It was my great honour to receive the Ontario Bar Association’s 2014 Award of Excellence in ADR.
At a lovely dinner at the National Club, I was joined by many friends, family and colleagues to celebrate the energetic and radically evolving field of family dispute resolution.
At a lovely dinner at the National Club, I was joined by many friends, family and colleagues to celebrate the energetic and radically evolving field of family dispute resolution.
My good friend Madam Justice Susan Healey delivered a keynote address in which she recounted, as evidence of my tenacious spirit, how I overcame my fear of bears and came to love camping and kayaking trips up north. And my long time friend and mentor, Professor Fred Zemans of Osgoode Hall Law School, spoke with passion about the things he and I believe are essential to sound dispute resolution, including a comprehensive assessment of negotiation power and designing processes that are safe for all.
I was grateful for the opportunity to speak about the profound contribution being made by the mediators across Ontario providing free and subsidized mediation for separating couples. 
And to identify the three things I think can and should be done to enhance the voluntary use of mediation and to keep separation and divorce as safe as possible for all families:
1– the Law Society Rules of Professional Conduct should be amended to require all lawyers to be informed about and discuss with their clients, in all cases, the benefits of non-adversarial dispute resolution and to explain to all clients the range of options, including collaborative law and the free and subsidized services in their jurisdiction;
2–the Ontario government should amend the Family Law Act, as has been done in British Columbia, to:
(a) require all lawyers to prioritize out of court dispute resolution unless it is inappropriate and
(b) require all family dispute resolution professionals to identify, assess and manage power imbalances and family violence in their choice of and design of dispute resolution process;3– the Law Society and the government should require all family lawyers to be trained in identifying, assessing and managing power and family violence in all family law matters, and
4– more lawyers and parties should be asking judges to make an order at their case conference for free mediation intake meetings. This would help unrepresented parties be better prepared to settle and/or to manage their cases with better supports, and would expose more parties and their lawyers to a service that is affordable and effective.
To read the entire speech, click here.
