Dear CABL Family,
As we start a fresh year, we want to reflect on 2023. While the past year has been challenging for many, the connection of community inspires hope and progress to move us forward. As President and Vice President of CABL, we want to thank our many members, volunteers, and sponsors who help us achieve our mission to champion Black Excellence in the legal profession and the Black community at large. Your unwavering support allows us to deliver impactful programming and networking opportunities across Canada and to achieve so much for this community.
2023 was another year of growth for CABL. Notably, a new CABL Chapter was ratified in Manitoba, helping to increase our reach across the country. Chapter President Jean René Dominque Kwilu and his team have hit the ground running and we are excited to see what our Black legal colleagues in Manitoba will achieve in the year(s) ahead.
2023 was also a notable year for deepening our understanding of how we as Black lawyers navigate and experience the legal profession. CABL launched a survey Examining the Black Experience in the Legal Profession. Supported by TD Ready Commitment and The Counsel Network – A Caldwell Company, this survey collected responses from Black lawyers and law students nationwide to understand the legal work environment today. We are excited to share the study’s results with you in 2024!
We also continued to strengthen our mentorship offerings for Black lawyers and law students. Support from TD Ready Commitment helped to bolster the CABL Mentorship Program and allowed us to connect CABL members with in-house mentors at TD Legal through the TD x CABL Mentorship Program. We have also continued our longstanding relationship with the Black Law Students Association of Canada through the CABL x BLSA Mentorship Program, which connects CABL members and ally volunteers with Black law students and pre-law students to help empower the next generation.
CABL continues to sharpen its voice through advocacy addressing important issues to Black communities involving racism, inequity, and justice reform. We are thankful to the members of our Advocacy Committee and Criminal Justice and Police Reform Subcommittee in helping CABL respond to issues of local, regional, and national importance. Recently, CABL appeared before a Senate standing committee and worked with other organizations to successfully propose amendments to the recently passed Bill C-48. CABL was also incredibly fortunate to receive a generous grant from the Black Opportunity Fund to continue this important work.
One of our favourite events, year after year, is our Annual Conference and Gala. Our Conference programming in 2023 spanned two days and saw speakers on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to key tips for courtroom advocacy. For our glamorous Gala, more than 400 CABL members and honoured guests joined us in Toronto to celebrate “A Moment in Time: The Evolution of the Legal Landscape”. We also took a moment to reflect on the outstanding career of the late Justice Selwyn Romilly, one of many trailblazers in the CABL community whose legacy we aim to continue. We invite you to relive the moments by checking out CABL’s online photo gallery, capturing this grand event. We can’t wait to see you all for the 2024 Conference and Gala in Vancouver, British Columbia!
There were many great strides and achievements in 2023. We saw the judicial appointments of several Black judges (including Justices Chidinma B. Thompson, Reginald Alexander Cornelius, and Alexandre Bien-Aimé Bastien); three of our members received the designation of King’s Counsel (Patricia DeGuire, Maud Murray, and Dianne Marie Carter); the Honourable Greg Fergus was elected as the Speaker of the House of Commons, the first time the position has been held by a Black person; and the Ontario Human Rights Commission published its final report into anti-Black racism in the Toronto Police Service, making over 100 recommendations. These are but a few of the feats accomplished this year —there are far too many for us to enumerate here, but we take it as a positive indication of the strength, influence, and impact our membership is having across the country. As each of you step into greater successes and opportunities in 2024, know that CABL is here rooting for you and cheering you on.
Nothing CABL accomplishes could be done without a remarkable team pouring their hearts and time into this organization’s work. We give our immense thanks to outgoing members of the CABL Board: Gassim Bangoura, Rebecca Barclay Nguinambaye, Alisha Brown Fagan, Sarah Coderre, Rosemarie Davis, Omar Ha-Redeye, Mirabelle Harris-Eze, Bethany McKoy, Shawn Richard, and Thelma Zindoga. You have each served diligently and wholeheartedly to CABL and we continue to benefit from the outstanding work you put in.
We are also deeply grateful to the current CABL Board: Cecilia Barnes, Ebby Chukwuonwe, Antoine L. Collins, Chantelle Dallas, Tracey-Ann Dobson-Hamilton, Cemeka Douglas, Kristian Ferreira, Myriam Moussignac, Angela Ogang, Todd Pribanic-White, Husoni Raymond, Raphael Tachie, Elizabeth Taylor, Mosi Taylor-Cole, Sam Tecle, and Lola Williams-Afolabi. Working with you has been a true pleasure and we are excited about all the important work and events we will be collaborating on together in the months ahead.
This year, we look forward to staying connected and encourage each of you to stay tuned to the CABL newsletter and cabl.ca for updates about CABL programming and events. The Events page is a particularly useful resource, and we hope to see many of you make it out to events highlighted there, including the advance screening of The Book of Clarence taking place in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal on January 4th, 2024. We also encourage you to register on our Lawyer Directory, to increase your reach and accessibility in the new year.
As we stride into this new year, together, we are eager to see what new triumphs and milestones await us. We look forward to another year of championing, supporting, and loving on this beautiful community.
Warmest wishes,
Kyle Elliot
President
Barbara Brown
Vice President