At September Convocation, benchers approved a motion to repeal the statement of principles requirement. Lawyers and paralegals are no longer required to have a statement of principles. A motion to replace the mandatory requirement for a statement of principles with a provision to encourage licensees to voluntarily adopt a statement of principles was lost.
Benchers approved a motion to require licensees to acknowledge in their annual reports, in accordance with the professional conduct rules, their special responsibility as a lawyer or paralegal to respect the requirements of human rights laws in Ontario and to honour the obligation not to discriminate.
The Statement of Principles requirement was originally approved by Convocation in December, 2016 as part of the final report of the Challenges Faced by Racialized Licensees Working Group.
(Republished from Law Socity of Ontario Gazette – http://www.lawsocietygazette.ca/news/statement-of-principles-decision/)
