Turtle Talk

From the Toronto Star:

Law society paves way for Ontario’s first new law school in 43 years

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That vision is inching closer to reality now that the Law Society of Upper Canada has approved a proposal from Lakehead University to open a law school in Thunder Bay.

The university says the school would give preference to northerners and First Nations applicants.

Lakehead’s senate votes on the proposal Friday.

If the Ontario government approves the project, Lakehead will become home to the first new law school in Ontario in more than 40 years, the last being University of Windsor’s faculty of law, which opened in 1969.

“We are set to go and we think this is really high value for the money,” Lakehead president Brian Stevenson said Tuesday.

The law school is expected to cost about $2.5 million a year to operate and Lakehead is looking to the province to pick up a third of the expense.

“This is an opportune time for institutions to be coming forward with proposals like this,” John Milloy, Ontario’s minister of training, colleges and universities, told the Star.

The province is about to sit down with all post-secondary institutions to discuss their future and it will be looking at how Lakehead’s proposal will benefit First Nations communities and the economy, Milloy said.

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Beardy sees a similar role for First Nations leaders in developing a law school.

Ontario currently has 42,182 lawyers, but few are from First Nations communities.

A study conducted for the law society by York University sociologist Michael Ornstein in 2006 found that just 1 per cent of Ontario lawyers — about 315 at that time — identified themselves as aboriginal.