ABOUT THE BORA LASKIN AWARD

The Bora Laskin Award has been established by the University of Toronto to honour those who have made Outstanding Contributions to Canadian Labour Law. The award is named after the late Chief Justice Bora Laskin (1912-1984) who, before joining the Supreme Court of Canada, was pre-eminent as a labour law scholar and labour arbitrator.

Nominations are considered of any professional involved in labour law, including academics, labour and management counsel, judges, arbitrators and adjudicators.

2010 BORA LASKIN AWARD RECIPIENT

Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella

Appointed a judge in 1976, Justice Abella has been a member of the Supreme Court of Canada since 2004. In a distinguished career devoted to public service, she has established a national reputation as an authority on the law of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Especially influential in Canada has been the report she authored as sole Commissioner of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment, which created the concept of “employment equity”. An expert in family law (as a former judge of the Ontario Family Court) and of labour law (as a former Chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board), Justice Abella has been a principal architect of many of the Supreme Court’s leading decisions in cases dealing with accommodation (Via Rail), disability (Fidler), pay equity (Canadian Airlines), unfair labour practices (Walmart in dissent), and the authority of administrative tribunals to give effect to the Charter of Rights (Conway).

BORA LASKIN AWARD DINNER
Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Top Floor, Sutton Place Hotel Toronto
955 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario

Cocktails – 6:00 p.m.
Dinner – 7:00 p.m.

Tickets and tables can be ordered at 416-977-6618, or via the conference registration page.

BORA LASKIN AWARD RECIPIENTS

2003

Harry Arthurs

Tribute to Harry Arthurs by Hon. Justice John Laskin

Pierre Verge

Tribute to Pierre Verge by M. Robert Gagnon

Paul Weiler

Paul Weiler's Acceptance Speech

Bora Laskin was born in Fort William (Thunder Bay), Ontario, on October 5, 1912. He was the son of Max Laskin and Bluma Zingel. After graduating with a B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1933, he enrolled at Osgoode Hall Law School. From 1933 to 1936, he served his articles and continued to study at the University of Toronto, earning an M.A. in 1935 and an LL.B. in 1936.

The following year, he received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Upon his return to Toronto that year, he was called to the bar and began his legal career writing headnotes for The Canadian Abridgement. In 1940 he embarked on a teaching career that spanned 25 years, mostly at the University of Toronto except for four years at Osgoode Hall (1945-49). He was the author of many legal texts, including Canadian Constitutional Law, and was associate editor of Dominion Law Reports and Canadian Criminal Cases for 23 years.

He was appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal in 1965 and to the Supreme Court of Canada on March 19, 1970. On December 27, 1973, he was named Chief Justice of Canada. He served on the Supreme Court for 14 years.

Chief Justice Laskin died on March 26, 1984, at the age of 71.