Our Annual General Meeting will be virtual this year.

It will take place on Wednesday December 9 2020 at 5:20pm and will be followed by the SOAR Medal and SOAR Scholarship presentations and celebration.

Congratulations to ANNIE ARKO, winner of the 2020 SOAR Scholarship.

Annie Arko is a third-year Common Law student at the University of Ottawa.  She has an Honours BA in Legal Studies from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and an MA in Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo. She has held a variety of intern-like and research positions in her young career, including as a Policy Analyst with Canada’s G7 Task Force on Environmental and Climate Change (Ottawa), a Junior Professional Officer for the United Nations Environment Programme (Geneva, Switzerland), a Legal Intern at Global Affairs Canada and Senior Editor of the Ottawa Law Review.

In her personal essay as part of the application, Annie wrote that her law studies helped her recognize that “administrative bodies [can] provide subject-matter expertise to resolve technical claims.  Annie proposes the establishment of a federal/provincial tribunal to settle Indigenous title claims.  Such a body could “improve efficiency, equity and expert decision-making while advancing reconciliation.”  Her review of Supreme Court of Canada cases involving land claims highlighted the “cost, delay and acrimony of litigating” and caused her to want to pursue a better alternative.  Annie will be articling at Conlin Bedard, an Ottawa firm specializing in administrative and regulatory law. We received 21 applications from 6 Ontario law schools, up from 17 in our inaugural year.

Congratulations to our 2020 SOAR Medal Recipients -

BRIAN COOK and LAURA PETTIGREW

Please register here as your RSVP. A unique link will be sent to you closer to the date.