Debrief: CLA's 2012 Rights of Spring Cocktail Party

On April 26th, we had our annual Rights of Spring Cocktail party hosted by Globalive's amazing SHAMBA foundation. This event, which highlighted our Aboriginal law and justice programming, was a resounding success with a great crowd that ranged from law students to Aboriginal leaders to senior Bay St. lawyers.

At our event, Phil Fontaine, Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, spoke very eloquently on the important role lawyers play in protecting and promoting the rights of Aboriginal people. He also strongly encouraged the legal and business communities to support CLA's Dare to Dream program which will help Aboriginal high school students succeed through high school outreach and mentoring by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal lawyers and law students. This project will be piloted in Toronto and Calgary starting this fall. We were very excited to announce at our event that GE Capital Americas is coming on board as a sponsor of Dare to Dream, as is the Royal Bank of Canada. If you would like to support Dare to Dream and help Aboriginal youth succeed, you can quickly and easily donate online through CanadaHelps.

Madeleine Redfern, the indomitable mayor of Iqaluit, Chair of the Nunavut Legal Services Board and a member of CLA's Advisory Board, spoke passionately about law and justice issues in Nunavut and the importance of CLA's work there to support the Legal Services Board (which provides legal aid) and the Law Society of Nunavut.

After the speeches, the crowd mingled, enjoying the delicious appetizers prepared by the Accidental Caterer (including yummy braised bison rib turnovers and bannock with carmelized apple, cheese & blueberry coulis), and drinks from our sponsors Steamwhistle and Legends Estates Winery.

We would like to thank our event sponsors whose support help make CLA's programming possible:  Chitiz Pathak, FTI Consulting, The Flat Armadillo Society, Bennett Jones, McCarthy Tetrault, Norton Rose, The Gordon Foundation and The Law Society of Upper Canada.  And we also thank our media sponsors who helped publicize this event, Precedent and ZSA Legal Recruitment.

P.S.  We've included a few more photos from our event are below.  You can see more photos here.

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