Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Charles Sousa cuts the congratulatory cake with 2012 ITLP graduates
By Lucianna Ciccocioppo
As the 2012 graduates of the Faculty of Law’s groundbreaking Internationally Trained Lawyers Program picked up their certificates of completion, friends and family snapped photos and cheered them on. The March 31st ceremony at the Faculty Club drew a full house of graduates, a group of almost 50 students from 17 countries around the world, who are now one step closer to achieving their dream: to practice law in Ontario.
“We want to contribute our legal talents to our new country. All we want is a chance to do it—and we will certainly deliver,” says Dinah Bal, ITLP graduate 2012, and valedictorian. She passed the Philippine bar in 1999, and is now living in Toronto with her spouse and three children, sometimes only getting three hours of sleep a night, while working a full-time job and studying for her National Committee of Accrediaton (NCA) exams.
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Dinah Bal, 2012 ITLP Valedictorian
The ITLP, now entering its third year of programming, is an innovative bridging program for lawyers and law students trained abroad and now living in Ontario. It provides academic and career-related courses that address the unique needs of this international group of lawyers, and includes a professional internship to help them gain critical Canadian experience.
Bal called the placements “golden opportunities” to work on Bay St., and at the Ministry of the Attorney-General, where she landed a paid summer job, based on her MAG internship.
Some ITLP graduates have already landed contract positions with law firms or government agencies. Walter Ojok, born in Gulu, northern Uganda, has passed all his NCA challenge exams, and is registered to write his licencing exams in June. He hopes to be a criminal lawyer in Canada, and is currently exploring several articling options.
Like many ITLP students, he came here looking for a new life, but faced many challenges to pursuing his law career. During his studies, he still supported his family and siblings back home in Uganda, as their sole breadwinner.
The graduation ceremony included congratulatory addresses from OMNI TV broadcaster and diversity promoter Angie Seth, and from Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Charles Sousa, whose ministry is one of the major funders of the program.
"We need your knowledge, we need your skills and we need your talents so that Ontario can compete in today’s global economy," said Sousa, who told the graduates that Ontario has more than 100 professional bridging programs, more than any other province.
Without the funding from the Ontario and federal governments for the ITLP “our dreams would have remained on hold indefinitely,” says Bal.
View the photo gallery here.
View the CBC News story here [starts at 19:27 in]
Listen to the World This Weekend coverage here [Sunday, April 1, starts at 13:04].
Read the ITLP’s Globe and Mail coverage here.
Photos: Cliff Spicer
