POST CPD RESOURCES
As part of the 2021 OPA CPD Series, the Education Committee presented a remote live-streamed Zoom CPD:
Dear OPA members,
We hope everyone appreciated the OPA’s recent CPD Series “The Future is Now – Celebrating and Acknowledging the Transformative Work of Black Canadians and their Communities” held on February 23. This event marked our organization’s inaugural Black History Month celebrations with an unconventional CPD that featured Black leaders and trailblazers in the forefront of our current industry.
The conversation was genuine, instructive, and the dialogue was deeply thoughtful. This CPD was a journey that led us down a path of inspiration and resolve, to a place of and deep understanding while providing hope and purposiveness, serving as a vigilant roadmap forward for the legal industry and our society. The panel also explored issues of systemic racism in the legal profession, and the way unconscious bias impacts our daily behaviours and integrates itself into all aspects of the workplace. The Q&A discussion covered best practices for workplace diversity and inclusion, first-hand experiences in the industry and how we can improve our practices to put inclusive plans into action.
There are many requests for the resources the panel mentioned at the CPD, including the CPD itself. We are awaiting CPD accreditation from the LSO, and we are working very hard to make the recording available online in our CPD library. We are ironing out some final technical details to make that possible, and we appreciate your patience! The CPD will be available to view very shortly, please visit the Professional Development and Learning Portal at for all the latest news and updates.
Below you will find a list of resources and links to background materials, including the resources our speakers mentioned during the CPD.
If you have any further questions about the resources for this CPD, please reach out to the Education Committee at [email protected], or to the Chair, Doug Taylor directly at [email protected].
Thank you,
Your OPA Education Committee

- Maintaining Professionalism In the Age of Black Death Is…A Lot, by Shenequa Golding (https://medium.com/@shenequagolding/maintaining-professionalism-in-the-age-of-black-death-is-a-lot-5eaec5e17585)
- America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic (May 8, 2020) (https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/)
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Knapsack Peggy McIntosh (http://convention.myacpa.org/houston2018/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf)
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- Compensatory Code/System/Concept: A textbook/workbook for Thought, Speech and/or Action for Victims of Racism (white supremacy) by Neely Fuller Jr
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Alex Haley
- The Prophets by Robert Jones
- Dominoes At The Crossroads by Kaie Kellough
- How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- Why I ’m No Longer Talking t o W hit e People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
- Compensatory Code/System/Concept: A textbook/workbook for Thought, Speech and/or Action for Victims of Racism (white supremacy) by Neely Fuller Jr
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Alex Haley
- The Prophets by Robert Jones
- Dominoes At The Crossroads by Kaie Kellough
- How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- Why I ’m No Longer Talking to Whit e People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- What Doesn ’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young
- 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay
- Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay
- When They See Us, directed by Ava DuVernay
- Blindspotting, directed by Carlos López Estrada
- Monsters and Men, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green
- America To Me, directed by Steve James
- Do The Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee
- Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee
- I Am Not Your Negro, directed by Raoul Peck
- The Hate U Give, directed by George Tilman Jr.
- A Diversity Self-Assessment Tool for Law Firms, Law Society Studies and Scan of Best Practices (CBA)
- A Diversity Self-Assessment Tool for Law Firms – Minority Corporate Counsel Association
- Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC), February 4, 2021 – R. v. Morris
- Canadian Law Blog Awards
- CarymaRules.com
- Cultural Somatics – Free 5 Session Ecourse
- Diversity Data Analytics – Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion
- “Diversity data collection” Solicitors Regulation Authority
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – Law Society of Ontario
- ⚖ Challenges Faced by Racialized Lawyers and Paralegals LSO Annual Report
- ⚖ “Challenges Faced by Racialized Licensees Working Group – Final Report,” EAIC Report to Convocation for Decision and Information – December 2016
- ⚖ Developing Strategies for Change: Addressing Challenges Faced by Racialized Licensee s Consultation Paper – October 2014
- ⚖ Results from Consultant Engagement Process – Stratcom Final Report
- ⚖ Equity Advisory Committee Submission in Response to Stratcom Report
- ⚖ Law Society Studies and Scan of Best Practices
- Institutionalised activism and politicised NGOs : the state’s engagement with NGOs in Sudan
- NORML Canada
- Ontario Association of Black Paralegals (OABP)
- Seneca College – Cannabis Law and Ethics
- Sunshine Behavioral Health – Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community
- “Black Lives Matter”, available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWWAqc46ZJdZf?si=3jyu95roTZidwbXx1N96FQ&nd=1