Reports, Awards & 2022 Meeting Minutes

The past year has provided opportunity for the five of us to demonstrate leadership and significant impacts to the work – both at the Council table and the many committees of Council. Our varied experiences, both lived and professional, bring a perspective which is vital in both serving the public interest but also in offering innovative solutions to complex situations. Solutions not necessarily embedded in a legal framework but instead reflective of the public in which the legal profession serves and supports, which is the role we have been asked to fulfill. We are extremely proud of our contributions and are confidant that we come to each and every meeting with a genuine commitment to represent the best interest of our communities, our neighbors and Nova Scotians in the regulation of the legal profession.

In the past year we have been supported by both the staff and leadership of the NSBS and the Executive of Council.  We do believe, however, that the wealth of expertise and experience we bring can and should be utilized more. Our role cannot be perfunctory. We take it seriously in working very hard to protect the integrity of the legal profession. The profession should take every opportunity to engage with their public representatives, which only enhances self-governance in the public interest.

We know our role is vital and we will continue to be engaged.  It is with the interest of Nova Scotians that we move into the 2023-2024 Council Term with a commitment to continue to bring our voices to the table, ensuring authentic and innovative change.

2022-2023 NSBS Public Representatives

Bryan Darrell
Carole Lee Reinhartdt
Michelle Ward
Deepak Prasad
Kothai Kumanan

2021 Distinguished Service Award

Shawna Paris-Hoyte O.N.S., KC was the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Service Award (DSA).

Established in 1999, this award is presented to a member who has made significant contributions to their community, the legal profession and to the Society.

The Society presents this award and honours the recipient, along with 50-year practitioners, at our annual Recognition Reception.

About Shawna Paris-Hoyte O.N.S., KC

Shawna Paris-Hoyte, formerly of Truro (the Hill), Nova Scotia, is a fifth generation Black Nova Scotian. She holds fours degrees from Dalhousie University (BA 78’ (TYP), JD 94’ (IB&M), BSW 01’, MSW 03’). She has certificates in Health Law Administration (Dal 14’), Advanced Mediation (’UPEI & AG 96’), Community Development (Henson College 96’) and Forensic Social Work (USA 19’). In 1994 Shawna articled with the firm of Cox Downie (as it was then). In 1995, Shawna commenced her legal practice as a community legal worker and in 1996 became a staff lawyer at the legal aid “clinic” where she continues to practice in the areas of youth justice, family law, administrative law, and child protection. Shawna’s practise as a lawyer has taken her to all levels of the courts and tribunals in Nova Scotia and Canada, including to the Supreme Court of Canada when she successfully argued R. v. LTH (08) under the YCJA. She has adjudicated matters under the Residential Tenancies Act and the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act. Shawna recently concluded her work on the Mass Casualty Commission Public Inquiry as legal counsel for Be the Peace Institute a participant organization with the Gender Based Violence Coalition which also included Women’s Shelter Canada and the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia.

As a public servant and volunteer, Shawna’s commitment to community spans to almost five decades. She has dedicated 28 of those years to public legal education, Pro bono legal services and legal aid as a tool and means to provide access to justice for the marginalized and disenfranchised populations. She has contributed to the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society (NSBS) as a member of the Complaints Investigation Committee. She has contributed with written articles to the NSBS Society Record over the years, and she was involved in the NSBS moot court training for article clerks and was often called upon, throughout the years, to assist the NSBS in guiding/mentoring Black lawyers. By virtue of her role as a lawyer, she has received numerous federal and provincial appointments to Boards, Task Forces’ and Committees that serve all members of society.

Shawna has been involved in many exciting and innovative initiatives over the years which include (briefly) being a member of the nine person Federal Task Force in Canada to draft the foundational strategic hiring workplan for the Federal Public Service entitled, Embracing Change in The Federal Public Service (01). She is the past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Community Justice Society, she is a founding member of the Black Community Advocates Association of Nova Scotia (BCANS), she was the Project Manager for Conference 2000 (Halifax), which was the first conference held in NS to review the recommendations of the Donald Marshall Jr. Royal Commission Report. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Strongest Families Institute, and she is a commissioned Elder for the African Nova Scotian Community- Road to Prosperity initiative which focuses on building a sustainable future for African Nova Scotians.

As a legal educator, Shawna has been instructing, supervising, and mentoring law students and lawyers since 1995, and generalist forensic social work students since 2009. Shawna has taught at several universities in Canada specific to integrated law and social work practice, as well she taught courses regarding diversity in Canada, cross-cultural perspectives, human development, and field practice. As a regularly called upon public speaker, Shawna has recently been sharing her knowledge of trauma-informed practice for lawyers at national law conferences (CAUL) and at professional development meetings and retreats in Ontario.

