Canadian Lawyer InHouse

Professional Profile Second SnapShot T he l awy er : Glenn Wheeler T he organiZaTi on : Canadian Office and Professional employees union • Wheeler is the vice president of policy for the Liberal Party of Canada aboriginal People's Commission, which is currently drafting resolutions that will inform the party's platform in the next election. • Member of the board of directors of Multilingual Community interpreter Services, which provides translation services in more than 100 languages (including several aboriginal languages). • Wheeler recently finished two terms as a director with West Toronto Community Legal Services (a legal aid clinic). He also served as a director for the Karma Food Co-operative inc. and has volunteered for St. Stephen's Community House and CultureLink (an agency that helps newcomers adjust to life in Canada). He also acts as pro bono legal counsel for the Canadian alliance of Dance artists. '' of advocacy is done in the form of a strongly worded letter," says Wheeler. He found many of the skills he picked up in the world of journalism were transferable to the legal world. "Journalism is advocacy, law is advocacy, you're advancing what you think is good public policy," he says. "I think there (is) a lot of overlap." Wheeler, who was born in York Harbour, N.L., graduated from journalism school at King's College in Halifax in 1982. (He eventually went on to get a degree in criminology at the University of Toronto and a law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School). His resume includes writing for The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press, 44 February 2014 INHOUSE he want to keep doing the same thing he'd been doing for the past 10 years, or did he want to try something new? Turns out, he was ready for a new challenge. When he decided to go to Osgoode, it was only natural he gravitated toward labour and employment law. He articled at the Toronto litigation and labour law firm Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP, was called to the bar in 2005, and went on to become an associate at Shell Lawyers, a boutique firm whose practice focuses on labour and human rights law. Five years later, in January 2010, he decided to make the move in-house with COPE Ontario. "To some extent being in-house is like being back at my desk [at NOW ] because you're right in the middle of the action," says Wheeler. "I'm often in the room with some of the same people I covered when I was at NOW." COPE represents public- and privatesector unions across Canada; COPE Ontario represents all the locals in Ontario, with a goal of ensuring their members are informed, represented, and respected in the workplace. The locals, however, are autonomous and make their own decisions. What makes it different from working in private practice, he says, is having a more direct relationship with the work. if you're in private practice you're always having to worry about how many hours a file will take and how many hours you can bill based on the client's ability to pay for the matter. but much of his journalism career was spent at Toronto's NOW Magazine (an alternative news and entertainment publication) as associate editor and head of the news department. For many of those years, Wheeler covered the labour beat. It's a period of his life he recalls fondly. Mel Lastman was mayor of Toronto, policing was a big issue at the time, and there was always some sort of "labour intrigue" going on. "They were good news years," he says, "though some people would say maybe not as good as the Rob Ford years." But Wheeler had that "existential angst" many people feel when they turn 40 — did '' "If you're in private practice you're always having to worry about how many hours a file will take and how many hours you can bill based on the client's ability to pay for the matter" says Wheeler. "You have more flexibility [in-house] to give matters the time they're worth, rather than what you can bill for them." What's also different is the level of engagement; he's not sitting on the sidelines. "Being a staff member of a union, I have a voice in the debate about the future of unions and how they have to innovate and change their practices, how they have to get with the program in a world where people have a more individual orientation rather

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