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make good decisions and to solve their problems," says Leung, an IP lawyer with Riches, McKenzie & Herbert LLP. ACCESS TO JUSTICE groups in the upper echelons of law firms and even within gov- ernment and the Crown, the judiciary has to reflect Canadian B By the numbers Only four provincial law societies currently collect demographic statistics on mem- bers or those entering the licensing process. The Law Society of British Columbia col- lects statistics only on the number of aboriginal lawyers within the 10,134 practis- ing lawyers in the province. The others ask slightly different demographic questions relating to equity-seeking groups. Here are the statistics from Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia as provided by the provincial law societies. ONTARIO Ontario currently collects statistics from students entering the licensing process who are asked to voluntarily self-identify in particular groups. As of January 2010, every member will be asked to voluntarily self-identify. There are 40,889 licensed lawyers; 20,829 are in private practice, 12,180 otherwise employed, and the rest retired or out of province. Enrolment in the bar course Women 50.5% % of candidates in 2007 % of candidates in 2008 % of candidates in 2009 (to June) 2009* 2007 2008 53% 52.9% Call to the bar statistics Year Total Called 1,484 1,479 1,366 communities Francophones 15.7% 12.8% Racialized 6% 12.9% 6.1% 7% Female 803 762 717 Aboriginal Peoples 1.7% 1.1% 1.9% % of Total 54% 52% 52% NOVA SCOTIA In 2009, Nova Scotia has 1,768 practising lawyers in the province: 1,150 are male, 618 are female. Here are the numbers from answers to the mandatory question on diver- sity from the annual member report. Lawyers can check more than one area. 2008 African Nova Scotian/black: 31 Mi'kmaq/aboriginal: 31 Visible minority: 36 Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered: 33 Disabled: 12 None of the above: 1302 I choose not to answer this question: 379 2009 African Nova Scotian/black: 33 Mi'kmaq/aboriginal: 32 Visible minority: 34 Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered: 30 Disabled: 11 None of the above: 1239 I choose not to answer this question: 421 QUEBEC Quebec started asking a voluntary self-identification question to members on their annual reports last year. Total members Number 22,989 % of women 47% minorities * Aboriginal Disabled 928 Visible 92 60% 51% 151 39% *Visible minority subgroups Arabs Blacks 31% 22% People of mixed origin 18% Latin American South East Asian Chinese 7% 7% 5% Others or not specified 10% 34 OC T O BER 2009 www. C ANADI AN Law ye rmag.com eyond good business, there is an access to justice issue. While it's important to have representation from different society as well. Currently, it does not. In January 1990, the report into the wrongful conviction of Donald Marshall Jr. in Nova Scotia — which concluded the justice system was rife with racism and mandated changes to the practice of law in order to address systemic discrimination against indigenous blacks and Mi'kmaqs — was released. Since then, notes Metallic, not one Mi'kmaq has been appointed to the bench and only one black lawyer has been made a judge — this year. It's not a case of there not being qualified candidates, asserts Walwyn. He says justice is not properly served if those who use the courts feel disenfranchised because they feel their voices and their community's voices are not represented on the bench. "This is one of those rule of law issues that affects every citizen and if you have a bench that is not representative of the public it serves, you will have problems," states Walwyn. "You're doing a grave disservice to the general public and you're compromis- ing the rule of law. So the short answer is you should be able to see on your bench the community composition that the bench is serving and if you don't have that, you have to ask why and you've got to address it." While months of research show there are some strides being made, particularly in the ranks of associates and law students, the reality on the ground at all levels still shows a disparity between the Canadian population and its reflection in the legal profession. A recent Catalyst study focusing on visible minori- ties in corporate Canada did not look only at the legal profes- sion but it was strongly represented with 20 per cent of the respondent organizations being national law firms. The study showed visible minorities were more likely than their Caucasian colleagues to believe that career advancement processes were unfair and that it's still a world of who you know, not what you know, that will move you up the ranks. Echoing what some of our interviewees for this article have said, the study that included 17,000 respondents, shows "visible minorities found it more difficult to access critical relations; access networks, men- tors, champions, who really can help support them in terms of advancing their careers," says Catalyst's Gillis. There are law firms stepping up to the plate. There are law societies taking on the issue of diversity. But overall the profes- sion in Canada seems to be slowly, even reluctantly, moving forward. Nova Scotia has been pushed forward. Ontario and Quebec are the most diverse provinces and change there is slowly happening. But moving further west, diversity initiatives are not on the radar of most firms. Moving up in the profession, the numbers of visible minority, disabled, and LGBT lawyers, judges, benchers, and law professors are increasing but still not in the same numbers as in society as a whole. Governments and corporate Canada are making diversity a priority and law firms that follow suit will be more successful. As Frank Walwyn says: "Big firms are business driven. If, quite frankly, if they don't wisen up, I think they'll be left behind. The ones who don't figure this out pretty soon are going to find that the world has passed them by." Demetra Dimokopoulos contributed extensive research for the special report on diversity in the legal profesison.