His Excellency the Right Honorable David Johnston has posted his inspiring speech for the Canadian Bar Association’s Canadian Legal Conference in Halifax, dated Sunday, August 14, 2011.

From his speech:

How can we use Canada’s sesquicentennial in 2017 to re-evaluate and update our professional responsibility? Can we craft a new definition of the legal professional?

To answer these questions, let me suggest six key relationships that may help us in our search. Each of them contains some friction, and I will dwell mainly on those instances—sometimes as stories—in the hope of being a catalyst for the good. Remember, the oyster requires the irritation of a grain of sand to produce a pearl.

Here are the six: as lawyers, we must attend to our relationships with justice, trust, education, social need, the firm and public service.

For the full text of his speech, go to the website by clicking HERE.

For the The Globe and Mail editorial on “David Johnston’s welcome words to lawyers”, published Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011 7:30PM EDT, click HERE.

For a response from Ian Holloway on ABlawg.ca titled, “A New Concord Between Bar and Academy? The Governor General’s Speech to the Canadian Bar Association” click HERE