Key Burma Supporter honoured with ‘Order of Canada’

By Canadian Friends of Burma – Ottawa, Dec. 30, 2010

 

Mr. Paul Copeland, a long-time Burma supporter and Toronto-based human rights lawyer, has become a member of the Order of Canada today. It is one of Canada’s highest civilian honours to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the nation. And Paul is selected “for his contributions as an advocate for human rights and social justice,” according to an announcement made today by the Right Honourable David Johnston, the Governor General of Canada.

Paul is one of 54 new appointments to the Order of Canada announced today and recipients would be invited to accept their insignia at a ceremony to be held at a later date, the announcement added.

The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) welcomes this announcement and congratulates Paul for receiving this important recognition. “I am thrilled by the award,” Paul wrote in an email message sent to CFOB shortly after the announcement.

“Paul is one of the key Burma supporters in Canada since 1988 and is fondly known to be passionate about three things: the law, the movement to restore democracy to Burma and motorcycles,” said Tin Maung Htoo, executive director of Canadian Friends of Burma.

Paul mobilises Canadian support for Burma in Toronto and works closely with local Burma groups. He is also a key facilitator of Toronto-Burma Roundtable and a member of Advisory Council of Canadian Friends of Burma. 

Paul has been providing legal services for low-income residents of Ontario since the inception of legal aid services in 1967. He is the 2006 recipient of the Sidney B. Linden Award which is presented each year by Legal Aid Ontario.

Paul helped create a progressive lawyers association, the Law Union of Ontario, in 1974. A Bencher (elected director) of the Law Society of Upper Canada for 16 years, he has held Committee Chairs on Clinic Funding, Women in the Legal Profession, and Equity and Aboriginal Issues. He also served as Vice-Chair of the Legal Aid Committee from 1991 to 1996.

Paul was a Vice-President of the Criminal Lawyers' Association from 1985-1991, and he has been a regular columnist for the CLA Newsletter since 1979. He is in private practice where he combines criminal law with civil litigation and immigration work. Recently he has been working extensively on national security matters. He is a co-president of AIDWYC (the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted).

The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) is federally incorporated, national non-governmental organization working for democracy and human rights in Burma. Contact: Suite 206, 145 Spruce St., Ottawa, K1R 6P1; Tel: 613.237.8056; Email: cfob@cfob.org; Web: www.cfob.org