- Paul Copeland (lawyer)
A
Toronto -basedHuman rights lawyer, Paul Copeland is widely known as the defence attorney ofMohamed Harkat andMahmoud Jaballah , and an avid supporter oflegal aid . [http://www.legalaid.on.ca/en/news/March22-2006a.asp Legal Aid Ontario - Newsroom ] ]Copeland co-founded the
Law Union of Ontario in 1974 and was the Vice-President of the Criminal Lawyers Association from 1985-1991 and is the president of theAssociation in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted . He has been a Bencher of theLaw Society of Upper Canada since 1990.In 2006, he was awarded the
Sidney B. Linden Award by Legal Aid Ontario, in recognition of his work.In June 2006 he argued in the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of Mohamed Harkat that the security certificate procedure under the immigration and Refugee Protection Act violated the fundamental justice provisions of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. In February 2007 the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously agreed with that argument and held that the procedure violated fundamental justice.
In 2007 he was awarded the G Arthur Martin Criminal Justice Award by the
Criminal Lawyers Association .References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.