For Immediate Release
August 15, 2008
QUÉBEC CITY – Toronto lawyer Joanna Radbord has been chosen as the recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference (SOGIC) 2008 Hero Award, in recognition of her exceptional contributions made in the cause of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and two-spirited people (LGBTT).
"Joanna Radbord has been heavily involved in some of the most important equality rights cases to advance the rights of LGBTT persons across Canada,” said Sean Foreman, SOGIC Past Chair. “Radbord is also a young lawyer, so her excellent work in this area bodes well for the continued success we have seen in expanding the definition of ‘family’ and ‘equality'.’”
Radbord is a family and equality rights lawyer with Martha McCarthy & Company. She graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1997. She assisted with M. v. H., a 1999 Supreme Court of Canada decision resulting in the recognition of same-sex relationships in dozens of federal and provincial statutes. She was counsel to a lesbian father in Forrester v. Saliba, a 2000 ruling that holds transsexuality to be irrelevant to a child's best interests. She has acted as co-counsel for the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) in cases involving the feminization of poverty, including Boston v. Boston, in which the Supreme Court dealt with the issue of spousal support variation, the retroactive child support case known as DBS, and Rick v. Brandsema, addressing the validity of separation agreements.
She was co-counsel to the same-sex couples who won the freedom to marry on the Reference re Same-Sex Marriage [2004] before the Supreme Court. Radbord also appeared as counsel in Rutherford, the 2006 case which achieved legal recognition for lesbian mothers, and represented the Rutherford families as intervener counsel in A.A. v. B.B. v. C.C., the case allowing recognition of three parents in law.
Radbord has authored numerous papers dealing with substantive equality and family law and has frequently spoken at legal and academic conferences, and to community groups. She is on the Law Program Committee of LEAF, the Advisory Board of the Association for Research on Mothering, and on the editorial board of its journal and the Journal of GLBT Family Studies.
The CBA’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Conference (SOGIC) 2008 Hero Award will be presented at the Touchstone Reception held as part of the 2008 Canadian Legal Conference in Québec City at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008, in the Les Plaines room, Hilton Québec Hotel. The event 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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