As a trailblazer, Shawna is the Founding Director/Consultant of the National Institute of Forensic Social Work (NIFSW-2016), which has a membership spanning three continents and five countries. Shawna provides expert consultation to grassroots community organizations, NGOs, and to federal and provincial governments on a variety of integrated social/legal issues. She designs, develops, and implements course curriculums and training programs at the university level, as well as professional development courses for lawyers, social workers, social service workers locally, nationally, and internationally. In October 2022, Shawna facilitated an intensive forensic social work training program for various professionals working in the child welfare system in the Caribbean. She is also currently developing a trauma-informed training program for lawyers working with victims of sexual assault in Nova Scotia.

Shawna’s commitment to the legal profession and the Nova Scotian community has been significant for almost three decades. Her hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed. She is the recipient of Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II -70th Anniversary Platinum Jubilee Medal (2022) for public service and volunteerism, the Order of Nova Scotia (2020) for her longstanding commitment to the betterment of life for all Nova Scotians, she received a distinguished Queens Counsel designation (2011) for her contributions to the legal profession, the Distinguished Service Award for Social Work (2016) from the Nova Scotia College Social Workers/Canadian Association Social Work or her commitment to social justice and social work practice, she was inducted in the Honourable Justice Bertha Wilson Society (2014), she received the Nova Scotia Legal Aid Service Recognition Award (2014), she is the Inaugural recipient of the Honourable Justice Lorne Clarke Award for Access to Justice (2010), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Law Students Association of Canada (2014), the National Black Law Student Association: People Making a Difference Award (2009), the Elizabeth Frye Society-Rebels with a Cause (2006), the Black Community Advocates Association of Nova Scotia-Recognition Award as Founding Member (2002), the Treasury Board of Canada-Embracing Change Task Force Contribution Award (2001) and numerous other recognitions for her work and dedication to her community and her professions.

2022 Award for Mi’kmaq & Indigenous Peoples Excellence in the Legal Profession

Read more about Josie McKinney

Josie McKinney is Mi’kmaw and Wolastoqey, originally from New Brunswick. She is also an alumna of the Indigenous Black and Mi’kmaq Initiative at the Schulich School of Law. Upon her admission to both the Nova Scotia Bar and the Ontario Bar in 2007, until 2010, Josie worked as a Staff Lawyer for the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic, providing a range of legal services for low income Indigenous people (criminal defence, tenant rights, criminal injuries compensation, and Indian Residential School Settlement claims) and supervised law students enrolled at the Clinic. Josie joined the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service in 2011, where she spent her first 6 years in Yarmouth and Shelburne before moving to Halifax in April 2018. In July 2020, she was appointed Nova Scotia’s first dedicated human trafficking prosecutor.

Josie was elected to Council in 2019 to represent the Halifax District. She has been a member of the Society’s Racial Equity Committee since 2015 and became co-Chair in January 2019. The REC has been instrumental in providing helpful advice and guidance to Council on issues of racial equity, including on the decision to release a public acknowledgement of systemic discrimination and to conduct an external review.

From 2016 to present, Josie has been a member of the PPS Equity and Diversity Committee. She was the primary author of a new PPS policy on Fair Treatment of Indigenous Peoples in the Criminal Justice System and led the training of all NS Crown Attorneys on the policy. She has also led the PPS in developing other initiatives to help address systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system as experienced by Indigenous and Black communities. Josie has provided educational sessions to children in grades P-12 on Mi'kmaq history/culture and residential schools. She has delivered various CLE presentations to lawyers and other professionals on issues of cultural competency, in NS and NB. She has mentored law students and high school students and has supervised articling students

The Law Foundation of Nova Scotia was established in 1976 by amendment to the Barristers and Solicitors Act (now the Legal Profession Act. 2004, c. 28, s. 1.). Its central purpose is to receive and distribute interest earned on lawyers’ pooled trust accounts in accordance with its mandate. It is the only foundation in Nova Scotia devoted solely to community law related initiatives and legal education.

The objects of the Law Foundation are “to establish and maintain a fund to be used for the examination, research, revision and reform of and public access to the law, legal education, the administration of justice in the Province and other purposes incidental or conducive to or consequential upon the attainment of any such objects.”

The 2022 Annual Meeting minutes will be approved at the 2023 Annual Meeting.