Advisory
Council

As of October 2022, the Advisory Council to Tribunal Watch Ontario includes:

George Thomson, Co-Chair

Mr. Thomson received his B.A. and his LL.B. from Queen’s University, and his LL.M. from the University of California. His career in law and public service began at the University of Western Ontario, where he taught law and became Assistant Dean of the Law School. In 1972, Mr. Thomson was appointed a judge of the Provincial Court for the Province of Ontario. Subsequently, he was appointed Associate Deputy Minister of Community and Social Services, responsible for children’s services. Mr. Thomson returned to the bench, and then, from 1985-1989, he was the Director of Education for the Law Society of Upper Canada and also chaired a provincial committee on social assistance reform. In 1989, he became Deputy Minister of Citizenship for the Province of Ontario, followed by appointments as Deputy Minister of Labour, and Ontario Deputy Attorney General. Mr. Thomson was then Deputy Minister of Justice and Deputy Attorney General of Canada from 1994-1998. After a term as Skelton-Clark fellow at Queen’s University, he assumed the position of Executive Director of the National Judicial Institute in 2000. In 2006, he became Senior Director, International Programs for the Institute. He also chaired Ontario’s Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.

Professor David J. Mullan, Co-Chair

David Mullan is a Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. He retired as the holder of the Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt Professorship in Constitutional and Administrative Law. From 2004 until 2008, he was the first Integrity Commissioner for the City of Toronto, and now works as a free-lance consultant and speaker. From 1998 to 2006 he was a part-time member of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, and, until 2015, a part-time Vice-Chair of the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal. From 1993 until 2018, he was also a member of the NAFTA Chapter 19 Canadian Panel. He continues to provide strategic advice on administrative law issues (including applications for judicial review) to governments and agencies and tribunals. He has been a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars and workshops for members of courts, tribunals, and agencies as well as the profession. David is widely published in the field of administrative law and has prepared reports for various governments and agencies. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Law Society of Upper Canada (now the Law Society of Ontario), Victoria University of Wellington, and Queen’s University.

Raj Anand

Raj Anand attended the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, graduating with the Dean’s Key. He has served as the Chair of the Law Commission of Ontario and as the Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He was the founding Chair of the Ontario Human Rights Legal Support Centre. He has also served on several administrative tribunals, involving police complaints, student discipline and human rights law, and he currently sits on the Law Society Tribunal. As an elected Bencher of the Law Society for 12 years, he chaired Working Groups on systemic racism in the legal professions, and on reform of the Law Society Tribunal.

He has acted as counsel in about 15 cases before the Supreme Court of Canada, most of them relating to the Charter and particularly equality rights. Raj has received several awards including the Law Society Medal and the Advocates’ Society Award of Justice. Raj’s experience as an adjunct law professor over the last 20 years includes “The New Administrative Law” at the Master’s level. He is a partner at WeirFoulds LLP.

Jeff Cowan

Jeff Cowan has been a public law litigator at WeirFoulds LLP for over 40 years. He appears before administrative tribunals and appellate courts in many aspects of public law. He is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School and completed postgraduate legal studies both there and at Oxford University. He is recognised as a leader in his practice areas by Lexpert, Best Lawyers in Canada, and Martindale Hubbell Ratings. Jeff has argued cases, including in the Supreme Court of Canada, in the areas of tribunal jurisdiction and independence, Ministerial discretion, standard of judicial review, equality rights, constitutionality and interpretation of taxation and valuation legislation and remedies, freedom of information, and Indigenous peoples’ land claims and remedies. He also acts as an arbitrator and mediator. He was Head of the Public Law Section of the Law Society’s Bar Admission Course for most of its duration, a director of the Advocates’ Society, Chair of the Administrative Law Section of the OBA, and has taught in the Osgoode Hall Law School LLM public law programme. He is a recipient of the Ontario Society of Adjudicators and Regulators Medal for service to the administrative justice system of Ontario. He is co-editor of Ontario Annual Practice and a member of the Secretariat of the Civil Rules Committee.

Professor Paul Daly

Paul Daly, University Research Chair in Administrative Law & Governance, University of Ottawa, is one of Canada’s leading academic administrative lawyers. His many scholarly books, articles and book chapters have been cited by dozens of courts in Canada, Ireland and Australia. He maintains the widely read blog, Administrative Law Matters.

