Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/1547047
www.canadianlawyermag.com 29 also recommended side guards on trucks. The government didn't pass that, but the City of Toronto started redesigning its own fleet to include them. British Columbia and Quebec later passed their own one-metre laws, and the review has since been used as evidence in the Charter challenge over the government's removal of bike lanes. It's not perfect, but it moved the needle. Q: What's the status of the five vulner- able road user bills you've drafted, and what would it take to get one across the finish line? A: It's been five private members' bills over 10 years. I drafted the first one with a legislative drafter, and it was one of the most comprehensive laws of its kind put together in North America. Each time, it passed first reading and died. The government did fold a version into the careless driving laws as an aggravating factor at sentencing, but it lacks teeth. I've seen drivers get $75 fines after killing cyclists, and the community is outraged by that. To get something like this across the finish line requires a much broader shift, a change in culture where we stop treating this kind of road violence as an acceptable cost of moving people around quickly in cars, and a government that puts people's safety ahead of treating a driver's licence as an unconditional right. Q: You've shaped the civil litigation training for hundreds of candidates a year for over a decade. What's one thing new litigators consistently get wrong that your training tries to fix? A: I'm the civil subject matter expert for the Law Practice Program, which trains new lawyers who haven't done articles. We use real teaching videos, mock case files, and live actors for interviews and exami- nations, so candidates get a genuine feel for practice rather than rolling the dice on what kind of articling placement they land. I sincerely wish I'd had a program like this when I started. The most important thing for a young lawyer is a sincere desire to practice with as much competence as possible, and the best way to get there is connecting with mentors who' ll guide you, or, failing that, having a program like this one to build your skills from. Q: Looking at everything you've built, the coalitions, the legislation, the litigation, what's the one change you're still fighting for that hasn't happened yet? A: I'm a personal injury and wrongful death lawyer, and I've made meaningful change through that work directly, cases that led to new Ontario childcare legisla- tion, new safety protocols at ski hills for terrain parks, and changes to compensa- tion limits under maritime law. But for 20 years I've fought in courts, on the streets, and at Queen's Park to reduce road violence, and far too many people are still struck down and hurt on our roadways. I believe it's preventable. I'm still working with good people through CRASH, the Coalition to Reduce Auto Size Hazards, on the risk oversized pickups and SUVs pose. Many of the coroner's review recommenda- tions still haven't been adopted. We're not there yet, and I'd like to see that happen. It will never be perfect, but the effort should be there by everybody. Yameena Ansari FIGHTING IN TWO COURTS AT ONCE Founding lawyer, Ansari Immigration Law, Calgary, AB Yameena Ansari is founding lawyer at Ansari Immigration Law in Calgary, AB, named one of Canadian Lawyer's Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada for 2026 in the Changemakers category. She represents Hannah Kreager, a 22-year-old transgender woman from Arizona who fled the United States in spring 2024 fearing persecution under the Trump administration's anti-trans poli- cies. The case may be the first transgender American asylum application filed in Canada, though Ansari is careful about that distinction. "We always say we believe this is the first transgender American claim, but we don't know," she says, since refugee decisions are rarely published. That's precisely why she chose to fight this one in public. "It was important to me that she was somebody who was very presentable, very passionate, very educated, and she wanted to make this public," Ansari says. If the claim succeeds, the decision becomes citable, giving other transgender Americans considering asylum something concrete to point to, and giving future adju- dicators a public record to draw on instead of facing the question cold. Two courts, one strategy Ansari doesn't see legal advocacy and public advocacy as separate tracks. She frames "For 20 years, I have fought in courts, on the streets, at Queen's Park, City Council ... to reduce road violence" Patrick Brown, McLeish Orlando LLP