Established in 2014 by the Legal Leaders for Diversity and Inclusion (LLD), these scholarships were created to support disabled youth who are studying in law faculties across Canada and are generously funded by many general counsel and law firm managing partners across Canada who all share the common goal of an increasingly inclusive Canadian legal community. Over 60 applications from all over Canada were received this year.
29-year-old Connor is a Bradford, Ontario native who moved to Ottawa in 2008 to pursue his university studies. He completed his Bachelor of Humanities in Religion and his Master of Arts in Political Theory at Carleton University. He then went on to obtain a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Ottawa.
Connor’s involvement in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, has been noticed since he first started his program. He has participated in very competitive Moot competitions, has made many friends and actively participated to campus life.
When contacted, Connor shared with us these words of hope and wisdom:
“Discrimination is a cancer in the lives of the oppressed and a blight upon the collective dignity of the human spirit. My life as a disabled gay man attests to what Canada’s constitutional commitment to substantive equality has done to make our country a better place for everyone, and how this commitment is far from complete.
“We need to do much to realize the noble dream of a society in which every person is respected and cherished. This does not mean we are relieved of our duty to be compassionate. Humankind can progress morally if we value rational inquiry, empathetic listening, and kind debate, so long as fairness and caring support our public institutions and interpersonal interactions. The legal leaders for diversity scholarship gave me resources to continue the worthy but challenging struggle for personal and collective ethical development. For that I am tremendously grateful. Advancing substantive equality, however, is not merely a task for marginalized groups. Every person benefiting from the resources of our great and highly privileged country, especially every future lawyer, has an obligation to do so. We are all in this beautiful, absurd, joyful, and often tragic, human condition together. Pain and loss unite us. An injury to one person is, ultimately, an injury to every other. “
The Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, is proud to have Connor as one of its students, someone who so clearly represents our core values (PDF, 18.15 MB).
We wish him much success in his future endeavours and look forward to see his impacts on the legal community and tomorrow’s society.