Canadian Lawyer

Cross Examined 'I am proud to serve my community,' says Sawsan Habbal. It's not political Vancouver lawyer's role as honorary consul to Syria has made her a target for activists. I f there is the definition of a thankless job today, it has to be the role that Vancouver lawyer Sawsan A. Habbal has assumed as the honorary consul for Syria, a country that in the past year has been plunged into civil strife. "I do not get political," said Habbal, who also lays claim to being B.C.'s first Arabic speaking lawyer. But, her position as Syria's honorary consul in Vancouver has made her the target of those who see it only in terms of politics. She has received an e-mail threatening to harm family members in Syria, been followed by a stranger on the street, and has had protests at her office, 24 Jan uary 2013 www.CANADIAN including one from a group claiming to be Amnesty International, asking for her resignation. Anti-Syrian government organizations, such as the Free Syria Activists Group, believe she is a regime supporter. But Habbal is adamant. Her role as "honorary consul" is largely misunderstood, she insists. She has "not received a penny" for her services from the current government, has no diplomatic privileges or passport, and no direct relationship to the current government. She was called to the bar in B.C. in 1995 and took on the voluntary position mainly as a means of serving her community's specific needs. Although she is L a w ye r m a g . c o m Syrian by birth and a Canadian citizen, an honorary consul does not have to be a national of the country served. She maintains that honorary consuls also tend to stay in place no matter what happens with the government and are more of a conduit to a country's bureaucracy than an extension of its political agenda. There were honorary consuls first in Montreal and Toronto with the embassy in Ottawa (in May 2012, Canada expelled the Syrian ambassador and other diplomats in Ottawa and shuttered the Canadian embassy in Syria). Habbal points to a 2001 issue of Syria Today, a Syrian English language publication, Mark Brennan By Jean Sorensen

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