Vote Today in the LSO Bencher Election!

Dear CABL members:

Voting opens today for the LSO’s bencher election.

After thoughtful consideration, CABL has endorsed two groups of candidates in this election:

• Members of the Good Governance Coalition who have demonstrated a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, and a commitment to act independently for the betterment of the profession; and

 

• CABL members who have demonstrated a strong commitment to the promotion, protection and inclusion of Black lawyers and Black justices in the legal profession, particularly those supporting CABL and its work by serving on its Board or Directors or volunteering on CABL committees or projects. These CABL members are:

• • Outside of Toronto
    • Jacqueline Beckles (East Region)
  • Toronto
    • Antoine Collins

Here are five things you need to know:

1. Lawyers can vote for 40 lawyer bencher candidates – 20 outside Toronto and 20 within Toronto. Paralegals can vote for five paralegal bencher candidates.

 

2. We strongly encourage members to cast all of their votes for the groups of candidates mentioned above to ensure our values are fully reflected in the LSO’s governing body.

 

3. A full list of candidates is available here. A full list of Coalition candidates is also available here. You can also learn more about each Coalition candidate by reading their profiles here.

 

4. You can vote by visiting this website or calling 1-866-301-0994. You will be asked to enter a “control number”, which you can access by logging into the LSO Portal and clicking “2023 Bencher Election”. The LSO has also sent each eligible voter their “control number” by email.

 

5. Voting will be open until April 28 at 5pm ET. It only takes a few minutes to cast your votes. We encourage everyone to vote early so that you don’t forget to vote later!

We know it’s unusual to encourage voting for a full complement of 40 lawyer candidates and five paralegal candidates, but this is an unusual election. Vote splitting in the 2019 election resulted in a bloc of 4,000-5,000 lawyers electing all 22 “FullStop” slate candidates. More than 11,000 other lawyers split their votes among over 100 other candidates, electing only 18 of them. You can read this article to learn more about where that has led the LSO over the past four years, and what it would mean for our professions if similar voting patterns led to electing all 35 “FullStop” slate candidates in this election.

Like many other organizations, CABL believes its important that we elect dedicated leaders who reflect our diversity and are committed to vote independently and in the public interest. It is important that those leaders have respectful debate, decorum that reflects our values and professions, and a serious commitment to their fiduciary duties.

For all of these reasons, we encourage CABL members to vote in this important bencher election and to elect candidates that share our values.