Independent<\/em>. \u201cIt was mentioned as a way of getting lawyers involved … [in] legal-specific work related to B\u2019nai Brith.<\/p>\n\u201cThere are a lot of legal issues that do arise. In fact, today, I put in an application for an intervention document. It\u2019s a case about Mike Ward. He\u2019s a comedian in Quebec who went after a handicapped guy in the audience in his comic routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe person who was the target of this comic routine complained to the Quebec Human Rights Commission, successfully,\u201d said Matas.<\/p>\n
The case is now before the Supreme Court of Canada. \u201cAnd we applied at B\u2019nai Brith for interveners\u2019 status, based on the experience of Dieudonn\u00e9 M\u2019bala M\u2019bala, who\u2019s a French comedian who has used his comic routine to attack the Jewish community and has been fined many times … and has gone to court many times in France, Belgium and Switzerland. There\u2019s even a European Court of Human Rights judgment on him. So, I suggested we intervene, and B\u2019nai Brith agreed. We applied for intervention status and we got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Matas enjoys volunteering with B\u2019nai Brith, he will not be able to do so indefinitely, and would love to get some help sharing the workload.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, when you\u2019re dealing with a volunteer organization, you want to get as many people involved as possible,\u201d said Matas. \u201cNot just to spread the load, but also you want to get more people aware, committed and involved. Advocacy can\u2019t just be advocacy of one person; it\u2019s not going to carry much weight. It needs to be as many people as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mostyn is working on getting accreditation for the society\u2019s seminars, as he and Matas hope that the continuing education component of the law society will help bring together a number of law students, who will eventually go out and work in the field and fuel change.<\/p>\n
The society has been launched and many students have already signed up, said Mostyn.<\/p>\n
As for what specializations in law those wanting to join the society may want to possess, Matas suggested \u201cdiscrimination, equality and international law … also, libel law, which is very different from equality law or international law … or we have things about charities, tax and corporations. There are a wide variety of legal issues that come up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot, in terms of advancements of rights, that occurs through the courts and also through parliaments and legislatures. Legal work isn\u2019t only doing court work. It\u2019s also sometimes advocating changes to law. You need, of course, a public component for that. That may not be lawyers, but often requires some legal expertise to point out the depths of the law and so on. I\u2019d say there\u2019s a real need here and I think it\u2019s a welcome addition to the work that B\u2019nai Brith is doing to add this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also a great opportunity for lawyers to contribute and use their skills,\u201d added Matas. \u201cThey can talk to each other in a way where everybody knows what they\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renowned lawyer and human right activist David Matas is being honoured by B\u2019nai Brith Canada, as the organization launches the Matas Law Society. Matas, who is based in Winnipeg, has long served as B\u2019nai Brith Canada\u2019s senior legal counsel, working closely with B\u2019nai Brith for more than 30 years. He has his own private practise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[755,3157,1121,1122,2251,7499],"class_list":["post-36292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national","tag-bnai-brith-canada","tag-canada","tag-david-matas","tag-human-rights","tag-law","tag-michael-mostyn"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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