Endorsements

I have been endorsed by the following LAO staff offices:

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• RLO Hamilton

  • ​Keith MacMillian

  • Lily Tekle

• RLO Toronto

  • ​Andrew Brouwer

  • Cheryl Robinson

  • Simon Wallace

  • Ben Liston

  • Samuel Loeb

  • Chelsea Peterdy

  • Anthony Navaneelan

  • Joo Eun Kim 

  • Meagan Johnston

• Cornwall Criminal Duty Counsel Office

  • Josée Quesnel

  • Cathy Legault, Bilingual Duty Counsel Family and Criminal

  • Amanda Blaise, Bilingual Duty Counsel Family and Criminal

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I have been endorsed by the following individuals:

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• Haran Aruliah, former LAO Lawyer

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Michael Story, North York Criminal Duty Counsel

  • named applicant in the Charter challenge

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Dana Suvagau, Staff Lawyer, Major Case Management

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Caroline Price, Hybrid Duty Counsel, Kitchener​

  • named applicant in the Charter challenge

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member​

• Esther Oh, College Park Criminal Duty Counsel, Toronto

• Patrick Moeller, Old City Hall Criminal Duty Counsel, Toronto

• Erin Metzler, Newmarket Criminal Duty Counsel 

• Simone Bern, Policy Counsel

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Catherine D. Papineau, Elgin County Courthouse, Supervisory Duty Counsel, St. Thomas

• Diane Abbott, Woodstock Hybrid Duty Counsel

  • Interim Local Committee member​

  • named applicant in the Charter challenge

• Sarah Edgar, Sarnia Family Duty Counsel

• David Burns, Sarnia Criminal Duty Counsel

• Matt Stone, Sarnia Criminal Duty Counsel

• Alicia Seibert, Sarnia Criminal Duty Counsel 

• Matthew Oleynik, Staff lawyer, LAO Law

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Geoff Allen, Staff Lawyer, LAO Law

• Emma White, Staff Lawyer, LAO Law

• Paul Opolski, Staff Lawyer, LAO Law

• Kathy Phillips, Staff Lawyer, LAO Law

• Elsa Arismendi, Staff lawyer, Summary Legal Advice in Refugee & Immigration

• Janine Jan, Old City Hall Criminal Duty Counsel

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Nicole Nussbaum, London Family Duty Counsel

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Louise Marriot, College Park Criminal Duty Counsel, Toronto

• Aliyah Bhayani, Staff Lawyer, Lawyer Service and Payments

• Nicole Keating, London Criminal Duty Counsel

• Annemarie Roodal, Staff Lawyer, Ottawa Integrated Legal Services Office

• Amy Slotek, Staff Lawyer, Toronto Central District Office

• David Kiesman, Bilingual Institutional Duty Counsel, Vanier Detention Centre

• Tim Lutes, Staff Lawyer, Provincial Case Management Office

• Alex von Bredow, Simcoe County (Barrie) Supervisory Family Duty Counsel

• Michelle Squires, Policy Counsel

• John Sinclair, College Park Criminal Duty Counsel, Toronto

• Karolina Stelmach-Kseniak, North York Criminal Duty Counsel

• Moheb Tewfik, Newmarket Criminal Duty Counsel

• Raquel Savoury, Toronto North District Family Staff Lawyer

• Andre Rivard, Brampton Criminal Duty Counsel

• Kyle Noonan, Bilingual Institutional Duty Counsel, Hamilton Kitchener Region

  • named applicant in the Charter Challenge

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member

• Annette Stoehr, Windsor Family Duty Counsel

  • former Campaign for Collective Bargaining Rights member​

• Joana Miskinis, Windsor Criminal Duty Counsel

• Anna Rosenbluth, Clinic Resource Office, Staff Lawyer

• Greg Zambrzycki, Institutional Duty Counsel, Toronto South Detention Centre

• Adam Hartling, Newmarket Criminal Duty Counsel

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"Vote Dana Fisher for LVP.  Dana's commitment to advocating for our rights began in 2012.  As part of the initial campaign committee, she devoted her time and efforts to ensure that we had a right to collectively bargain.  During the course of the five year campaign, she vigorously fought for our right to unionize, confronting both our former CEO and the former Attorney General.  Eventually, she took our cause to the courts.  She was a named applicant and sole affiant in the lawsuit against Legal Aid Ontario.  It was this lawsuit that eventually secured us our right to collectively bargain.  She has emerged as the spokesperson for our cause.  Her track record speaks for itself.  Dana has been fearless in fighting for our rights.  She has spoken up for us time and time again.  She won't back down and she will be there for you."

 - Michael Story, North York Criminal Duty Counsel

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"I am pleased to pledge my enthusiastic support for Dana Fisher as the first Local Vice President of the Legal Aid Lawyers Association. As a founding member of our association I recognize the varied and imposing challenges that face our membership, particularly at this moment in history. Dana has worked for this union strategically and tirelessly, helping to create our new union despite years of grueling institutional opposition. She then helped to bargain our first Collective Agreement, just months before the province's massive budget cuts to LAO demonstrated just how badly we needed one. I have personally witnessed Dana at Provincial Office, advocating for our members, pressing our interests, and addressing an endless stream of our lawyers' grievances with a smile and an apparently bottomless reserve of energy, enthusiasm, and dedication. This is a critical moment for our new union, when the direction of our future relationship with LAO and the province will be set. I have complete confidence in Dana to steer us onto the best possible path. Please vote for her as our first Local Vice President."
  -  Matthew Oleynik Staff lawyer, LAO Law 

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"Dana has been a directing player in the drive to unionization from the very beginning. She dedicated her time, energy and passion to the cause of a better workplace for LAO lawyers, and risked her career to do so. On a personal level, I know Dana to be honourable, upright, and honest, a great lawyer and a good person. She also has excellent judgement. She will be fair and judicious and reasonable as the LVP.​"

  -  Esther Oh, College Park Duty Counsel, member

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"Dana's fierce advocacy, exemplary work ethic, strong communication skills, and solid grasp of the issues faced by LAO's lawyers make her an outstanding candidate for Local Vice President, LAO. Based on the extensive and effective involvement she has had with my department in recent months, I am confident that she will do an excellent job as LVP."

- Geoff Allen, Staff Lawyer, LAO Law

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Letter of Endorsement:
 

Members, Dana Fisher is running as a candidate for the position of Local Vice President for the Society of United Professionals.

 

I endorse Dana’s candidacy wholeheartedly and encourage others to spend some time getting to know her.

 

I met Dana in or around 2010 when were each members of LAO’s “Employee Engagement Committee”. Former CEO Robert Ward was invited to address the committee. Dana was new with LAO and she surprised me when, given an opportunity to address the organizational head she questioned, respectfully, the working conditions she was forced to endure at College Park. She quietly but courageously spoke about how many lawyers were crowded into a small room, that they had one computer to share, how the air quality had been compromised by the numbers being expected to share an overcrowded space. She was composed, well spoken and dignified, no trace of confrontation but clearly determined to get a straight answer to an honest question.

 

Thereafter she was one of four lawyers standing front page locked in the determination to get the rights of LAO employees recognized in an administration that wouldn’t even recognize the professions’ right to expect to be heard much less working with administration to improve the working conditions of the employees as well as their need for due process in all matters governing a safe and healthy workplace environment. Dana persisted.

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Asked whether I would be willing to put these views into print for others to see, I have no hesitation in endorsing Dana’s candidacy for the position of Local Vice President.

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Catherine D. Papineau

Supervisor, Family and Criminal Duty Counsel Services

Elgin County

Legal Aid Ontario

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