Filipinos lead Asian lawyers group

Filipinos lead Asian lawyers group

Three Filipino lawyers – Ramon Andal, Delano Europa, and Deanna Santos compose the first Filipinos in the core group of the newly minted Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers (FACL).

Early this month, about a hundred law students, academics, lawyers, judges and journalists attended its inaugural meeting and conference at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto in Queen’s Park Circle, Toronto. Its mission is to promote equity, justice and opportunity for Asian Canadian legal professionals and the community through the fostering of advocacy, community involvement, legal scholarship and professional development.

Two years ago, lawyers Ramon Andal and Avvy Go, director of Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic were working together with the Chinese Canadian Council in bringing an injunction against the federal government with respect to the Chinese Head Tax issue. By then, they were already familiar with Andal as a litigation lawyer, and they needed someone with court experience willing to work pro bono on human rights issues. Andal and the Chinese Canadian group felt that Asian lawyers could benefit from each other’s contributions and common concerns. The idea of forming an Asian Canadian lawyers association was conceived.

Andal reported that they started with a small group of Chinese, Japanese and Korean lawyers throwing ideas over lunch in a restaurant. From there, Andal asked compatriots Delano Europa (who is Justice of the Peace and one of the founders of the Filipino Canadian Lawyers Association) and Deanna Santos to join the core group for the Filipino lawyers to attend organizational meetings. This year, they went ahead and formed the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers composed of South Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Koran, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Filipino representatives from the legal profession.

Justice Maryka Omatsu, the first Asian judge appointed in Canada, chaired the inaugural meeting and conference. Each of the communities represented delivered a profile of their background, population, social and economic issues, and representation in the legal profession.

Andal reported that that he is currently exploring with other communities the feasibility of establishing a legal clinic that could serve low-income Filipinos. He stated that future activities of FACL include education seminars, a newsletter, informal get together and an autumn 2008 activities.

The three Filipino trailblazers at FACL concur with Avvy Go of the Chinese Legal Clinic when she stated that “ Given the growing population of people of Asian descent in Canada, Asian Canadian lawyers have an important role to play to ensure that our legal profession responds appropriately to the needs of our communities. That is why it is so important to establish a group like the FACL.”

For more information on the FACL, please contact Deanna P. Santos – 416-901-8497 or cell 416-831-6497.

PRESS RELEASE (RST