Melina Buckley

HALIFAX- Melina Buckley, LL.B, Ph.D., an associate with Camp Fiorante Matthews in Vancouver, is the 2011 recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Louis St-Laurent Award of Excellence for distinguished service to the Association. “Throughout her career Melina Buckley has made outstanding contributions to the CBA, especially in the fields of improving the law, promoting access to justice, and advancing equality in the legal profession and the justice system,” says CBA President Rod Snow of Whitehorse.  “She brings enormous integrity, energy, and devotion to the core principles of the CBA.”Called to the Bar of Ontario in 1990 and a member of the CBA since 1991, Ms. Buckley served as the Association’s Associate Director, Legislation and Law Reform from 1991 to 1992, and as Senior Director, Legal and Governmental Affairs from 1992 to 1994.  During her time with the CBA, she served as project director for the Bertha Wilson Task Force on Gender Equality in the Legal Profession, still considered by many to be a defining work on the subject. Melina Buckley has intervened in several cases at the Supreme Court of Canada.  In 1992 she served as co-counsel to the CBA’s first intervention in the SCCSymes v. Canadaon the deductibility of child care expenses, and in 2006-2007 she was co-counsel to the CBA intervention inBritish Columbia v. Christieon the issue of the constitutionality of the provincial tax on legal services. She was also co-counsel to the CBA in the 2006 intervention inLittle Sisters v. Canadaon the issue of advance costs andCanadian Human Rights Commission v. Attorney General Canadain 2010 on the award of costs at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.