Canadian Lawyer

CROSS EXAMINED 'My becoming a lawyer was thanks to the grace of people in my life who offered to help me,' says J.S. Vijaya. Paying it forward J.S. Vijaya gives others a boost because others helped him out when he really needed it. BY GRETCHEN DRUMMIE a way of life for the busy criminal lawyer, who says there's no doubt he wouldn't be where he is now without the largesse of others at opportune moments — no strings attached. "Without waxing poetic, at the darkest points in my life, F or J.S. Vijaya, raised in Toronto's notorious Jane and Finch tenement housing in the 1970s, the expression "pay it forward" goes deeper than a pop culture reference to the concept of good deeds being repaid by doing them for others. It's become people assisted me and they didn't do it for any gain or benefit to themselves," says Vijaya. "They gave simply because I needed it." By giving, he means literally. At various points in his journey toward, through, and even beyond law school, Vijaya was offered free housing, money for books and courses, food, and even his first year' economic strata who asked for nothing in return. "My becoming a lawyer was thanks to the grace of people in my life who offered to help me, now and help those I can," says Vijaya, who was born in India and 20 JUNE 2012 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com and pulls up promising disadvantaged youths with a desire to go into law, using the strength he has achieved through the help of others. "I have never forgotten the kindness of those people, and while they never called it 'pay it forward, So, today, while he moves up the ladder, he also reaches back " says Vijaya. ' I feel I should carry on s tuition paid for by people of various backgrounds and moved to Canada with his parents and sister when he was seven. It was a difficult transition for the family that came from upper-middle-class roots. Vijaya's parents, both highly educated were shattered with their new reality, and the family lived in poverty on the factory-labourer salary of his mother, who holds a master' " The result: his parents' dreams statement; massive unemployment reigned. Vijaya says the pre- vailing feelings were a lack of hope and will, particularly in the school system. "There was this great apathy and at that time there was no political correctness so we were not cradled for success of any kind, To say the neighbourhood of his youth was poor is an under- s degree in philosophy. stroke that changed his circumstances. "It was something I did quite well, and I was forced to go to another school for Grade 13, in another jurisdiction," he says with his trademark dry wit. William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute is where life changed forever; the other students "had this incredible drive and ambition and work ethic, which was totally alien to me. I mixed with these new friends and their reality was very differ- ent. They actually enjoyed homework; they had extra credits for Vijaya credits his then-penchant for fighting as the lucky " he says. "There were no expectations." professionals, fell prey to what he delicately describes as a part of our history "when Canadians and immigrants both had a tough time integrating with each other. PHIL BROWN

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