On October 23, 2021, CALE/ACEJ held its annual meeting of members as an online Zoom meeting. President Amy Salyzyn highlighted CALE/ACEJ’s active role in providing feedback to both the Canadian Judicial Council (for its new version of Ethical Principles for Judges) and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada (for its ongoing revisions to aspects of the Model Code). She provided an update on the status of some of the proposed changes to the Model Code relating to discrimination and harassment, ex parte communications and proceedings, and the return to the practice of law by former judges.

Treasurer Basil Alexander reported that the financial position was not significantly different from the prior year and that CALE/ACEJ is current with its corporate and tax filings.

Elected as directors of CALE/ACEJ for 2021-22 are Basil Alexander, Brent Cotter, Richard Devlin, Jula Hughes, Sonia Lawrence, Gillian MacNeil, Andrew Flavelle Martin, Pooja Parmar, Stephen Pitel, Alain Roussy and Amy Salyzyn. Marie Claude Rigaud, having been appointed to the Superior Court of Quebec in May 2021, did not return as a director. New to the board is Gillian MacNeil, an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba.

At a subsequent meeting of the directors, the following officers were appointed: Chair of the Board Richard Devlin, President Amy Salyzyn, Vice-President Stephen Pitel, Corporate Secretary and Treasurer Basil Alexander, Chief Information Officer Amy Salyzyn and Conference Coordinator Jula Hughes.

The directors discussed the Law Society of Ontario’s ongoing consultation about competence issues and agreed that a submission by CALE/ACEJ should be drafted.

Lakehead University agreed to host the 2022 CALE/ACEJ conference, very much hoping that gathering in person in Thunder Bay will be viable. The aim for 2023 is to hold the conference at the University of Victoria.

CALE/ACEJ extended thanks to Amy Salyzyn for her leadership, to Brent Cotter for his significant role in developing the new Ethical Principles for Judges and to Jula Hughes, Wendy Parkes and their team at Lakehead University for their successful organization of this year’s online conference.