Editor’s note: Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of attending a reception and dinner at the OBA Conference Centre in Toronto honouring Stephen J. Moreau of Cavaluzzo LLP. Stephen is this year’s recipient of the Randall Echlin Award for Excellence in Labour & Employment Law. With the author’s approval, and in a condensed form, we are pleased to share Stephen’s thoughtful acceptance speech from that wonderful evening.
- Mitchell Rose, Section Newsletter Editor
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Members of the Bar and OBA, Justices, my colleagues, friends, and family. Let me start by following Justice Laskin’s advice to advocates to forget the wind-up and make the pitch…I am delighted to accept the Randall Echlin Award.
For those of you who know me well – I am not afraid to advocate to the best of my abilities and to speak passionately on behalf of my clients. But I confess that I find it difficult to speak on my own behalf. I think that the last time I had to seriously advocate for myself before a distinguished audience – one that unnerved my 25-year-old self – was when I had to convince no less than Paul Cavalluzzo to hire me. It is somewhat surreal to be sitting up here with Paul introducing me. I want to thank him for his mentorship, leadership, kindness, and the example he set for us all as a fierce advocate.
I must confess that, in preparing this speech, I found that a part of the advocate’s craft was eluding me. That other part is what I will call the “theme” or “story”; one might call it the “why should you care” part of advocacy. In other words, why should anyone here care about the giving and receiving of the Echlin Award?
Worse – I began to wonder this past week whether it is indulgent to be talking about awards bestowed by peers for values like leadership, contribution to community, and a “demonstrated commitment to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in the employment and labour bar” when we seem increasingly to live in a World that values other things?
I want to humbly suggest an answer.
I don’t know if we live in that world or not – but what I do know is that, if we believe we do, we may will it into existence. I believe that the labour and employment bar, in their own small way, conjures a different world into being by discussing, daily, what it is that we (us, our clients, public officials, everyone) owe to each other. When we advocate together and against each other over important issues, a better world is fashioned. Perhaps we merely imagine a better world when we do these things, like children do – but like the character Puddleglum in CS Lewis’s The Silver Chair – our simple imaginings and our playing makes a better world to “lick” the so-called real world.
I say all that because I believe that the Echlin Award is an expression of shared values; a commitment we all hold to the rule of law and to excellence; and one of which we need to be reminded.
I am sorry to say that I did not know Justice Echlin personally. But, what an extraordinary gift his family has endowed our community to bring us together like this to remind us of what we value and what we work for. For my generation, Justice Echlin is known through his extraordinary texts on employment law. Perhaps lesser known – but close to my heart as a civil litigator – is his editorship of the Annual Review of Civil Litigation. The title suggests a volume of perhaps mundane articles on legal process. However, I am often struck by how Justice Echlin touched a nerve by shepherding essays that helped start and continue important conversations about how to fundamentally make the court system work better for everyday people. In this sense, His Honour’s commitment to our community lives on posthumously. In her Forward to the 2017 Edition, Justice Côté writes:
For the past 18 years, the Honourable Mr. Justice … Archibald (and later joined by the late Honourable Mr. Justice Randall Echlin) has put together perennial collections of exceptional articles … It is a forward-looking publication, which seeks to spark discussion among members of the bar, members of the judiciary, and within courtrooms. Judging by the fact that its articles are regularly cited … the Annual Review … has certainly had that effect.
I think that we all benefit from thinking of our community – the labour and employment bar – as equally shaped by a mutual desire – like Justice Echlin – to support each other and to be “forward-looking” for the good of our clients and us all. In this sense, I regard the Award as a recognition of that community and the values I hope we share. This year’s Award, in my opinion, is itself one for which many within my community – both legal and beyond – can rightly claim a part.
This award really belongs to the firm – so a huge shout out to my many partners, colleagues, and friends who have come in numbers tonight! After over twenty (20) years, I can truly say I am blessed each day to work with such fine colleagues and friends.
I want to thank the OBA as well, its Labour and Employment Law Section, and the Section’s Award’s committee for bestowing this great honour. There are so many terrific lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, tribunal members, and advocates that make up our field that I am truly grateful to have been recognized.
I can assure all of you that I will remember tonight very fondly for years to come. You have done me a great kindness by taking time out of your busy lives and practices to be here.I hope you feel, as I do, that these moments are worth celebrating. They are moments of reflection regarding who we are, what we do, and how we go about doing it.
I will continue to strive to make myself worthy to be called one of your respected colleagues and friends.
Thank you!
About the Author
Stephen J. Moreau is a partner of Cavalluzzo LLP in Toronto. He is a member of the firm’s litigation and labour groups and is the co-chair of the civil group with responsibility over employment law, civil litigation, and class actions. Stephen is bilingual and provides client service in both English and French.