This year we walked, talked, listened, made big plans, passed big milestones and big tests, and welcomed new life into the world. Read on to see what we got up to in 2019.
Let's go!
Fraser and his fiancee Kasia started the year off with a bang by getting married on Jan 19th, the night of the first big snowfall of the year.
Claudia and her partner John made it official after 7 years together. They plan on getting married in September 2020 in Victoria, BC.
We welcomed our 2019-20 articling student, Karly, to the firm in July. By now many of our clients will have had a chance to work with her.
Community Land Trusts are an increasingly popular model for community stewardship of land and community assets. They got a big boost this year with the first meeting of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts held on Canadian soil. The network is seeking to share the collective experience and expertise of Canadian land trusts while expanding the footprint of this model of land ownership. Claudia attended the meetings as a representative of Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust, which she sits on the board of, and which scored a major victory this year when it purchased a rooming house in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood. She followed up on the Montreal meetings with an article for rabble.ca and a webinar, “Community Land Trusts: Everything you’ve wanted to know.”
The rise in popularity of this alternative model of land ownership comes as communities grapple with increasingly unaffordable housing prices, and as commercial development changes the social, cultural and economic diversity of neighbourhoods. The momentum around Community Land Trusts is a heartening and welcome development and we plan on doing our best to keep things moving forward in 2020.
Ted celebrated his 20th year at Iler Campbell!
Ted joined Iler Campbell in 1999 after articling at another firm. Prior to starting a law degree at the University of Toronto in 1995, he completed graduate studies in philosophy and theology in Toronto, Chicago and Paris. For 16 years he was a Jesuit, and just prior to starting law school had worked for five and a half years as the Director of the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice, a human rights and international development agency sponsored by the Jesuits and located in Toronto.
Brian has devoted the bulk of his considerable volunteer efforts this year to the storied music venue, Hugh’s Room Live, where he serves as Board Chair. Since helping to re‑launch Hugh’s Room as a non‑profit in 2017, Brian has leaned in to all aspects of running a music venue with the aim of ensuring an enduring future for the organization and for folk music in the city. Along the way he’s regaled the office with stories of hanging out with music legends like Gordon Lightfoot and experiencing one amazing music show after another.
We showed up in full force for the Ontario Non Profit Housing Association’s 2019 Conference and Tradeshow in November. Michael spoke in a session about cannabis legalization, Safia presented on recent changes to employment standards laws, and Celia presented on medical assistance in dying and on human rights in housing.
If you’re curious about any of those topics read on …
Michael’s and Safia’s talks at ONPHA were in part born out of our “IC Education” series of free workshops and webinars.
Safia first delivered a version of her talk, “Employment Standards Act – Amendments in 2018 and 2019 and what they mean for you”, as a free workshop and webinar in May. In October, Michael hosted a workshop and webinar titled, “Cannabis legalization and policy implementation: what’s next?” Both of those links will take you to recordings of the workshops.
Celia, meanwhile, has given versions of her human rights in housing workshop all over the province this year. In July, Alterna Savings sponsored her free workshop titled “Messy Human Dramas and how to navigate them in your co-op.” The event was hosted by COCHF at Shamrock Co-op in Waterloo and brought out a capacity crowd. If you have access to a space that could host us and a fair size group, we’d be open to bringing our next IC Education event to you! Get in touch.
Rounding out our IC Education events for the year, Shelina did a workshop titled “Getting your message out without getting yourself in hot water: Good practices for using the internet and social media to promote your organization” in March. And Claudia presented a webinar titled “Community Land Trusts – everything you’ve wanted to know” in August. Click on either of those links to watch a video of the workshop.
Lastly be sure to sign up for our newsletter to learn of our upcoming IC Education events!
Celia’s other talk at ONPHA this year was titled “The Right to Die with Dignity: Medical Assistance in Dying.” It is a topic that is very close to Celia’s heart. Her husband, Jack, died with medical assistance in November 2018.
In January, she published her reflections on the MAID process — from her unique point of view as a lawyer and as someone personally involved. That article, which was published in three parts on rabble.ca, is one of three shortlisted nominees for a 2019 Canadian Online Publishing Award in the Media, Best Blog Column category.
The results are announced January 9th! Wish Celia luck!
Celia led “Team Bidi” on a 25 km walk on September 7 in support of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre’s bid to find a cure for cancer. They managed to raise an astonishing $24,000 for the cause, much of which was raised at a Blues Night on March 21 at Hugh’s Room Live. Joining Celia were Ted Hyland; former Iler Campbell lawyer, Paula Boutis; Leisa DeBono from the Centre for Independent Living Toronto, a client of Iler Campbell; Celia’s stepdaughter, Alexa Grande; and Christine Radewych, a cousin of Celia’s late husband.
Celia is already campaigning for next year including a repeat of A Night for Jack with Paul Reddick on March 26, 2020. You can read her story and donate on Team Bidi’s page.
A few of us participated as “Team Iler Campbell” in a Momiji Health Care Society fundraiser in May. Here is a snap of the team minus Claudia who had to leave a few minutes early. Fun times!
Brian stepped down as a director of SolarShare on June 18. He was a founding member of SolarShare as well as the Toronto Renewable Energy Co-operative and Toronto’s innovative wind energy co-op, Windshare, which co-owns the wind turbine on Toronto’s waterfront. He’s also a past chair of Ontario Sustainable Energy Association and a founding director of the Community Power Fund.
To mark the occasion and honor Brian’s guidance and years of service, SolarShare’s board of directors presented him with a “SolarShare President’s Award” in a heartfelt ceremony.
Brian and his partner, Mary, spent the month of August exploring the Thousand Islands on their sailboat, Indefatigable.
Iler Campbell turned out to the Climate Strike on September 27th.
We’ve been singing the praises of Options for Homes for years (since their inception!) so it was no surprise to us when Toronto Life named Options for Homes’ CEO, Heather Tremain to their annual “Power List” of the most influential Torontonians in recognition of Options’ innovative solutions to the affordable housing crisis. We’re thrilled to see her and the Options team recognized and so proud to have played a part in Options’ journey to the top!
Administrative assistant, Hunter, became a Licensed Paralegal under the Law Society of Ontario this year! He graduated from the BA Paralegal Program at Humber Lakeshore in May 2017 and took his P1 Licensing Exam in October 2019 (it was an 8HR exam!). It was an exciting day when he found out he passed the exam in November!
Fraser and Kasia welcomed a baby boy, Sasza Richard Gladki Page, into the world on November 19th! They’re delighted.
Hot on Fraser and Kasia’s heels, Shelina and her partner, Casey, welcomed their little girl, Zahra Ali-Johnson on December 11th. Baby friends!
While Shelina is off on maternity leave looking after baby Zahra, Kirsten Iler has agreed to join us on a part-time basis. Long time clients may well remember her from her 5 years with the firm ending in 2015.
We closed out the year with a staff lunch outing.