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