As former Presidents of The Criminal Lawyers’ Association, we are pleased to endorse the Bencher Good Governance Coalition in the 2023 Bencher election and especially the criminal lawyers running on this coalition: Gerald Chan, Neha Chugh, Annamaria Enenajor, and Jonathan Rosenthal.
This year’s Bencher election matters. Our ability to self-regulate is at stake, which means our independence as lawyers is at stake.
The Full Stop slate propose massive budget cuts that would gut the LSO’s core operations. Among their ideas, they want to abolish measures that preserve professionalism and enhance public trust in the profession. They want to abolish mandatory Continuing Professional Development.
The Full Stop slate embraces an ideology that would pare down the LSO’s functions and read down its mandate to govern in the public interest. If their program is implemented, public confidence in the LSO will decline, and public pressure will increase for the Ontario government to assume control of our profession.
As criminal lawyers we cannot be regulated by the same Attorney General who is prosecuting our clients.
As former Presidents of Canada's largest criminal law specialty association, we also know the importance of a strong board of directors whose members bring diverse views and meaningful governance experience to the role.
The Good Governance Coalition includes current and former Benchers, as well as first-time candidates. They are all well-respected members of their local bars, who have served the profession and their communities with integrity.
We encourage all Ontario lawyers to vote in the upcoming Bencher election between April 19 and 28, 2023. The 40 candidates of the Bencher Good Governance Coalition have our vote.
Michael Lacy
Anthony Moustacalis
Frank Addario
Brian Greenspan
Ralph Steinberg
John Struthers