Canadian Lawyer

A alberta's womeN lawyers celebrate a professioNal pioNeer called to the Alberta Bar began her articles. While women in other provinces had to fight in the courts and the legis- latures for the right to article, Ontario-born Lillian Ruby Clements was accepted without opposition by the Alberta Bar Association. "There was nothing in the Legal Profession Act that said specifically a woman couldn't be admitted. So, they assumed that she could and she was," says Diane Pettie, president of the Association of Women Lawyers, and a Calgary corporate lawyer. "What's so remarkable about the story, s Alberta law students begin their articles this summer, more than half will be women. Yet it was almost a century ago that the first woman to be "is that all this happened [almost two decades] before the Persons case" in which the Privy Council in 1930 finally " Pettie points out, declared women in Canada to be legal persons (Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General)). Given Clements' history it is no surprise that when the for only a few months, quitting forever when she got mar- ried. "That wasn't a failure, lawyers then and now share a particular problem. "Biology," " Pettie observes, noting women Pettie says. "Women have the children," which means they still face one of the toughest challenges in law: how to be a mother as well as a barrister and solicitor. — GE Association of Women Lawyers gathers in Calgary early next month to honour female lawyers newly called to the Alberta bar, they will be toasting Clements as a very special profes- sional pioneer. Clements was called to the bar in 1915 but practised GERVAIS SPEAKS OUT ABOUT PICKTON INQUIRY why it took so long to apprehend serial killer Robert Pickton, says Vancouver Métis lawyer Robyn Gervais, who in March resigned as independent counsel for aboriginal interests in frustration from B.C.' T here needs to be a larger view than simply the machination of police work in investigating s Missing Women Inquiry. "We were only hearing from the police," Gervais testimony. She noted that there were also 24 law- s told Canadian Lawyer. She expressed a sense of disappointment before commis- sioner Wally Oppal that 39 out of 53 days had been taken up with police officer' yers present at the hearings being paid for by the Vancouver Police Department or the federal Department of Justice. How- ever, public funding for legal counsel was only being provided to families of vic- tims, as well as two independent lawyers, one representing aboriginal groups, and a second lawyer representing Downtown Eastside organizations. The majority of the missing women in the commission' investigation are aboriginal. Gervais said she felt the heavy focus s She maintains, "It is very much, in spirit, the missing women again." In essence, the same system that was failing to act for the murdered and missing women dur- ing Pickton' " again not placing importance on hearing from the aboriginal community as to why aboriginal women, often sex-trade work- ers, were easily victimized. "We need to know why were they getting into the cars and becoming victims and why they were s period of victimization was on police by the commission and the presence of so many lawyers representing the interests of individual police officers was providing the commission with only a "one-sided story through a police filter. Robyn Gervais (left), quit her role with the B.C. Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. a victim of drugs," she said. "Yes, we need to hear what needs to be changed within the police organizations but we also need to hear what has to be changed in the community. " Continued on page 14 www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com M AY 2012 13 adriaN lam times coloNist

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