MEMBERSHIP:
We continue to have over 100 paid (and pay-ish) lawyer members of the UCBA, as well as 30 student members and several Judicial Members.
The UCBA has Ontario members in the GTA, London, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Oshawa, Windsor, Huntsville, and Ottawa as well as members in Winnipeg, London, Montreal and Halifax.
Last week I visited Tetiana Gerych at Mitchell, Gattuso in Montreal. If there are more folks in Montreal who are interested in getting together in the MUC, let her know.
Some of you have renewed. Some of you have not. I am asking you to renew your memberships by the payment of your annual $100 dues.
We are currently updating our membership information, so send along your dues and updated member information for our membership web-portal.
UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY AND REFORM INVOLVEMENT AND JOINT EVENTS WITH OTHER UKRAINIAN GROUPS:
In 2016 the UCBA and its members had extensive community outreach with the Ukrainian Canadian community and its US and Ukrainian colleagues. As an update to our 2016 Mid-Year report:
Meeting with Ukrainian Justice Minister Petrenko in Toronto- March 2nd:
On March 2nd members of the UCBA and Pavlo Grod, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress met with Ukrainian Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko in Toronto.
Minister of Justice Petrenko travelled to Canada on a mission within the framework of the Quality and Accessible Legal Aid (QALA) in Ukraine Project. He was accompanied by Andriy Vyshnevsky, the head of the Ukrainian legal aid system, as well as two senior officials from the Ministry of Justice.
Meeting with Representatives of Ukrainian Bar Association- March 10:
On March 10 we met at Bennett Jones with representatives of the Ukrainian Bar Association, who were in Toronto meeting with the CBA, the Law Society, Legal Aid Ontario and other Ontario government organizations on a project involving reform of the Legal Aid System in Ukraine.
Prime Minister’s July Trip to Ukraine:
UCBA UCC liaison Lesia Chyczij was the UCBA representative on the Prime Minister’s Delegation to Ukraine in July and met with many reformers and decision makers in Ukraine as part of that visit. UCBA Member and UCC President Pavlo Grod led the Ukrainian-Canadian delegation.
Pro-Bono Legal Clinic:
UCBA Board Member Andriy Semotiuk established a pro-bono legal clinic operating in tandem with the Ukrainian Canadian Social Services located at Jane and Bloor in Toronto. The clinic meets once a month and so far has been focused on helping Ukrainians with immigration and family law issues.
Anyone interested in donating their time – once a month in the evening on a weekday for a couple of hours – would be greatly appreciated. Interested lawyers please call Andriy Semotiuk at 416-342-5537 or email him at Andy@myworkvisa.com.
Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Triennial Conference – Regina – September 29 to October 2:
The UCBA was invited to attend this Congress as a UCC member organization. Lesia Chychij attended as the UCBA official representative, and was appointed 1st Vice President of the UCC.
Seminar with Canada Ukraine Chamber of Commerce and European Bank of Reconstruction and Development – October 12
The UCBA, the CUCC and EBRD held an event to discuss the status of economic and societal reforms in Ukraine, including discussion of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement.
Ukrainian American Bar Association Congress- Toronto – October 14-15:
The UABA had its annual convention in Toronto and about 15 members the UCBA also attended on at least one of the days of the Convention.
UCBA members Andy Semotiuk, and Cyndee Todgham-Cherniak were featured speakers at the Convention. Discussion topics included the Canada Ukraine Free Trade agreement, immigration issues for Ukrainians and the state of the war in Ukraine.
Here is a link to the fabulous UABA website: http://www.uaba.org/
Joint Yalynka with the UCPBA-Toronto December 10
Both the UCBA and UCPBA combined for a very successful Yalynka, with an epic bar tab. Congratulations to the UCPBA-Toronto organizers Marc Marzotto and Orest Haluszka.
REPORT ON 2016 CPD AND NETWORKING PROGRAMS:
In addition to the above joint programs, the UCBA also held its regular networking and CPD programs:
Networking Events:
The UCBA held networking events on March 3rd and August 24th at the Crooked Cue where a rotating membership of about 35 showed up each night. As a venue the Cue makes it easy for members to attend, we will continue to have networking events at the Cue.
CPD Events:
In addition to the UABA conference which had 1.5 hours of CPD content, the UCBA organized the following CPD credited event:
On April 20 we had a formal CPD session on “Real Estate for non-Real Estate lawyers” held with the Greek, Italian and Portuguese lawyers associations held at the Columbus Centre on Lawrence Ave. Pam Green was the UCBA speaker on the panels. Despite being the newest of the Groups, the UCBA showed up in force with almost half of the attendance being the UCBA.
This event had at least 2 hours of “Substantive” credit (depending how long you stayed).