2017

Whereas over 24,500 CBA members meet the criteria that define the common bond for the seven Conferences not currently represented on the CBA Board of Directors

Whereas lawyers employed in the public sector in the North perform a vital role in ensuring access to justice and conformity with the rule of law, and the CBA has a role to play in this regard

Whereas comprehensive studies, including the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the Law Commission of Canada’s Restoring Dignity: Responding to Child Abuse in Canadian Institutions, have documented the immediate individual harm and the long term collective harm caused by Canadian government efforts to eradicate aboriginal language and culture by placing aboriginal children in Indian Residential Schools

At the International Meeting on Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation, held in Nairobi from 19 to 21 March 2007, women’s rights advocates and activists, as well as survivors of sexual violence in situations of conflict, from Africa, Asia, Europe, Central, North and South America

Whereas the United Nations General Assembly adopted in October 2005 the Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law

Whereas judicial independence is a fundamental means to safeguard constitutional order and maintain public confidence in the administration of justice

The lawyer shall not advise or represent both sides of a dispute and, except after adequate disclosure to and with the consent of the clients or prospective clients, preferably after receiving independent legal advice, shall not act or continue to act in a matter when there is a conflicting interest.

The lawyer has a duty to hold in strict confidence all information concerning the business and affairs of the client acquired in the course of the professional relationship, and shall not divulge any such information except as expressly or impliedly authorized by the client, required by law or otherwise required by this Code.

Whereas the National Council of the Canadian Bar Association considered the report of the Task Force on Conflicts of Interest at the 2008 Annual Meeting in Quebec City, and directed amendments to the Code of Professional Conduct

Whereas Omar Khadr has spent six years in custody and remains the only Western citizen detained at Guantánamo Bay