein, President of the Canadian Bar Association wishes to extend his condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Julia Ferguson who was attacked and stabbed while at work at a Toronto law firm on September 2. She has since succumbed to her injuries.

Stephen Rotstein of Toronto begins his year-long tenure as President of the Canadian Bar Association today, taking the helm of the 125-year-old Association of over 36,000 lawyers, notaries, law teachers and law students across Canada. He succeeds Bradley D. Regehr, the first Indigenous person to serve as CBA President. Steeves Bujold of Montreal begins his term as Vice-President.

The Canadian Bar Association is deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan as the Taliban take control of the country. The fundamental human rights of all Afghans – particularly women, girls and LGBTQI+ populations – are at risk.

Last year my predecessor as Canadian Bar Association president, Vivene Salmon, marked Emancipation Day by asking lawyers to “reflect on how the law was complicit in upholding slavery, and to think critically about how the legacy of slavery lingers in our legal, social and economic systems.”

The President of the Canadian Bar Association, Bradley D. Regehr, and the president of the New Brunswick Branch of the CBA, Lauren A. Cicin, mourn the passing of the Honourable Judith Keating, Q.C.

The Penelakut Tribe on British Columbia’s Penelakut Island announced the discovery of more than 160 “undocumented and umarked” graves at the site of the former Kuper Island Industrial School. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba had previous documented deaths at that school.

The Canadian Bar Association and the Manitoba Bar Association unreservedly denounce the use of a private investigator against Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal.

The discovery of 182 unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school near Cranbook, in British Columbia, is another painful wound for survivors of residential schools, their families and communities

Statement from the CBA President on the discovery of unmarked graves in Saskatchewan

There is a tremendous amount of goodwill in the legal profession toward reconciliation. So why has there been so little change? Sometimes, it turns out that the biggest obstacle to doing things differently is knowing where to start. Fortunately, the CBA has a tool for that.