BarTalk June 2000
Volume 12, Number 3

Justicia Awards for Excellence in Journalism

The Canadian Bar Association, the Law Commission of Canada and the Department of Justice have announced the launch of a new award for outstanding reporting of the justice system. The first Justicia Awards for Excellence in Journalism will be awarded at the CBA annual meeting in Halifax in August. Two prize-winners will be selected by an independent panel of judges selected by the three organizations.

The awards will recognize outstanding broadcast and print stories that foster public awareness and understanding of any aspect of the Canadian justice system and the roles played by institutions and participants in the legal system. The criteria for judging entries will be accuracy, effectiveness in explaining legal issues to the public, informational value, insight and originality.

According to Eugene Meehan, National CBA President, “It is axiomatic that justice must not only be done, but seen to be done. That’s why a free press is so critical to our Canadian democracy. That’s why it’s critical that we encourage and recognize outstanding journalism.”

The inaugural Justicia Awards will be selected from entries covering stories published or broadcast between January 1, 1999 and May 15, 2000. For further information, please contact Stephen Hanson, Senior Director, Canadian Bar Association, 1.800.267.8860, ext. 147 or email stephenh@cba.org. Internet canada.justice.gc.ca/en/news/index.html.

Lawyers Who Make a Difference

CBA’s Community Service Award Winners
In February 1999, the Branch Executive Committee approved a Communications Committee proposal to provide recognition to one member from each county for “exceptional contribution to the life and well-being of his or her community”. A call for nominations was released in the October issue of Bar Talk, to all CBA members, BC media and MLAs. A selection committee was struck, composed of The Honorable H.A.D. Oliver, Conflict of Interest Commissioner; Drew Hasselback, National Post law reporter; Catherine McEachern, Volunteer Vancouver Chair; Doug F Robinson, QC, BC Branch Past President; and Russell Lew, BC Branch Communications Committee member. After careful review, six lawyers were chosen to receive the inaugural CBABC Community Service Awards, in recognition that the actions of individual lawyers reflect on the entire legal profession.

Michael Garland Coleman
Michael Garland Coleman has been very involved in the political life of the Cowichan Valley. He was an Alderman of the City of Duncan from 1973 to 1979 and has been Mayor of the City of Duncan twice: the first occasion was from 1972 to 1982. In 1986, Mr. Coleman was again elected Mayor of the City of Duncan – a position he has held continuously to the present time. Most recently in November 1999, Mr. Coleman was again re-elected Mayor of the City of Duncan by a large majority. Mr. Coleman has also been a director of the Cowichan Valley Regional District Board continuously from 1983 to the present and has involved himself in countless ways in the affairs of the community over the past 30 years. Mr. Coleman is a founding director of the following organizations: the Cowichan Foundation; Cowichan Big Brothers; Cowichan Family Life; and the Valley Native Friendship Centre.

Ronald Lou-Poy, QC
Mr. Lou-Poy’s community activities started with the Kiwanis Club of Victoria, which he joined shortly after becoming a lawyer. After serving on the Board of Directors and as Chair of Fundraising for the Kiwanis Village Society which has provided housing for hundreds of seniors in Victoria, Mr. Lou-Poy became President of the Club in 1968. He has continued to give freely of his time as the solicitor for the Kiwanis Village Society.

Mr. Lou-Poy’s involvement with the University of Victoria has been extensive, beginning with his appointment in 1972 to the Board of Governors. In his first term as a Governor, Mr. Lou-Poy became the Chair of Finance and of Buildings and Grounds. In later years he was involved in many of the University’s fundraising campaigns including Chairing the Professional Division during the Capital Campaign to raise 35 million dollars. He also helped to establish scholarships in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Mr. Lou-Poy has always had a keen interest in the arts. He served on the Board of the Victoria Art Gallery and McPherson Foundation which is the organization that operated the McPherson Theatre (for the City of Victoria), and the Royal Theatre (for the municipalities of Oak Bay, Saanich, Esquimalt and the City of Victoria). The Royal Theatre is the home of the Victoria Symphony, and the Pacific Opera performs at both the McPherson Theatre and the Royal Theatre. It was during his years as President of the McPherson Foundation that a fundraising campaign for approximately four and a half million dollars was completed. Mr. Lou-Poy served on the Victoria Police Board for six years. He was active with the Kiwanis Safety Patrol and he incorporated the first CrimeStoppers organization in BC. He is currently incorporating the Greater Victoria Police Foundation.

Other civic and charitable organizations where Mr. Lou-Poy has served include: the Board of Governors for the Commonwealth Games in Victoria; United Way as Chair of Fundraising-Professional Division; the Board of Cedar Lodge Society for the Handicapped; Victoria’s Sister City Committee; the Board and Executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce; and a Special Committee of the Royal British Columbia Museum to raise funds. He has also served for 35 years as the Honorary Solicitor for the Victoria Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which is the umbrella organization for all of the Chinese associations in Victoria.