The Honourable Stephen Goudge

Hons. B.A. (Political Science/Economics), University of Toronto, 1964. M.Sc. (Econ.), London School of Economics, 1965. LL.B. (Awarded Dean’s Key), University of Toronto, 1968. Articled to the Hon. Ian G. Scott, Q.C. Called to the Bar of Ontario in 1970. Appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1982. Practiced with the small litigation firm of Cameron Brewin and Scott until it merged with Gowling and Henderson in 1983. Was managing partner of the firm Gowling, Strathy & Henderson in Toronto where he engaged in a general litigation practice.

Appeared before many administrative tribunals and Courts at all levels in Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. Lecturer, University of Toronto Faculty of Law in Labour Law and Native Rights 1974 to 1985 and in Professional Responsibility 2001 to 2012. Active in the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Elected Bencher of the Law Society of the Upper Canada from 1991 to 1996. Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario in 1996. Board member, Pro Bono Law Ontario 2002 to 2006. Member, Chief Justice’s Advisory Committee on Professional Responsibility, 2001 to date. Appointed on April 25, 2007 by Ontario to conduct the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology, which reported on October 1, 2008. Member, Board of Governors, Law Commission of Ontario, 2009 to date. Member, Civil Rules Committee, 2009 to 2014.

Resigned from the judiciary April 30, 2014. Counsel to Paliare Roland Rosenberg Rothstein LLP as of May 1, 2014. Currently engaged in mediation, arbitration, and advising government. Lecturer in professional responsibility at Osgoode Hall Law School, 2014 to date. Board Chair, Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario, 2014 to date.

Recipient honorary doctorates from the Law Society of Upper Canada and Assumption University. Appointed to the Order of Ontario, January 2016.

Professor Jeffery G. Hewitt

Jeffery G. Hewitt (mixed descent Cree) is an Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. His research is mainly community-based and his interests include Indigenous legal orders and governance, constitutional law, and visual legal studies. Among other courses, Jeff teaches and has taught constitutional law, Indigenous legal orders, and access to justice. He has also delivered a number of guest lectures to a variety of audiences, including the judiciary and the legal profession.

From 2002 Jeffery served as General Counsel to the Chippewas of Rama First Nation, during which time General Counsel’s office received a 2011 Canadian General Counsel Award for Social Responsibility for work with First Nation Elders and youth. In 2019, Jeff was a recipient of the Law Society Medal from the Law Society of Ontario. Jeffery holds an LLB and LLM from Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the Bar in the Province of Ontario in 1998. Jeffery is past- President of the Indigenous Bar Association of Canada and served on various boards. He is currently on the executive of Legal Leaders for Diversity, and on the board of the National Theatre School.

Professor Anne Levesque

Anne Levesque studied history and political science before receiving her LLB from the University of Ottawa (Programme de common law français) in 2007. Anne obtained her Master’s in International Human Rights from Oxford University in 2016. Her research and her publications focus on human rights and public interest litigation. Anne was admitted to the bar in Ontario in 2008 and practised human rights law in private practice and also in a community legal clinic. She appeared before several administrative tribunals, Canadian courts of all levels, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and regional and international human rights bodies. Anne is one of the lawyers who represented the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in its human rights case leading to a historic victory in 2016 which affirmed the right to equality for more than 165 000 Indigenous children. As the founding Director of the Programme de pratique du droit (PPD) at the uOttawa (2014-2018), she participated in the creation of an innovative program of experiential training for law graduates to acquire practice competencies, become involved in their communities and promote access to justice in French. Anne is actively involved in her community. She is currently associated with the Broadbent Institute, co-chair of the National Association of Women and the Law and Chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. Anne is a member of the University of Ottawa Common Law Honour Society and of l’Ordre du mérite de l’Association de juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario. She is also a recipient of the Ontario Bar Association President’s Award and the 150th Commemorative Medal of the Senate of Canada.

Mary Jane Mossman, LSM

Mary Jane Mossman is Professor Emerita at Osgoode Hall Law School, York
University. She has taught and researched in several legal areas at Osgoode and at the University of New South Wales in Australia, as well as in Visiting Professor appointments in other Canadian law schools and in the United States, France and Japan. She has focused on poverty law and access to justice issues in both Canada and Australia, serving for several years as the funding manager for community legal clinics in Ontario. She is currently a member of the Friends of Community Legal Clinics and Chair of the Administrative Committee of the UNIFOR Legal Services Plan. Among other awards, she received an honorary doctorate from Ontario’s Law Society in 2004.