ARCTIC OBITER

MARCH/APRIL 2012 | 3
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
by Cayley J. Thomas
Intervening on Constitutionality Case
This spring has been a very busy season for both the Law
Society staff and members of the Executive.
Positions on Law Society committees are now fully filled,
and most committee work is well underway. Thank you,
everyone who put their name forward for membership on a
committee – we wouldn’t be able to do this important work
without you. In February, Kelly McLaughlin and I met
with the Chairs of the committees to discuss outstanding
issues, including the need to ensure that the committees
have the necessary support from the Executive and Law
Society staff. Another Executive/Committee Chair lunch
meeting will be scheduled in May.
In March, we hosted the winter meeting of the Federation
of Law Societies here in Yellowknife. This allowed the
entire Executive to attend all, or parts of, the conference.
Your Law Society staff worked tirelessly to ensure that
the meetings went off without a hitch, and that all the
participants, and their spouses experienced our northern
hospitality. The LSNT was represented at Federation
meetings by Sheila MacPherson, who replaced Lou Sebert
as the LSNT representative earlier this year. Although I
should have done this before now, I would like to thank
Sheila for agreeing to take on this role, and to thank Lou
for representing us so well on the federation Council.
Some of you may also be aware that, on December 29,
2011, an application was filed in the Nunavut Court of
Justice, challenging the constitutionality of the
subsections of the Rules of the Law Society of Nunavut
(LSNU) dealing with restricted appearance certificates.
The application, which was made on behalf of three
individuals, includes requests for the following relief:
a) A declaration that Rules 49(2)(b) and (g), (3), (4), and
(5) of the Rules of the Law Society of Nunavut and s. 5 of
Schedule A of the Rules are of no force and effect and;
b) A declaration that the requirements under attack
breach s. 520 of the Criminal Code and ss. 6, 7, and 11
(3) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As only Her Majesty the Queen was named as a
respondent to the application, the LSNU was granted
intervenor status in early 2012.
After careful consideration, we have also decided to
intervene in this application. On April 11, 2012, the LSNT
and the Law Society of the Yukon were both granted
intervenor status. Our application included affidavit
evidence stating that:
“The LSNT has a similar, but not identical
regulatory scheme to the regulatory scheme
set out in the Rules of the Law Society of
Nunavut. The LSNT can present unique
evidence as to the rationale and negotiations
leading to the Territorial Mobility Agreement
and the impact that an adverse finding in
relation to the Territorial Mobility
Agreement would have on its continued
ability to be an independent self-regulating
body.”
This application is in the early stages of case
management, and a hearing date has not been set. If any
member wishes to see the documents that have been filed
on this application, the court file number is 23-12-200
(Chwyl, Niptanatiak & Chmelyk v. the Queen and Nunvut).