On February 27, 2020, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Women's Law Association of Ontario unveiled a provincial plaque to honour and celebrate WLAO's 100 years of advancing, advocating for and empowering women in the legal profession in the Great Hall at Osgoode Hall. The WLAO was founded in 1919 and has been instrumental in supporting and moving the dial on laws and policy geared toward dismantling discrimination and enhancing equality in the legal profession.
Our efforts to have the plaque installed were thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic, until early October 2021. We hope you will drop by the south gardens at Osgoode Hall, 130 University Street, Toronto, to see the WLAO plaque and the Osgoode Hall plaque.
WLAO continues to be dedicated to our mission of empowering women in the legal profession by providing a collective voice and advocating for equality, diversity and change.
The plaque reads:
Women’s Law Association of Ontario
Founded in 1919, the Women’s Law Association of Ontario (WLAO) was the first organization to work actively to create a place for women at Osgoode Hall. With membership open to law students, lawyers, and judges, the non-profit organization advances issues relevant to women in law through networking, educational, and social events. Strengthened by the women’s rights movement, the WLAO’s first 100 years marked Canada’s first female lawyer being called to the bar, the election of the first female leader of the provincial bar, and the appointment of Canada’s first female Supreme Court of Canada judge. Its campaigns influenced legislators, policy-makers, lawyers and judges to dismantle discrimination and enhance equality through law. Through advocacy it fought employment and pay equity, criminal justice reform, and an end to gendered violence, racism, disability discrimination, homophobia and transphobia. The WLAO continues to empower women in the legal profession by providing a collective voice, and advocating for equality, diversity and change.
Please take a moment to read about our Contest below!
