Confronting Unconscious Bias on the Front Lines of Administrative Justice

Tuesday November 15, 2022

9:00a.m. - 12:00 noon

Fee $145.00 plus HST

As administrative staff and management of Ontario's agencies, boards, commissions and regulatory colleges, you play a critical role in providing access to justice. You may be the first contact that people have with your organization, and often provide the important service of helping them to understand and navigate its processes. 

Your job – which isn't easy – is to ensure that you treat everyone who seeks the services of your organization fairly, equitably and with respect and dignity. Unconscious bias can affect how you do this.

In this three-hour education session, designed specifically for SOAR’s Administrative Management Network, learn what unconscious bias is, how it works, its harmful impacts, and how you can confront and disrupt it in your work.

Topics will include:

• Privilege and power
• Understanding stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination
• Micro aggressions and micro advantages
• The role of diversity
• Cultural competence and humility
• Allyship

 Instructor: Susan E. Opler     

An experienced and recognized lawyer, adjudicator, mediator and educator, Susan Opler was the City of Toronto’s Ombudsman between 2016 and 2021, where she led the team at Ombudsman Toronto, the independent voice for     fairness in City of Toronto services and administration. In 2014, she was honoured by the Law Society of Upper Canada with the Laura Legge Award, awarded annually to “a woman lawyer in Ontario who has exemplified leadership within the profession." In 2019, she received the SOAR Medal, recognizing her outstanding contributions to Ontario’s administrative justice community.

A graduate of McGill (Hons B.A,.'82) and the University of Toronto (LL. B. '85), Ms. Opler spent the first decade of her career practicing litigation, as an associate then partner at McCarthy Tetrault. She also worked as a criminal prosecutor. For 15 years, Ms. Opler was a member and leader of the Consent and Capacity Board. She also sat on both the Hearings and Appeal Divisions of the Law Society Tribunal. A trained and experienced mediator, she led a transformation in case management on both tribunals.

Ms. Opler has taught trial advocacy at both the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall law schools.  She was the lead instructor of the SOAR/Osgoode adjudicator training program for over a decade. She has taught hundreds of judges, justices of the peace, adjudicators, public servants and law students on various topics, in Canada and internationally.

 A LIVE INTERACTIVE ZOOM TRAINING WORKSHOP

This course contains 2.5 CPD EDI Hours with the Law Society of Ontario