LUO Statement condemning Law Society’s disregard for due process in “cheating” scandal
The Law Union of Ontario expresses its condemnation of the recent actions of the Law Society of Ontario in punishing over 100 prospective lawyers, most of whom are apparently visible minorities, without any due process and despite the absence of evidence of intentional wrongdoing. This relates to the bar exams administered in November 2021 which were compromised due to a Law Society security breach. The Divisional Court recently invalidated the punitive actions of the Law Society, but the debacle should not have gone that far in the first instance.
As stated in the Law Union’s letter: “The recent decision of the Divisional Court in Mirza et al. v. Law Society of Ontario, 2023 ONSC 6727 (CanLII), <https://canlii.ca/t/k1dzw>exposed some deeply troubling conduct by the Law Society of Ontario. As the regulator of the legal profession, the Law Society ought to be a paragon of justice and fairness. Instead, it railroaded a whole class of potential future lawyers, denied them due process, harshly punished them in the absence of evidence of wrongdoing, tarnished their reputations, and wreaked emotional and financial havoc on them and their families. The Law Union of Ontario urges the Law Society to embrace the Divisional Court decision as an important teaching moment, ask itself some hard questions about what kind of culture within the organization could allow such a debacle to unfold the way it did, and make every effort to remedy the damage it has caused.”