Paul Mitchell
Mr. Mitchell’s contributions have been unique in the wi1de range of community interests he has supported over the 18 years of his career as well as the virtual non-stop dedication to his local and regional community. This is readily evident on a review of his volunteer efforts, from regional highways to hospital boards, from assisting the brain injured and to Chamber of Commerce matters and most recently his participation to advance post secondary education through the committee to bring university status to Okanagan University College.

Mr. Mitchell’s Chamber of Commerce commitments stretch to 1984, when he became a Director of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. He carried that position to 1989, having served one year as the President. From 1988 to 1990 he was the Director of the BC Chamber of Commerce. During this time Paul was also active in the Kelowna International Triathlon Society, serving as Director from 1984 to 1986 and also working with the Main River Rehabilitation Society, where he was a Director from 1985 to 1988. Healthcare and injury prevention are areas of acute interest to Mr. Mitchell. He has been a Director of the Central Okanagan Brain Injury Society since 1988 and a Director of Glenwood Place Rehabilitation Society since 1992. He is the Chair of the Kelowna Rockets Foundation and of the Coquihalla Connector Coalition.

Trevin Rogers
Since Mr. Rogers moved to the Chilliwack area in 1992 he has given a tremendous amount of his personal and professional time to non-profit and community based organizations within the Chilliwack area. Mr. Rogers is committed to making Chilliwack a better place to live and to do business. As a result he has become involved with a large number of organizations dealing with many facets of the Chilliwack community: charitable fundraising and community building through the United Way and his Rotary Club, local business through the Chamber of Commerce and the Chilliwack Home Builders Association, fatherless boys through Big Brothers, economic development through the Chilliwack Economic Partnership Corporation, crime prevention through the Chilliwack Community Policing Association and Chilliwack CrimeStoppers, post-secondary education through the University College of the Fraser Valley, and sports and recreation through the City of Chilliwack Leisure Centre Advisory Committee.

W Murray Sadler, QC
Mr. Sadler’s nominators were eloquent in their reasons for promoting their colleague for a Community Service Award: “Mr. Sadler is a man who savors his northern roots; but much more he carries out actions through his influence and his intellect to preserve them and enhance them. Quietly many in the Prince George community have always known that at the heart of a good thought, a challenging goal or a sweet accomplishment is the sage mind of Murray Sadler. His leadership in the development of the northern university may be his crown and his glory.”

Mr. Sadler was instrumental as the Founding President of the Interior University Society and subsequently as the Chair of the Interim Government Council of the University of Northern British Columbia. The Council managed the capital budget of $140 million dollars and assembled the administration, faculty and staff of approximately 250 people. Mr. Sadler was involved from the very beginning in the establishment of the University and continues to support its growth and success. More recently, among his many other ongoing commitments, Mr. Sadler has become involved with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra. Specifically focusing on fundraising, Mr. Sadler is an invaluable member of the arts community in Prince George and the surrounding areas.

Tommy Tao
Mr. Tao’s proponents had this to say of the man they nominated: “While we all go through an idealist stage in our lives, few of us continue with the path of idealism, when we are confronted with and consumed by practical consideration of our daily living. Mr. Tao is one of those rare individuals who has insisted on maintaining a balance between idealism and conformity. For him, community service is not merely a stage of his life, but a never-ending commitment. As an ethnic Chinese who is trained in law, Mr. Tao’s multicultural background allows him to play a unique role in the Chinese community. Mr. Tao has assisted in accessing the resources of the Chinese community and in ensuring that the Chinese community is not an isolated entity in the Canadian confederation by insisting that, on the one hand, minority voices be heard, and on the other hand, societal rules and customs be respected. His work on the redress of head-tax reflects on the former commitment, and his lectures and editorial comments on legal and public affairs reflect on the latter.”

Among his volunteer commitments, Mr. Tao is the President and founder of the British Columbia Chamber Orchestra Society, a bicultural community orchestra group made up of mostly recent immigrants from Asia, Europe and South America, whose concert programs present a mix of Western and Chinese classical music. He was also Director, 1991-1995, of the Chinese Canadian Association of Public Affairs, an association that carries on education projects to help the Chinese Community understand Canadian national issues, BC Provincial issues, and local Vancouver and Lower Mainland issues, and to encourage participation and integration. He was a Director, 1994-1998, of SUCCESS (United Chinese Community Enrichment Services Society) and served in other executive positions. In 1996-1997, Mr. Tao was the Chair of the China Forum 1997 Rule of Law Program Committee, which organized a UBC conference on the development of the rule of law in China. Guest speakers at the conference came from the Faculty of Law, Hong Kong University and from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

These articles were published in the June 2000 issue of BarTalk and are subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2005, all rights reserved.