FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 19, 2003
MONTREAL – John Fisher, former executive director of Egale Canada, is the recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference (SOGIC) 2003 Hero Award.
“John has been a tremendous activist for the GLBT community and it has been a pleasure to work with him,” says Michael Law, of Winnipeg, co-chair of SOGIC. “He is a role model for the community.”
Mr. Fisher worked with Egale Canada, the national GLBT rights organization, between 1994 and 2003, first serving as its Executive Director and later as its Director of Advocacy. During that time, he was instrumental in building a national equality network for the GLBT community. He has represented gay rights across Canada, as well as at a number of international human rights conferences. In 1993, he became the first openly gay person to address sexual orientation issues at a World Conference of the United Nations.
In addition to his work for the community through Egale Canada, Mr. Fisher has been involved in a number of key political and legal campaigns for gay rights, including the addition of the term “sexual orientation” as a prohibited ground of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act, hate crimes legislation, and the recent struggle to secure equal marriage rights across Canada for same-sex couples.
Born in New Zealand, Mr. Fisher worked as a Judges' Clerk before coming to Canada in 1991 to complete his LL.M. at Queen's University, writing his Masters' thesis on Lesbian and Gay Rights in International Law. Since 1996, he has lectured at the University of Ottawa on Lesbian and Gay Legal Issues and since 1998, he has lectured at Carleton University on Selected Topics in the Charter of Rights. Mr. Fisher recently stepped down from Egale to work on international GLBT equality issues as co-director of the newly formed ARC International.
The SOGIC Hero Award recognizes contributions made in the cause of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and two-spirited people. The Award is presented at the Touchstone Reception, held as part of the Canadian Legal Conference in Montréal on Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in the Les Courants room of the Delta Centre-Ville. The event is open to accredited journalists who have registered with the CBA Media Centre.
The Canadian Bar Association represents the legal profession on a national and international level. It is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 38,000 lawyers, notaries, law teachers and law students from across Canada are members.
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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Aug. 15-19, CBA Media Centre, Palais des congrès, Room 523B, (514) 871-5823.
