Steering
Committee

As of December 2023, the Steering Committee for Tribunal Watch Ontario includes:

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.

Niki Carlan

• While in university during the 1970s Niki volunteered as an advocate for injured workers, with a legal clinic. She subsequently completed Masters degrees in Sociology and Environmental Studies. She is completing a PhD in Work and Health at the University of Waterloo.
• She has held related professional positions including Assistant Director for the Ontario Ombudsman (for workers’ compensation cases). The Ombudsman also selected her to represent him on the Toronto Council on Race Relations and Policing, a position she held for 10 years.
• Niki was appointed as one of the first Vice-Chairs at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) and was reappointed in 2017.
• In 1991 was appointed Chair of the Ontario Occupational Disease Panel, a multiparty agency responsible for investigating the relationship between occupational exposure and adverse medical conditions. During her tenure, the Panel was able to unanimously report and confirm more than 20 health conditions related to work including brain cancer and firefighting.
• In 2006 she joined the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) at the University of Waterloo. In that position she has researched and published on the impact of work organization on the process of innovation, with a focus on the construction sector.
• Niki was appointed by the Federal Government to act as an independent election monitor and was able to complete 3 missions in Ukraine.

Brian Cook

• Brian is the Tribunal Watch Ontario Coordinator.
• Brian started his career in dispute resolution in 1985 when he was appointed to the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal (WCAT) as a member representative of workers. He was appointed as a Vice-Chair of WCAT in 1991 and continued in that capacity at the Workplace Safety and Insurance and Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT).
• From 2008 to 2018, he was a Vice-Chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. He is currently appointed as a part-time member of the refugee protection division of the Immigration and Refugee Board and to the Condominium Appeal Tribunal.
• Brian has an LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Osgoode Hall Law School. In 2020 he was awarded the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators Medal which is given to honour those who have made a significant contribution to the administrative justice field and to the well-being of the community at large.

Alec Farquhar

• Alec Farquhar is a lawyer with a long career in occupational health and safety, workers’ compensation and disability issues.
• He is Chair, Engagement, for the Centre for Research in Work Disability Policy and Coordinator, Asbestos Free Canada
• Previously, Alec was Director of the Office of the Worker Adviser (OWA), an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers and Director of the MOL Occupational Health and Safety Branch.
• Alec has a long history of working with vulnerable worker communities including immigrant workers, women and young workers.
• He has also worked extensively on partnerships with the employer community around dispute resolution, health and safety and return to work.
• A graduate of Princeton University, Alec also has an L.L.B. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He has served as Chair of the Executive of the Ontario Bar Association Workers’ Compensation Section.

Kathy Laird

• Kathy Laird has extensive experience in the administrative justice sector as an adjudicator and mediator at the several Ontario tribunals including the Human Rights Tribunal, the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal and the Child and Family Services Review Board. She has served as counsel to the Chair of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and as the executive director of the Human Rights Legal Support Centre.
• Kathy worked for many years in Ontario’s legal clinic system, litigating before administrative tribunals and the courts. In that capacity, Kathy played a leading role in several law reform initiatives that led to new social justice legislation governing Ontario’s eviction process, rent regulation regime and human rights enforcement system.
• In 2004, in recognition of her work in Ontario’s tribunal system, Kathy received the medal of the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators for outstanding contribution to administrative justice in Ontario. In 2016, she received the Law Society of Upper Canada Medal for her work in promoting access to justice.
• In 2017, Kathy was retained by the Chair of the Immigration and Refugee Board to conduct an independent qualitative audit of immigration detention hearings across the country to determine if appropriate standards of procedural and substantive fairness were being met. Her report was released in April 2018.

Mary Marrone

• Mary Marrone was called to the Bar in 1983. Most recently, she was the Director of Advocacy and Legal Services at the Income Security Advocacy Centre. In that role, she led access to justice initiatives in the community legal clinic system in collaboration with the Social Benefits Tribunal. She also participated in multiple social assistance reform processes, leading a consensus building process in the community.
• Mary has also been policy counsel at Legal Aid Ontario, and Executive Director of Community Legal Education Ontario.
• She has participated in Canadian Bar Association international access to justice projects in Bangladesh and East Africa.

Voy Stelmaszynski

• Voy Stelmaszynski is a retired lawyer with over 25 years experience in the tribunal sector of labour and employment, primarily with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.
• He has graduate degrees in Slavic Languages and Literatures and previously worked as a court interpreter; he is also a published translator.
• Voy was President of the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators (2015-2017) and continues to serve on several of SOAR’s committees including Education and Conference Planning. He is also a member of SOAR’s Board of Directors.
• In 2017 Voy was the recipient of the Tom Marshall Award of Excellence for Public Sector Lawyers presented by the Ontario Bar Association.
• He is a member of the Tribunals Nominating Panel for the City of Toronto.

Gary Yee

• Gary Yee has served as full-time chair of three Ontario tribunals and part-time chair of a municipal tribunal.
• His administrative law career included being the founding Executive Director of the Chinese & Southeast Asian Legal Clinic; senior positions at Ombudsman Ontario and the Immigration and Refugee Board; and helping set up the online Condominium Authority Tribunal.
• Gary has been on the Boards of CCAT (Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals) and SOAR (Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators).
• He has received the SOAR Medal for his contributions to administrative justice, the Public Sector Lawyer Award from the Federation of Asian Canadian Lawyers, and the Law Society Medal.